Author Topic: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells  (Read 2157 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline rickl

  • Established Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1493
Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
« on: February 20, 2011, 10:35:13 PM »
Categories » Science, Technology & Medicine » Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
http://itsaboutfreedom.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=progress&action=display&thread=4219
Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by irondiopriest on Jan 24, 2011, 2:51pm

I usually don't buy into apocalyptic doomsday scenarios in general, either because I don't believe things are as bad as alarmists make them out to be (Global warming), or if they are that bad, there's nothing to be done about it anyway (Asteroid collision).

That said, Yellowstone National Park is said to be the world's largest super-volcano, with evidence of eruptions in the past that have wiped out a several-hundred mile radius, and caused planet-wide environmental impact. I've heard it said that we are on the cusp of a Yellowstone eruption ("cusp" in terms of geological time), and that such an eruption might have immediate devastating impact as far away as 600 miles, with the secondary impact affecting a much broader radius.

So, in light if this, I find this Nat-Geo report of interest, even though there doesn't seem to be reason for immediate alarm.

Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells
Some places saw the ground rise by ten inches, experts report.

Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano just took a deep "breath," causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report.

The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago.

(See "When Yellowstone Explodes" in National Geographic magazine.)

Since then, about 30 smaller eruptions—including one as recent as 70,000 years ago—have filled the caldera with lava and ash, producing the relatively flat landscape we see today.

But beginning in 2004, scientists saw the ground above the caldera rise upward at rates as high as 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) a year. (Related: "Yellowstone Is Rising on Swollen 'Supervolcano.'")

The rate slowed between 2007 and 2010 to a centimeter a year or less. Still, since the start of the swelling, ground levels over the volcano have been raised by as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) in places.

"It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high," said the University of Utah's Bob Smith, a longtime expert in Yellowstone's volcanism...

Much more at link...
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by irondiopriest on Jan 24, 2011, 2:56pm

This UK mail online take is much more alarmist...

Is the world's largest super-volcano set to erupt for the first time in 600,000 years, wiping out two-thirds of the U.S.?
The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004

It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980.

Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.

Two-thirds of the U.S. could become uninhabitable as toxic air sweeps through it, grounding thousands of flights and forcing millions to leave their homes.

This is the nightmare that scientists are predicting could happen if the world’s largest super-volcano erupts for the first time in 600,000 years, as it could do in the near future.

Yellowstone National Park’s caldera has erupted three times in the last 2.1million years and researchers monitoring it say we could be in for another eruption.

They said that the super-volcano underneath the Wyoming park has been rising at a record rate since 2004 - its floor has gone up three inches per year for the last three years alone, the fastest rate since records began in 1923...

More at link...

Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by libertasinfinitio on Jan 24, 2011, 3:40pm

I drove my sister and her two eldest boys out west a year and a half ago, Yellowstone was our primary emphasis, it is quite impressive as you are driving around and viewing such incredibly beautiful scenery that beneath such pristine vistas lies a sleeping behemoth that could snuff out all life for hundreds of square miles in an instant. But the signs, literally, are everywhere that boiling magma is not far from the surface. They have seismic sensors all over the place, and probes to digitally measure changes in elevation using satellites. They are really watching everything they possibly can. But if this thing pops, the world will know. We here in Minnesota will be buried in ash. It last cooked off 640,000 years ago, three times in the last 2.1m years, an average of every 700k. It could pop tomorrow, it could pop in 600 centuries...who knows?

Better check out Yellowstone while you can though, eh? Glad I went!

This link I followed from yours is awesome!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/08/yellowstone/achenbach-text
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by glock32 on Jan 24, 2011, 3:51pm

And there's an island in the Azores that is supposedly going to split in half and fall into the ocean one day. It will generate an enormous tsunami from Florida to Nova Scotia.
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by rickl on Jan 24, 2011, 10:52pm

I saw a TV drama about that scenario a few years ago. It pointed out that the weight of ash falling on roofs of buildings even hundreds of miles away would collapse them. It's much heavier than snow. It's powdered rock, after all.

It could happen anytime in the next 100,000 years or so, which is practically tomorrow in geological time.
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by sectionhand on Jan 25, 2011, 5:05am


Jan 24, 2011, 2:51pm, irondiopriest wrote:
I usually don't buy into apocalyptic doomsday scenarios in general, either because I don't believe things are as bad as alarmists make them out to be (Global warming), or if they are that bad, there's nothing to be done about it anyway (Asteroid collision).

That said, Yellowstone National Park is said to be the world's largest super-volcano, with evidence of eruptions in the past that have wiped out a several-hundred mile radius, and caused planet-wide environmental impact. I've heard it said that we are on the cusp of a Yellowstone eruption ("cusp" in terms of geological time), and that such an eruption might have immediate devastating impact as far away as 600 miles, with the secondary impact affecting a much broader radius.

So, in light if this, I find this Nat-Geo report of interest, even though there doesn't seem to be reason for immediate alarm.

Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells
Some places saw the ground rise by ten inches, experts report.

Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano just took a deep "breath," causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report.

The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago.

(See "When Yellowstone Explodes" in National Geographic magazine.)

Since then, about 30 smaller eruptions—including one as recent as 70,000 years ago—have filled the caldera with lava and ash, producing the relatively flat landscape we see today.

But beginning in 2004, scientists saw the ground above the caldera rise upward at rates as high as 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) a year. (Related: "Yellowstone Is Rising on Swollen 'Supervolcano.'")

The rate slowed between 2007 and 2010 to a centimeter a year or less. Still, since the start of the swelling, ground levels over the volcano have been raised by as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) in places.

"It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high," said the University of Utah's Bob Smith, a longtime expert in Yellowstone's volcanism...

Much more at link...


Did the Scientists say it was our fault ? Just wonderin' ...
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by warpmine on Jan 25, 2011, 7:21am

Maybe it will erupt december 2012 and fulfill the prophecy.
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by libertasinfinitio on Jan 25, 2011, 7:41am


Jan 25, 2011, 7:21am, warpmine wrote:
Maybe it will erupt december 2012 and fulfill the prophecy.


If you look closely enough at Rickl's new avatar, I think he's got that covered!


Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by glock32 on Jan 25, 2011, 5:05pm

Will it then be renamed Brimstone National Park?
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by warpmine on Jan 25, 2011, 5:12pm


Jan 25, 2011, 5:05pm, glock32 wrote:
Will it then be renamed Brimstone National Park?


Then we can call Obama the anti-Christ, right
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
Post by libertasinfinitio on Jan 25, 2011, 8:37pm


Jan 25, 2011, 5:05pm, glock32 wrote:
Will it then be renamed Brimstone National Park?


That's up to the survivors to worry about...

...hey, I smell sulfur?

Oh, SOTU show getting close...


We are so far past and beyond the “long train of abuses and usurpations” that the Colonists and Founders experienced and which necessitated the Revolutionary War that they aren’t even visible in the rear-view mirror.
~ Ann Barnhardt

Offline rickl

  • Established Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1493
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2011, 10:41:20 PM »
Quote
Jan 24, 2011, 2:51pm, irondiopriest wrote:
I usually don't buy into apocalyptic doomsday scenarios in general, either because I don't believe things are as bad as alarmists make them out to be (Global warming), or if they are that bad, there's nothing to be done about it anyway (Asteroid collision).

That said, Yellowstone National Park is said to be the world's largest super-volcano, with evidence of eruptions in the past that have wiped out a several-hundred mile radius, and caused planet-wide environmental impact. I've heard it said that we are on the cusp of a Yellowstone eruption ("cusp" in terms of geological time), and that such an eruption might have immediate devastating impact as far away as 600 miles, with the secondary impact affecting a much broader radius.

So, in light if this, I find this Nat-Geo report of interest, even though there doesn't seem to be reason for immediate alarm.

And if there was a reason for immediate alarm, the only thing we could do would be to move to another continent.
We are so far past and beyond the “long train of abuses and usurpations” that the Colonists and Founders experienced and which necessitated the Revolutionary War that they aren’t even visible in the rear-view mirror.
~ Ann Barnhardt

Online Libertas

  • Conservative Superhero
  • *****
  • Posts: 63650
  • Alea iacta est! Libertatem aut mori!
Re: Yellowstone Bulging as Magma Pocket Swells
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2011, 06:47:29 AM »
Quote
Jan 24, 2011, 2:51pm, irondiopriest wrote:
I usually don't buy into apocalyptic doomsday scenarios in general, either because I don't believe things are as bad as alarmists make them out to be (Global warming), or if they are that bad, there's nothing to be done about it anyway (Asteroid collision).

That said, Yellowstone National Park is said to be the world's largest super-volcano, with evidence of eruptions in the past that have wiped out a several-hundred mile radius, and caused planet-wide environmental impact. I've heard it said that we are on the cusp of a Yellowstone eruption ("cusp" in terms of geological time), and that such an eruption might have immediate devastating impact as far away as 600 miles, with the secondary impact affecting a much broader radius.

So, in light if this, I find this Nat-Geo report of interest, even though there doesn't seem to be reason for immediate alarm.

And if there was a reason for immediate alarm, the only thing we could do would be to move to another continent.

So true.  Some parts of the continent will be more adversely affected than others, but short of fleeing to South America or something, what are ya really going to do!
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.