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A Surprise From the Supervolcano Under Yellowstone

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sanman

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Under Yellowstone National Park lies a supervolcano capable of covering most of the United States under a thick layer of ash, destroying its crops, and plunging the Earth into a sky-blackened winter. That supervolcano last erupted 631,000 years ago. Scientists say that such eruptions have generally occurred once every 100,000 years and there are questions on whether we're overdue for another eruption. It was previously thought that it takes thousands of years for the supervolcano to build up enough pressure for another eruption, giving plenty of warning time. Now it's been found that it only takes decades.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/science/yellowstone-volcano-eruption.html


Beneath Yellowstone National Park lies a supervolcano, a behemoth far more powerful than your average volcano. It has the ability to expel more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock and ash at once — 2,500 times more material than erupted from Mount St. Helens in 1980, which killed 57 people. That could blanket most of the United States in a thick layer of ash and even plunge the Earth into a volcanic winter.

Yellowstone’s last supereruption occurred 631,000 years ago. And it’s not the planet’s only buried supervolcano. Scientists suspect that a supereruption scars the planet every 100,000 years, causing many to ask when we can next expect such an explosive planet-changing event.

To answer that question, scientists are seeking lessons from Yellowstone’s past. And the results have been surprising. They show that the forces that drive these rare and violent events can move much more rapidly than volcanologists previously anticipated.

The early evidence, presented at a recent volcanology conference, shows that Yellowstone’s most recent supereruption was sparked when new magma moved into the system only decades before the eruption. Previous estimates assumed that the geological process that led to the event took millenniums to occur.
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This is what will ultimately take humanity out. Just a matter of time.
 
Global warming!!! AAAAAaaaaahhhhhh!



Thanks, Trump.
 
I want to be there when it happens.
 
It could happen. We've known about this for years. There's no point in worrying about it. It could be one more reason for trying to live life to the fullest.:shrug:
 
All that ash would cause all kinds of crazy weather effects too, beyond the overall loss of sunlight and drop in temperature.

Lots of people would end up with lung ailments, from breathing all the ash in the air.
 
sanman said:
All that ash would cause all kinds of crazy weather effects too, beyond the overall loss of sunlight and drop in temperature.

Lots of people would end up with lung ailments, from breathing all the ash in the air.
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not to mention worldwide famine from crop failure, and wars fought for what food remains. The human population would go down rather drastically.
 
KevinKohler said:
Global warming!!! AAAAAaaaaahhhhhh!



Thanks, Trump.
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Abrupt global cooling, actually. Volcanoes, in addition to all that fire and brimstone stuff, toss up titanic amounts of ash that hangs around in the upper atmosphere for an extended period. This reflects sunlight back into space, reducing the earth's temperature. Major eruptions in recent years actually do have a small but measurable impact on the temperature. In the case of a supervolcano, the effect is much larger and longer-lasting, and the consequences are dire. Yellowstone erupting like it has in the past would more or less eliminate the United States entirely.

Don't worry. You'll be long dead if it happens.
 
Mr Person said:
I'd prefer not to starve to death, but each to his own.....
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Actually, if you're "there" when it happens, more than likely you'll barely have time to start wetting your pants before you're just part of the ash cloud.
 
Dragonfly said:
Actually, if you're "there" when it happens, more than likely you'll barely have time to start wetting your pants before you're just part of the ash cloud.
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Indeed, indeed. But I'm all the way out here in Eastern, MA. Perhaps the area of complete destruction via shockwave/heat would reach here, but I'm somewhat dubious.




But what do I know.

Tsar Bomba (51 megatons) saw complete destruction within at least a 34 mile radius, third degree burns at 62 mile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

Krakatoa went off at an estimated 200 megatons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa




And this sounds like it would make the latter sound like a fly's burp. All the more reason to work with Mr. Musk, I suppose, and get the hell off of this planet.
 
sanman said:
Under Yellowstone National Park lies a supervolcano capable of covering most of the United States under a thick layer of ash, destroying its crops, and plunging the Earth into a sky-blackened winter. That supervolcano last erupted 631,000 years ago. Scientists say that such eruptions have generally occurred once every 100,000 years and there are questions on whether we're overdue for another eruption. It was previously thought that it takes thousands of years for the supervolcano to build up enough pressure for another eruption, giving plenty of warning time. Now it's been found that it only takes decades.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/science/yellowstone-volcano-eruption.html
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Well, that isn't good news.
 
sanman said:
All that ash would cause all kinds of crazy weather effects too, beyond the overall loss of sunlight and drop in temperature.

Lots of people would end up with lung ailments, from breathing all the ash in the air.
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@_@

It would be enough ash to cause nuclear winter.

For starters....
 
Mr Person said:
And this sounds like it would make the latter sound like a fly's burp. All the more reason to work with Mr. Musk, I suppose, and get the hell off of this planet.
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If you were on the Moon or Mars and some disaster like this happened back on Earth, then you might be left stranded there without anyone able to come get you, or resupply you. So it might be another form of slow, lingering death.
 
Yellowstone Supervolcano May Rumble to Life Faster Than Thought

Yellowstone Supervolcano May Rumble to Life Faster Than Thought

A new study of ancient ash suggests that the dormant giant could develop the conditions needed to blow in a span of mere decades.

If the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone erupts again, we may have far less advance warning time than we thought.

After analyzing minerals in fossilized ash from the most recent mega-eruption, researchers at Arizona State University think the supervolcano last woke up after two influxes of fresh magma flowed into the reservoir below the caldera.

And in an unsettling twist, the minerals revealed that the critical changes in temperature and composition built up in a matter of decades. Until now, geologists had thought it would take centuries for the supervolcano to make that transition.
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sanman said:
If you were on the Moon or Mars and some disaster like this happened back on Earth, then you might be left stranded there without anyone able to come get you, or resupply you. So it might be another form of slow, lingering death.
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Well, I suspect Mars is the more likely candidate for an actual colony. But hey, we don't know when this thing will go off. 1,000 years, 10,000, or 100,000. It's just that once it starts heading towards eruption, we'll only have decades (assuming this new evidence/theory is correct). So the sooner we start, the better.

(I mean, we're going to try anyway regardless of the supervolcano, provided we don't wipe ourselves out first).


Bear in mind, people laughed at the Wright Brothers not too long ago. We stood on the damn moon several decades later. For all our evil and pettiness, there are some good things to say about humanity. I think it's more likely than not we'll expand beyond this planet successfully, but then, that expression means only a >50% chance.
 
Erod said:
This is what will ultimately take humanity out. Just a matter of time.
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No it won't, humanity has been around and survived supervolcano eruptions before. It might take out a lot of the continental United States but humanity will be fine.
 
well, if Yellowstone is going to kill us all or plunge humanity into chaos in a year or two, i guess i'm glad that i waited until now to sign a thirty year mortgage.

on the serious side, though, this potential catastrophe should be studied extensively. i'd rather see money spent on that than on a war. same thing with random asteroids / comets and their trajectories.
 
Cephus said:
No it won't, humanity has been around and survived supervolcano eruptions before. It might take out a lot of the continental United States but humanity will be fine.
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I wouldn't say fine, survive yes but be fine no
 
Mr Person said:
I'd prefer not to starve to death, but each to his own.....
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Well you would have 300 million or so sources of protein and fat to live on for a couple of years. Just turn some into Sapien jerky to keep it from spoiling
 
Helix said:
well, if Yellowstone is going to kill us all or plunge humanity into chaos in a year or two, i guess i'm glad that i waited until now to sign a thirty year mortgage.

on the serious side, though, this potential catastrophe should be studied extensively. i'd rather see money spent on that than on a war. same thing with random asteroids / comets and their trajectories.
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Studying possible ways to survive this sort of thing. Hmmm. I suppose it would be particularly helpful if we focused on construct of vast indoor areas with artificial lighting mimicking the sun and overall replicating natural outdoors conditions. Even if it turns out the thing doesn't go off for another 200,000 years, we'd likely learn things that could be adapted for setting up underwater colonies as land gets more and more scarce, other planets, etc.

However, I have little faith that humanity is willing to spend any significant amount of money on stuff like that. We tend to wait until there's a crisis to deal with.
 
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