What If Yellowstone's
Supervolcano Erupted?
Real Clear Science,
by
Ross Pomeroy
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
10/10/2019 8:36:50 AM
With its spouting geysers, majestic mountains, awe-inspiring waterfalls, and panoramic views, Yellowstone National Park has the undeniable power to uplift.
But it also has an unparalleled potential to destroy.
Concealed beneath the park rests the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano in North America. Each year, millions of visitors trek over a massive magma chamber that, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), stretches from 5 km to 17 km beneath the surface and is about 90 km long and about 40 km wide. A little deeper rests another chamber that's 4.5 times larger.
The Yellowstone supervolcano has unleashed three cataclysmic eruptions in the past 2.1 million years;
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Mushroom 10/10/2019 8:42:23 AM (No. 203083)
Yawn. Is it that time of the year again? Tell me ONE thing that can be done to prevent it. Until then you might as well write about California breaking off into the ocean, or the New Madrid fault swallowing up the Mississippi. Just easy words to fill a page. The only surprise is it wasn't in Texas Monthly.
21 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 10/10/2019 8:42:56 AM (No. 203084)
It would be a disaster. If it erupted, what scare tactic could the Environazis use to scare peole into totalitarianism?
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Kitty Myers 10/10/2019 8:44:19 AM (No. 203086)
FTA: "So what are the chances that this could actually happen? Thankfully, very low. The USGS estimates the probability at 1 in 730,000 in any given year."
'Nuff said.
14 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
earlybird 10/10/2019 8:45:42 AM (No. 203088)
They have pondered this possibility for as long as I can remember. A long time.
7 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
earlybird 10/10/2019 8:46:47 AM (No. 203089)
Just read #1. Priceless.
8 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
snakeoil 10/10/2019 8:48:54 AM (No. 203092)
All of my immediate problems have two feet.
14 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 10/10/2019 9:18:09 AM (No. 203123)
At 77 years of age, the Yellowstone eruption is way down on my list of worries. I guess it will blow at some point in time but by then maybe science will have a way to prevent the worst of it. The current Democrat Party is by far the gravest threat to the USA.
28 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
PChristopher 10/10/2019 9:22:45 AM (No. 203129)
I wonder what Greta Thornbird has to say about it?
6 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 10/10/2019 9:26:47 AM (No. 203134)
In Noah's day it was by flood. Next time will be by fire.
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 10/10/2019 9:29:32 AM (No. 203138)
I stopped reading when he used kilometers instead of miles.
Too pretentious - - by a mile.
8 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
DVC 10/10/2019 9:49:47 AM (No. 203169)
And what if the moon fell to the Earth? What if the Sun went unstable and turned into a Red Giant and fried the whole planet?
Give me a break. These are all things which are at least theoretically possible, but are so remote as to be ridiculous to worry about. And ALL of these "possibilities" are totally beyond our control. We can't do anything, so just stop with the silly articles.
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
FleetUSA 10/10/2019 9:55:22 AM (No. 203178)
I also worry that the government (read deep state) may try to fix it and make it worse or sooner.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
earlybird 10/10/2019 10:18:10 AM (No. 203220)
Re #10, and then what? After it has been studied and studied (and do we know that it hasn’t been studied, that it isn’t being studied every minute of every day?) then what do we do? Move to Mars?
These articles are the kind of thing that hit the media on slow news days, or are put there for people who need something in Nature to fear, or for those simply sick of politics. There are some things we can something about. Others, not so much.
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
lazlototh 10/10/2019 10:27:48 AM (No. 203228)
Reminds me of the Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy quote - "when I die what I hope they say about me is 'that guy sure owed me a lot of money.'" If the eruption occurred I'd be thinking "why did I remain debt free except for a modest mortgage and why did I save so hard for retirement?"
I will feel that way if Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders are elected too.
5 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 10/10/2019 10:28:13 AM (No. 203229)
A more likely disaster is a large earthquake in the region. An earthquake just outside of Yellowstone in the late 1950s caused considerable damage and loss of life. A lot more people live in the area now...
3 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DVC 10/10/2019 10:58:44 AM (No. 203269)
Well the "tried and true" way to solve this problem is to throw a few virgins into the volcano.....but due to the current near total lack of virgins, this approach is no longer feasible.
9 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
ussjimmycarter 10/10/2019 11:01:02 AM (No. 203272)
The is Merica'! Miles and Feet/Inches. Don't give a RIP what a KM is!
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Strike3 10/10/2019 11:02:33 AM (No. 203274)
The worst case scenario would mean lights out for the United States and Canada and probably the loss of half our population. There isn't anything our government or anybody else can do about it. The good news is that the Green New Deal would automatically be implemented.
1 person likes this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
chance_232 10/10/2019 11:26:45 AM (No. 203297)
My first thought..... " How would Trump get the blame?"
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
A.I. 10/10/2019 11:43:37 AM (No. 203312)
I was glad when the article stated that ”the USGS estimates the probability (of it exploding) at 1 in 730,000 in any given year.” Until they added: “There have been some discussions at NASA about boring into Yellowstone's magma chambers and pumping in cold water…”
What could go wrong? Probably nothing. They are scientists...remember?
3 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
hurricanegirl 10/10/2019 11:53:28 AM (No. 203316)
Headline: What If Yellowstone's Supervolcano Erupted?
Me: What if it doesn't?
0 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 10/10/2019 12:12:53 PM (No. 203335)
Who cares? In 12 years it's all ending anyway.
0 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
coldoc 10/10/2019 1:00:45 PM (No. 203384)
I was in Washington for mt. st. helens, and remember all this sort of doomsaying. As I recall, the farms downwind reaped massive harvests after the infusion of ash into the soil. It proved far from a "poison". Perhaps some farmers on here can verify?
1 person likes this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
web 10/10/2019 1:44:57 PM (No. 203435)
Your science isn't Real Clear. How many miles is that in American? What should we do? Evacuate the states of Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, etc.?
0 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
GO3 10/10/2019 1:51:10 PM (No. 203442)
#25, that is true. The ash made the soil more fertile.
0 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
StormCnter 10/10/2019 2:08:13 PM (No. 203466)
I'm one of those people who maintains a large pantry/freezer/storage shelveing full of food and supplies. One of my granddaughters was eyeballing some of it and asked me why. I laughed and told her I thought in a crisis I could feed the entire extended family for two weeks. She thought a minute and then asked, "What happens after two weeks?" I replied that by then the crisis would be over. I call that positive thinking.
1 person likes this.
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Yeah, I know there are all kinds of scary end-of-the-world possibilities out there, but the Yellowstone caldera is particularly ominous.