Explosive situation in Yellowstone, page 7

Don't think this link has been posted, but here ya go: story.news.yahoo.com.../ap/20030904/ap_on_sc/geyser_guessing

Norris is showing some healthy motion in the last 24 hours.

www.seis.utah.edu...

www.seis.utah.edu...

Everyone should take a look at the Yahoo article in Kracken's post.

Here's the August 2003 Yellowstone Seismicity Summary from the observatory.

During the month of August 2003, 101 earthquakes were
located in the Yellowstone region. The largest shock to
occur during this report period was a magnitude 4.3
earthquake on August 21st at 07:46 UTC, located about
23.3 miles south southeast of West Thumb, Wyoming and 9
miles southeast of the south entrance to Yellowstone
National Park.

Wow!! Norris went nuts today!!

www.seis.utah.edu...

Take this how you will as it comes from Rense...

If more steam vents appear, that means a continuous pathway for pressure release has been established to the magma chamber. If that happens, the pressure in the magma chamber will continue to drop until it reaches a critical stage when the superheated water within the magma explodes. When that happens the super-volcano will blow violently, blowing out a chunk of its cap-rock and sending millions of cubic feet of ash into the atmosphere in a Pompeii-like explosion, but 100,000 times worse.

www.rense.com...
Just came across it and it's related but I have no idea how credible the author is.

Originally posted by Fry2
Take this how you will as it comes from Rense...

If more steam vents appear, that means a continuous pathway for pressure release has been established to the magma chamber. If that happens, the pressure in the magma chamber will continue to drop until it reaches a critical stage when the superheated water within the magma explodes. When that happens the super-volcano will blow violently, blowing out a chunk of its cap-rock and sending millions of cubic feet of ash into the atmosphere in a Pompeii-like explosion, but 100,000 times worse.

www.rense.com...
Just came across it and it's related but I have no idea how credible the author is.

I do not personally know this geologist in question, but the statement above is geologically valid.

Basically, in a caldera situation such as Yellowstone, the magma is held in a semi-liquid state, with a high % of dissolved gasses, under high pressure. As the pressure begins to vent, the gasses come out of solution (forming the vents that are so frightening on the surface). Also, as pressure drops, the rock will begin to crystallize, IE, turning solid.

On the surface of this, it would seem to be stabilizing (as mentioned in the article) as it would form a cap of apparently solid rock to confine the magma.

What happens however, is that you begin a decreasing pressure gradient when this happens: all the magma directly beneath the new forming solid magma, also with gasses under high pressure, experiences a loss of pressure above. As it happens, the gasses want to come out of solution. This increases pressure directly below the cap, which essentially increases to the point that it blows the cap out of the ground (and keep in mind, this cap can be miles in diameter and up to hundreds of feet thick). Once the cap is gone, the magma is now totally unconstrained, the gas is released, which forms microscopic magma bubbles, which solidify and shatter on contact with the atmoshpere, forming what everyone knows as volcanic dust (which is actually microscopic glass shards.... imagine what they do to your lungs when you breath a few lungfulls... and in an eruption, you will be breathing a lot of them).

So yes, this information is 100% valid from a geologic standpoint.

NOT GOOD.

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