mount st helens

If Mount st Helen erupts would that mean the end of life on Earth could anything survive that? what do you think?

reply to post by bobski


It erupted in the 1980's and we're still here. It was a bad eruption too. Not the end of the world though.

reply to post by bobski


You do realize it's been erupting on/off since the last big one in 1980, yes?

ETA:
Just some fun facts...



[edit on 4-5-2010 by LadySkadi]

reply to post by bobski


If the caldera at Yellowstone (super volcano) goes it might be the end of us but some life would survive. In fact , mankind would most likely come thought it also , but not easily.

[edit on 4-5-2010 by bluemooone2]

glad to hear some positive news I thought it would blow the earth in two its huge.

it doesnt matter how big the eruption is, its how long it erupts for that can cause extinctions.

Originally posted by bigspud
it doesnt matter how big the eruption is, its how long it erupts for that can cause extinctions.

That's true, and larger longer lasting eruptions are more likely to happen at a supervolcano hotspot like Yellowstone than at Mt St Helens.

Originally posted by bluemooone2
reply to post by bobski

 

If the caldera at Yellowstone (super volcano) goes it might be the end of us but some life would survive. In fact , mankind would most likely come thought it also , but not easily.

I agree a Yellowstone eruption will cause a lot more problems than Mt St Helens, but probably not a global extinction. Yellowstone erupts fairly regularly, about every 700,000 years, and the last eruption was about 700,000 years ago I think so we're about due for another eruption, most likely some time within the next 100,000 years.

Here is a good map showing the ash fallout from Mt St Helens in the upper left, in comparison with the ash beds from the last 3 eruptions of yellowstone. The map gives you some idea how much more massive the Yellowstone eruptions are:

www.earthmountainview.com...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/42a3ed0451bd.gif[/atsimg]

That site predicted Yellowstone would erupt in 2004, but obviously, it didn't. It is due for an eruption but I think we'll see signs in advance of the eruption like we did before Mt St Helens erupted. As far as I can tell the next eruption of Yellowstone could be in one month, or in 95,000 years, so the eruption may be imminent on geologic timescales but that doesn't necessarily seem imminent on human time scales.

Global extinctions are a real threat, but the biggest threat comes from impactors from space (asteroids/meteors/comets) and not from volcanic activity. So don't worry too much about Mt St Helens. You can worry a little more about Yellowstone, and worry a little more about a giant rock the size of Mt Everest falling from the sky, it's not a question of if these things will happen, it's a question of when, and they will both dwarf anything from Mt St Helens in terms of destruction.

[edit on 4-5-2010 by Arbitrageur]

A volcano splitting the earth in two isn`t what you worry about, ok, let me tell you what you worry about. You worry about a volcano spewing gargantuan amounts of ash and smoke into the upper atmosphere, where it enshrouds the earth like a dark hooded cloak, blocking out 98% or more of the life-giving sunlight most life depends on. And in case your into minor details, that would be ALL of human life. It has happened before. There have been at least 5 events in Earth`s history where over 2/3 of life was exterminated. In some cases it`s believed that over 90% of life died. I don`t know how many events like this humans have endured but I heard of one event (possibly the "great flood" found in all ancient cultures` written history, or maybe another one) where there were supposed to be only 10,000 humans left eventually. This kind of thing makes me believe that humans may have "lost something" along the way due to the limitations of sexual partners. To see the extrapolated effects of a limited gene pool, look up the incredible story of pitcairn island, of the mutiny on hms bounty fame. It was populated originally from about a dozen progenitors. Others were added in decades later but it`s still a very distant place. I heard they got internet though. There was also recently a child molestation ring busted in which politicians were implicated . But that always seems to happen whenever people are far enough away from authority to get away with it, or if they have enough authority of their own to get away with it. Not everytime, but in either one of those situations someone will eventually come along and take advantage of that.
Anyway the bottom line is, you don`t have to worry that much about mt. st. helens. I personally would keep my eye on mt. rainier. It`s had more dramatic activity recently. Either that or yellowstone is where the next big one will happen (as far as The 48). I just hope we can learn to co-operate as a species and find ways to help us survive. We should have been WAY more advanced by now. I hope people realize that. A lot of people agree we should be over a thousand years ahead of where we are now but we have held ourselves back because we cannot seem to tolerate eachother long enough to even have a cohesive conversation... as proved several times daily on this website alone.


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