Scientists report Yellowstone supervolcano bigger than previously thought

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK -
The world's authority on Yellowstone National Park’s supervolcano says it's more than twice as big as scientists once thought.

Smith and his students use seismographs to map the magma pool underneath Yellowstone's volcano and satellites to determine how much the land swells or bulges.

They found that the magma is, "2.5 times larger than we had originally imaged," Smith said.

The magma movement is signaled by earthquakes.

Smith mentioned the 4.8 magnitude Norris-area earthquake that damaged Lake Hotel last spring. "It's the biggest earthquake in 30 years."

So, how likely is it that the big one will blow soon?

"If we were to have another big eruption, it would affect a large area, on the order of several states,” Smith said. “But, as I said, that probability is very, very, very, very small. In my calculations, it's .0001 percent."

Smith says the magma pool isn't getting bigger. His team added more seismographs, and they're getting a clearer picture of the magma.

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It's pretty scary to think that the volcano is way bigger than previously thought.

What is something to alleviate us is that apparently scientist Dr. Robert Smith calculated that the chance of eruption is .0001 percent. But...there's still that tiny chance

What are your thoughts?

A little ash for my garden might not be so bad. I'll need the garden if the blast knocks out power around the country. It probably won't reach here, but they will steal the power from our local power plants to supply cities closer to the volcano, leaving us two hours a day to use power. Of course, the city facilities will have power all day and also the businesses. Even the county and city top officials will have power. The rest of us peons will have just a little power so we can suffer like others.

That is ok though, I would like to be using Kerosine lamps for a while...I should go buy a five gallon bucket of that stuff. I suppose the EMP will break all my lampshades

a reply to: rickymouse

If it went full supervolcano...you and a few other ATS ers would be on my mind as well as friends and family. It would kill every air filter for every truck trying to clear the ash off like snow. Roofs would collapse.

I just hope it has a little burp. Beautiful out there.

originally posted by: the owlbear
a reply to: rickymouse

If it went full supervolcano...you and a few other ATS ers would be on my mind as well as friends and family. It would kill every air filter for every truck trying to clear the ash off like snow. Roofs would collapse.

I just hope it has a little burp. Beautiful out there.

If it erupted you me and probably every other person would be dead within a day or so.

Sweet dreams.

a reply to: the owlbear

I live in the Upper peninsula of Michigan. Ash is probably lighter than snow. I have snow scoops and dust masks to go shovel the roofs. My roofs will handle lots of ash.....as long as it isn't in the winter when there is three feet of snow all ready on it.

The volcano does not have to explode like what they say to scare us. Even a super volcano can erupt slowly with a smaller initial explosion. It could make a mess for a thousand mile perimeter though. They want us to fear this thing everywhere but that is just a worse case scenario.

Fear things you can do something about. If I lived in that area, I would have moved long ago to a different area.

A super volcano would trigger a lot of seismic activity though, possibly effecting California and Washington and even the top of the Madrid fault.. That doesn't mean major catastrophe though, just earthquakes.

I read here a few years ago that underneath North-America, there was a "pocket" of petroleum that went from under the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Imagine if both did lunch together... lol Aliens would find bits of Earth plastered up to Pluto...

At this point, it is so big that it kind of becomes pretty useless to care about it. Only a few could leave and go bunker on the other side of the planet for 2 or 3 generations... sigh...

Let's hope yesterday's news of roads melting over there isn't sign of something bad coming up... :/

originally posted by: rickymouse
A little ash for my garden might not be so bad.

West of Lubbock, Texas during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, we could see and feel the scattered Volcanic-Grit that had settled on everyone's cars parked outside.

NOTE: We couldn't see it on anything short of a smooth or shiney surface. The ONLY WAY to get it OFF the cars without scratching the paint was with High-Pressure-Water.
( i.e. no scrubbing, rubbing nor touching )

Map of Ash

The article stated: "thousands of times as large as Mount St. Helens".

SO

A Yellowstone Eruption from ... "West of Lubbock, Texas"?

-
OPINION: Dirt-Storm-o-Grit ... ( miserably-survivable ).
.

I'm close enough to Yellowstone that I wouldn't have anything to worry about. While it's not ground zero, it's close enough to count.

a reply to: FarleyWayne

We had dust here then also, it made it a little hard to breath outside some days. I worked at Kohler in the foundry those days, I was used to blowing black dust out of my nose every day. The masks did not stop that much, you needed to change them every hour to be able to breath through them.

Some of the stuff from forest fires is worse on my breathing.

a reply to: rickymouse

1000 miles from the edge of the caldera engulfs michigan mate.....

Sorry, the US is probably not as large as you thought.

What about a possible cold period/ice age....That will be a global issue ?

a reply to: rickymouse

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty certain volcano ash is quite heavy, and not actually ash but rock dust(?)...wouldn't take much on the roof to cause it to collapse.

From what I remember if you breath it in, it turns into concrete in your lungs.


ETA:

I remember now how I know this, I watched a film / documentary a couple of years back....it was designed to look real, a what if Yellowstone erupted, based around the science involved etc.... I think it was called Super Volcano.

a reply to: woogleuk

I had a crazy vivid dream a while back that startled me. In closer proximity, it probably is more like tiny rocks rather than ash piling up in the surrounding area.

In this dream I was taken as a soldier against my will, forced to fight in a war. During a skirmish, a small band of soldiers and I were taken as POW and flown, blindfolded, to another country. During the flight, we underwent intense indoctrination and were being prepared to fight for this foreign military. After landing, I remember being integrated into a household, what was supposed to be a typical representation family-life in the country. They never told me where I was but it was very green and populated by darker-skinned asian sort of people.

Now, at one point i'm standing, looking out the apartment's window (in a decently tall building) and the dominant mountain in the background (bluish hues with observable snow cap) was errupting! It was very colorful with all the green surrounding, magma reds and blue colors. Anyway, all the sudden i'm out on street level running for cover.

There was this overwhelming sound like rain but was actually tiny, super-heated rocks. Like hot sand with clumps mixed in. When it hit your skin, it burned and had a searing pain, causing me to run for cover under a nearby car.

Anyway, what struck me after waking up was I'd never considered what it would be like to be near a threatening eruption. I never imagined it like what I experienced in the dream but now I imagine ash isn't exactly what would be of major concern on ground level if yellowstone went. Of course, there still remains the real concern of a serious volcanic winter.

even if you wernt in the blast zone or where ash might be falling, most air travel in the states would be uttly screwed and probably half of the rest of the world too.

No fancy imports, no work for pilots and no visiting relatives.

You better get out your hot dog buns and weiners..cuz it would really be a hot blast if it blew its top off!