re: A Series Of Potential Eruptions Have Been Reported At Yellowstone NP

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Did you just make this up?

Predictions wildly vary even from "expert" to "expert".

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Well in my light research on the subject, they most all agree that ash would cover a huge geographic region and acidic rain would be created. These things would destroy crops and fresh water supplies. It would also cause somewhat of an energy crisis in those areas. We're talking roads unusable, massive power outages, most telecommunications unreliable or unusable, etc.

This is about what most maps say the cloud and ash would cover, and winds could dramatically change it or make it worse.

This is from the US Geological Survey showing where previous eruption ash beds have reached:

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Molten lava more than 1,000 degrees oozing from an eruption might be less of a concern than the ash. The eruption would likely cover the ground with as much as 4 inches of gray ash, which could be detrimental to crops growing in the Midwest.

Along with the ash, the supervolcano would spew a whole bunch of gasses, including sulfur dioxide, a gas that can lead to acid rain as well as global cooling as it reflects the sun away from the Earth.

The explosion likely wouldn't wipe out human life, but it certainly would be destructive, especially to the western half of the US.

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To put the eruption into perspective, the volcano has the ability to spew 1,000 cubic kilometers of ash and rock into the air, which is approximately 250,000 times more than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. This amount of rock and ash would cover most of the United States and could send the entire Earth into a volcanic winter.

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It would frick us up. Big time. But a full eruption has astronomical odds of occurring anytime soon, so we'll be ok.

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anthropomorphic climate change pales in comparison

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A blowup of the Caldera would be a RESULT of AGW. As humans heat up the planet, our world has to disperse the built up heat one way or another. What better way to do it, than to let 'er blow?

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But a full eruption has astronomical odds of occurring anytime soon, so we'll be ok

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I'm not sure 1 in a few million is "astronomical"

I do know we have had a lot of small 2.0 magnitude earthquakes centered less than a mile from me here in Cali the past two weeks. shite keeps waking me up at night.

4 in Manhattan Beach

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But a full eruption has astronomical odds of occurring anytime soon, so we'll be ok



I'm not sure 1 in a few million is "astronomical"

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It is a lot less than 1 in a few million for people alive today. Historically it has a super eruption once every 600-700 thousand years (2M years ago, 1.3M years ago and 630k years ago). The last one was 630 thousand years ago.

At this point odds of it occurring for someone alive today (assuming it continues on its historical schedule) are more like 1 in 1000. 70,000 (700,000 - 630,000) years divided by average lifespan of 70.

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To be fair, if it exploded, it could partially block out the sun with ash for an extended period of time, changing the temperatures and just slaughtering the crops.

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So you're saying I should stop by the store on my way home for beer and non perishables?

EBR will probably close schools tomorrow if this is the case.

The Yellowstone caldera is just the latest in a chain of volcanic explosions as the tectonic plate has moved over that hot spot. The explosion at Bruneau Jarbridge from that same magma dome when it was located in western Idaho sent ash more than a foot deep into eastern Iowa.

There is a massive fossil bed of North American rhinoceros, camel, horses, etc., buried in five feet of drifted ash in Nebraska about 900 miles away from the explosion site.

It's amazing how much destruction can come from a volcano.