U.S. officials turn attention to the possibility of volcanic eruptions in southwest

Volcanism in the American Southwest

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Experts in volcano hazards and public safety have started a conversation about volcanoes in the southwestern United States, and how best to prepare for future activity. Prior to this meeting, emergency response planning for volcanic unrest in the region had received little attention by federal or state agencies.

Though volcanic eruptions are comparatively rare in the American Southwest, the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah host geologically-recent volcanic eruption deposits and are vulnerable to future volcanic activity. Compared with other parts of the western U.S., comparatively little research has been focused on this area, and eruption probabilities are poorly understood.

Hmmm.... this is slightly alarming now that this is being given attention to after all this time.

“A volcanic eruption in the American southwest is an example of a low-probability, but high-impact event for which we should be prepared to respond,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “No one wants to be exchanging business cards during an emergency, and thus a small investment in advance planning could pay off in personal relationships and coordination between scientists and first responders.”

www.usgs.gov...


"The goal of the conference is to increase awareness of volcanism and vulnerabilities in the American Southwest, and to begin coordination among volcano scientists, land managers, and emergency responders regarding future volcanic activity," said Dr. Jacob Lowenstern, one of the organizers of the conference, and the U.S. Geological Survey Scientist-In-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

"This is the first time these federal, state, and local agencies have met to discuss their roles, responsibilities, and resources, should an eruption occur."



Nothing to see here folks, just move along......



Talk about a serious Climate Change factor......

That's the last thing we need to be worrying about.

I wonder if some of the mysterious rumblings that some people claim to have been hearing are in any of those states??
Just curious.....

One never knows what Mother Nature is going to throw at us next....

Nothing to worry about,just a wine and dine conference on the possibilities of an eruption,nothing more.

Note: heavy sarcasm.

yes rumbling sound.. ithink its from volcano activity..nice find

Maybe it's just me.....but he isn't appearing to bring anything new to the table but to point out the blatantly obvious for any grade school student who read a book on the history of our little rock here and how things like the mountains and Flagstaff's geography itself came to form.

You know what this IS though? About the 50th "never gonna happen..can't happen in our life times..we promise...but on the OFF 1:BILLION chance it could..just maybe./..pardon us while we scare the crap out of you by doing all this right in your face"


* We've had the U.S. Military in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Miami that I RECALL without even going to LOOK doing as close to full blown training events with Helicopters around high rise buidlngs and everything else possible.

* They've made a HUGE public show out of restocking and servicing the routine stocks of disaster response supplies in the Midwest that are largely there for the New Madrid and HAVE BEEN for a LONG TIME. It's just recently they HAD to make SURE no one alive for 5 states goes a full year without being forcefully reminded what happened in 1811/1812..

* I've read reports reminding us all, again, with nothing left to the imagination 'for our own good' about Yellowstone and how it's buuuulging. Well, my wife grew up in Bozeman. Almost spitting distance from the Park on the Montana side. It's been doing this for about forever TOO. Only recently must it apparently be HAMMERED into the collective consciousness.

* I don't get MONTHLY EBS tone tests now, I get 2-4 PER WEEK. EVERY WEEK coming out of at least 2 completely different Emergency Broadcast networks. Hmm.... Is this about testing the system or testing the PEOPLE?

and..Oh, yeah, in the spirit of 'never letting a crisis go to waste', we ALWAYS have at least one of some sort at home or abroad running that we MUST be made aware of to the donought shop worker level, every week, without fail and it's been running this way for OVER 4 years. At least 6 would be more like it.

So my point here, after laughing rather sharply at how the USGS has gone from an agency that would nearly castrate someone for starting a mere HINT of unwarranted panic to being an agency seemingly charged with CREATING those panics these days...is that they can stop now. over 300 million people are on more mood drugs and having more mental conditions than ever in history and climbing exponentially. Really..... stop...with....the ...panic.....efforts.

I don't mean the OP or anyone here. We don't make these stories, we just share and debate them....but some are getting rich, getting OFF or a big dose of both by crying wolf on something every 3-8 days damn near non stop year in and year out.

Now volcanoes in Arizona ... yeah... What is next? The public gets a crash course on the Earth's Core losing rotation? Because that COULD..SOMEDAY..happen too! Oh, now that should give a few thousand people coronary's if they take the reality of that one seriously.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Oh, and don't forget along the Gulf Coast, every year, they harp on "severe" hurricanes this time......better prepare.

And now, they are going to start rating & naming the snow blizzards like hurricanes now according to the Weather Channel. Except they will be using Roman names to separate them from the hurricanes.
[of course, the Weather Channel is not the same since it was taken over by NBC, IMO....]

You're right, seems as tho they like to use the gloom and doom crap every so often.
I guess to keep us on our toes.

ETA: and yes, I realize this isn't pertaining to E.Q. but it's similar in the fact that they are always trying to spook people with fear.

Although there has been no eruption for nearly 1,000 years, it is likely that eruptions will occur again in the San Francisco Volcanic Field. With an average interval of several thousand years between past periods of volcanic activity, it is impossible to forecast when the next eruption will occur. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists believe that the most probable sites of future eruptions are in the eastern part of the field and that the eruptions are likely to be small. These future eruptions may provide spectacular volcanic displays but should pose little hazard because of their small size and the relative remoteness of the area.

Source: The San Francisco Volcanic Field, Arizona Link
Published as USGS Fact sheet 017-01 in 2001

According to the above source, this volcanic field has produced about 600 volcanoes... In six MILLION years! The last Eruption was estimated around 1065.

The cones and lava flows of the San Francisco volcanic field, which covers about 2,000 square miles of the southwestern Colorado Plateau, result from several million years of volcanic activity. These powerful underground forces changed the landscape dramatically beginning in the winter of AD 1064-65. Sunset Crater appeared when molten rock sprayed out of a crack in the ground high into the air, solidified, then fell to earth as large bombs or smaller cinders. ...

Source USGS

Sounds pretty neat and rather unlikely to happen any time soon (at least based on their data from 2001). It seems to me that government agencies facing cuts need to constantly find new things to justify all of the money that people are making. Essentially creating work for themselves based on how much fear they can generate with it!

I just wanted to share the information I found on their website. I lived in Yavapai county for a bit. Never made up to this area though.

reply to post by snarky412

lol.. I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to go off on a tear on your thread.. It's just getting old how literally, every single time we turn around it's a new petty little something that actually does have JUST enough chance to kill us all that we have to devote some stress to learning how unlikely it really is.

You know what it's been like? It's been like George Bush appointed someone like Alex Jones to actually RUN the DHS and he just stayed right on through since.. Imagine that personality and drive actually HAVING all the power levers and not simply railing against them. Why, he'd pull them this way and that way and wiggle them all around to see what they did...and oops? Oh, is that yanking the whole public along in different directions too? oops. That's basically what Janet has been doing and the crew to sit in her office before her., IMO.

I mean I grew up n Orange California. 4 miles from Lockheed Martin and Rockwell International. Military bases in all directions and among the most important America had. Every day...as you may recall if you lived the 80's or all the years before...every day was a sure knowledge that if Russia got stupid, we'd have 7-9 minutes warning..or MAYBE even 45 minutes...IF anyone even decided the public would ever be told at all....then we'd all die in a millisecond or spend years of misery wishing we had.

and they never..came remotely CLOSE to the fear and terrorizing of the public that they do now. So sorry again.. Volcanos in the Southwest was just too much. It's like saying a swarm of Batboy's off the front page of the National Inquirer could some day sweep the land and klll everyone. It''s about that likely...and productive to say from the USGS. Ugh.. lol

First time they have done this?

wow. I expected more from our federal govt.

Not prepared. hah. Thats rich.

What have they been doing this whole time? Makin off with the loot..

...and they want more investment.