Good Point weirdalienshiznit. Once new plate moves over the hotspot, it won’t matter that its been blown out once, many times, before. Is it fair to say we could expect an eruption in the next 120,000 years? Do any experts think this current trend is alarming? The caldera is so active anyway, I guess it would be hard to tell hard to tell, but what’s the morning line, 10,000 to 1?
They were talking about this on NPR yesterday and Ira kept saying 'there was nothing to worry about.' He said it so many times that I began to get a little nervous.

The Indonesian earthquake that caused the tsunami did cause many earthquakes under volcano's in the ring of fire as far away as Alaska and the U.S.G.S made that statement because they were worried that the constant re-verbs from the big one could unsettle some volcano's.
Seeing that Indonesia has produced some massive eruptions I guess we should be worried about that country going boom given all the current activity.

Originally posted by masqua
IF yellowstone blows, there will be a significant ash fall over an area stetching all the way to the Great Lakes. There goes the prairies which feed people worldwide.

While food security may be a problem, the world isn't fed by the American prairies, just America.

Beyond the immediate damage to infrastructure and agriculture, there will be a sharp decline in sunlight globally as the ash cloud totallycircumvents earth

Yes, that will be a mojor consequence, so even those farmlands not directly affected will no longer produce their peak output...

Worldwide famine will be the biggest killer and it will last years, imo.

Probably...cheery thought, isn't it?

Also, I don't believe there is any way to relieve the pressure safely. The amount of magma building under the swelling dome is too huge and to 'open it up a bit' will only result in an earlier catastrophy.

Possibly. I'd like to think that a "crazy scientist" is working on a way of relieving volcanoes which just might involve drilling. I gues the analogy is the "controlled detonation" of a bomb. Maybe the "controlled directional eruption" of a caldera is the way to go, if you can control the population within the direction of the eruption (ie have none) and set it off on a meterologically freindly day...

'course, I'm not a vulcanologist, so I guess my theories are so much hot air, a bit like what could be coming our way

Originally posted by AGENT_T
Has anyone thought about warning Yogi and booboo too??

I would do, but they should be pretty safe in Jellystone National Park...

Is there a way to relieve the pressure from the Volcano?

Yes…It’s called a Massive Eruption.

Will it be the end of the world?

Not for everyone

It’s nothing to worry about, the magma rises and falls all the time…

Hmmm…What would the statues of Pompeii say about all this? “You live next to one of the worlds largest active volcanoes, of course you should move!” “That is, unless you want to be immortalized as an ash column like one of us.”

I guess we should change the name of Yellowstone to Redstone National Park. I wonder if the name is all ready taken. How about Red Lava National Park? And we will call the disaster memorial about the eventual eruption the “I didn’t learn from Pompeii National Memorial”. But I don’t think that I will be contributing to the fund for its construction. I mean, they chose to stay there right?

I live in a hurricane zone and you don’t see me saying, “Hurricanes are nothing to worry about.” Do people in California say, “Earthquakes will never bother me!”? Of course they don’t. No, its only the people that live in places like Mt. St. Helens that say that nothing bad will ever happen to them.

History repeats itself, and I think we will have to rename some American city Pompeii 2 about a hundred years from now after the great eruption of Red Lava National Park.


[edit on 12-11-2007 by Hot_Wings]

[edit on 12-11-2007 by Hot_Wings]

This topic was on The History Channel AGAIN last night.

The bottom line is they have NO way of knowing when it will blow again. Could be thousands of years, could be tomorrow. They also have NO way of seeing it coming.

I think they mentioned a 5 minute warning is all they will have so there is no way for anyone to get clear of it if it happens.

So in the end, there is nothing to worry about simply because there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Originally posted by Hot_Wings
And we will call the disaster memorial about the eventual eruption the “I didn’t learn from Pompeii National Memorial”.

LOL...I got a good laugh out of that..


Look on the bright side, with everything bad that happens something good happens..

Maybe the cubic miles of debris that will go into the atmosphere will block the sun and counteract global warming, but hopefully not enough to send us into a prolonged ice age.

Well use the geothermal to produce energy for the next however long, until things get back to normal.




[edit on 12-11-2007 by HIFIGUY]

Originally posted by HowlrunnerIV

While food security may be a problem, the world isn't fed by the American prairies, just America.

I think you're forgetting about the Canadian prairies, which, by normal wind patterns from west to east, will also be devastated and unproductive for many years, if not decades.

Also, a 'nuclear winter' scenario, where sunny and warm temperatures around the world would be a wistful memory, certainly would impact fertile areas just about everywhere.

Originally posted by AGENT_T
Does anyone know of any research into relieving the pressure of the build up?

It's actually more complicated than that. While the continuous pressure increase is concerning, a significant pressure decrease would be what caused a huge eruption. Think of it as a shook up soda with the cap still on...then think about how tricky it would be to tap that cap and keep everything under control.

We've been watching Yellowstone for the full 4+ years I've been here. I even did an interview with the head scientist over Yellowstone back about 2-3 years ago. It's become more and more problematic each year. Animals have died due to toxic gas releases and the ground just keeps swelling. Unfortunately, I don't think we have the capabilities to try to do a controlled release so our best bet is to hope and pray for a limited natural release...and don't live too close.

I'm personally planning to go into the hot cocoa, dust mask, and blanket business. I'll set up shop on the Red River. Best prices on the river - don't pay more for less!

Yes it did but it also went upwards. Yellowstone on the other hand is not a Stratovolcano and as such cannot really explode in such a way as sideways, since it's a caldera which will explode upwards.

The May 1980 St Helens eruption was directed sideways because the structure of the volcano was such that a bulge (uplift) had occurred on the northern flank of the volcano. This grew until the pressure was such that it fractured and blasted open creating the eruption of the volcano, in the form of a rather spectacular lateral blast.

Of note is the fact that the USGS thought it would blast upwards. Of course I don't think anyone had seen a volcano blast sideways before.

[edit on 12-11-2007 by apex]

Originally posted by wierdalienshiznit
it would leave planes,rockets?,space shuttle,nukes? unable to fly quite some time,it would leave usa wide open to attack!.

Though i can't really think why anyone would want to invade a country inundated with volcanic ash.

The volcano would likely cripple the USA such that it wouldn't be a major power for some time afterwards.