Worst Volcanoes Even More Dangerous Than Feared

October 8 2009
Worst Volcanoes Even More Dangerous Than Feared

Some of the world's most dangerous volcanoes can erupt much more quickly than scientists had suspected, according to a new study of the massive 2008 eruption of Chile's Chaitén volcano.

Normally scientists can track the seismic rumblings that precede most volcanic eruptions for weeks or even months, as magma in the volcano slowly rises to the surface.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

Volcanoes Wiped Out All Forests 250 Million Years Ago

Massive volcanic eruptions wiped out the world's forests about 250 million years ago, leaving the planet teeming with wood-eating fungi, according to a new study.

The finding confirms that even hardy trees didn't survive the Permian mass extinction, one of the most devastating losses of life Earth has ever known.

news.nationalgeographic.com...


mod edit, to provide external quote code

[edit on 8/10/09 by DontTreadOnMe]

Hmm, after reading that article, and knowing that Yellowstone is such a volcano, then I really have to question the actions of seismologists (or rather, the lack of) during the past recent swarm of earthquakes. That sukka could have literally blown according to this study.

While the differences in monitoring capabilities are considerable (seeing as Yellowstone has seismic stations all over the place, in addition to deformation and water table data, and gas emissions), I still have to wonder if they indeed just got lucky and it didn't blow- when in reality- it very well could have.

We discussed back and forth the potential of all of this to a stalemate. I even made a separate thread exploring the possibility they could be wrong. Let's hope that due to fact that monitoring differences between that volcano and Yellowstone are considerable, that the scientists were more accurate than lucky!

And keep this in mind should another swarm follow at Yellowstone anytime in the future.

TrueAmerican I am also concerned for Yellowstone and the ramifications if and when it blows, I believe it could devastate a 500 mile area, literally wipe it out, it's only a matter of time, with all the major earthquake recently it seems something in going on, know that there are numerous quakes everyday but it's abnormal to have so many large ones that close together, the ring of fire is very active right now, not just quakes up major typhoons like they have never seen before, at least in recorded history.

reply to post by Aquarius1


The permian extinction was a two fold event, a posible huge deep ocean impact event, who's anti podal hot spot lead to the siberian traps, a huge area(thousands of square miles) where lava spewed out and covered the land thousands of feet deep.

The world became the land of mushrooms for millions of years in the aftermath.

Introduction: Hotspot volcanism on Earth is restricted
to relatively small areas, on the order of 100 km
in diameter, and is generally believed to result from narrow
upwellings of hot mantle material called ‘plumes’.
At first glance, hotspots appear randomly distributed.
General associations with geoid highs and divergent
plate margins have been noted [1], and hotspots tend to
occur in provinces separated by spotless areas [2]. Matyska
[3] investigated angular symmetries of hotspot distributions,
and showed that the highest maxima were
obtained with 180° rotations. Rampino and Caldeira [4]
also conducted a statistical analysis of large and small
data sets and found that more hotspots occur as nearly
antipodal pairs than would be expected from random
distributions.
The rise of antipodal plumes from the core-mantle
boundary through a convecting mantle seems unlikely,
but axial focusing of an impact’s energy by the spherical
Earth might underlie the antipodal pairing of hotspots [5,
6]. Such a focusing mechanism has been proposed to
explain seismically disrupted terrains antipodal to major
impact basins on the Moon and Mercury [7], and to explain
formation of fractured crust on Mars opposite the
Hellas basin—perhaps later exploited as a conduit for
volcanism at Alba Patera [8].

www.lpi.usra.edu...
Deep ocean impact are the likely cause for hot spots, the thinner crust allows the earth to absorb mpore of the impact, whereas a continental impacts refelect more of the energy back to space.

im looking for anothereusgs paper that details the theory better

GRACE GRAVITY EVIDENCE FOR AN IMPACT BASIN IN WILKES LAND, ANTARCTICA

GRACE gravity evidence for an impact basin in Wilkes Land, Antarctica

New details on the east Antarctic gravity field from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission reveal a prominent positive free-air gravity anomaly over a roughly 500-km diameter subglacial basin centered on (70°S, 120°E) in north central Wilkes Land.

This regional inverse correlation between topography and gravity is quantitatively consistent with thinned crust from a giant meteorite impact underlain by an isostatically disturbed mantle plug.

The inferred impact crater is nearly three times the size of the Chicxulub crater and presumably formed before the Cretaceous formation of the east Antarctic coast that cuts the projected ring faults. It extensively thinned and disrupted the Wilkes Land crust where the Kerguelen hot spot and Gondwana rifting developed but left the adjacent Australian block relatively undisturbed.

The micrometeorite and fossil evidence suggests that the impact may have occurred at the beginning of the greatest extinction of life on Earth at ?260 Ma when the Siberian Traps were effectively antipodal to it. Antipodal volcanism is common to large impact craters of the Moon and Mars and may also account for the antipodal relationships of essentially half of the Earth's large igneous provinces and hot spots. Thus, the impact may have triggered the “Great Dying” at the end of the Permian and contributed to the development of the hot spot that produced the Siberian Traps and now may underlie Iceland.

spaceguarduk.com...

reply to post by punkinworks


The permian extinction is exactly what scares me, do they really know how bad Yellowstone is and how deep and wide it is under the earth where it can't be seen, or what it may be connected to.

Thanks for information pnkinowrks.

I still believe when yellowstone blows,it will cover around two thirds of the earth with an ash cloud that will blot out the sun for decades.

The blast around it will be devastating but the ash cloud will be worse.

And I suspect it will pop with in the next 3 to 5 years...

Just my 2012 opinion on the subject of volcanos.

[edit on 8-10-2009 by titorite]

reply to post by titorite


2012 will come and go and we will still be here, that is my take.

reply to post by titorite


might be sooner then that , we just have to wait n see

I believe that Yellowstone is an extremely large volcanic system, far larger than just the caldera alone but I believe that all of the Idaho and Wyoming, and Montana volcanic peaks will come roaring to life when the system goes into opperating mode. There is a flood basalt province in the Spokane, WA area, this will erupt from Montana during this time as well. I am actually building my own theory about the actual size of this monster at the heart of the North American volcanic system. I predict that we will even see volcanic activity in Arizona in the near future as well.

I actually believe that Yellowstone Caldera will blow but not until about 2018-2020 or so. I believe there will be a lot of preceeding volcanic activity in the Cascades and the Rocky Mountain volcanic peaks will crack their tops and prove they are not extinct.

I can get deeper into the science of my hypothesis but I have not published yet and cannot have someone else stealing my discovery. It will however, explain with calculus the nature of the plume source and the mechanical relationship of plate tectonics and plumes. I am hopeful that this will enable and explain the plate tectonics paradigm in a new way, my so very different way. So stay tuned for my science to be published in the next four years or so. I promise it will be very good.