Tonight, I found out that Yellowstone is a ticking time bomb to armageddon

[brentspeak]

On the Science Channel, there's a documentary on Yellowstone National Park, which, scientists say, is lying on top of a 48 x 18 MILE active underground volcano -- a supervolcano. The entire park -- and more -- is essentially a giant volcano. That's the reason for the Hot Springs and geysers in the park. An eruption would destroy at least 1/3 of the United States, and radically affect the entire planet. Eruptions have been determined to occur every 600,000 - 700,000 years -- and the last eruption occured 640,000 years ago...



:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[uppityperson]

1. pretty neat, isn't it?

I mean really, all those hot spots, mud, sulphur, geysers, really neat. Hey, my lifetime is extremely short in the life of the earth.

[Theres-a]

2. Fascinating

We really are just a moment in time.

[Arm Pitt]

3. Yeah I saw that special last year.

It is really kinda scarry to know it is in fact a super-valcano. I hope it holds off from blowing for another 400,000 years.

[Mutley]

4. Yep, there are several super-volcanoes like that around the world.

Fascinating...

[Arm Pitt]

5. Fascinating...yes.

I think I remember them saying that most are located in North America. Not a great thought.

[Mutley]

8. Not much you can do about, though.

When your time comes, your time comes.

[LostInAnomie]

6. My Geology professor always used to talk about that.

He said that the explosion would probably be so loud that chances are we wouldn't be able to hear the news telling us that about a third of the US doesn't exist anymore.

[Fleshdancer]

10. now that's something you don't normally think about

the sound of something like that happening...interesting.

[StellaBlue]

7. Fascinating. My comment?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Don't be scared...

Have fun while you can!

[Random_Australian]

11. Uh, why the scared smilies? When the park stops venting, and then

a few thousand years elapses, THEN get worried. It hasn't been really trapping the gases for the explosion of late, or so I hear.

[pokerfan]

12. Yeah, it's one of many moving "Hot Spots"

Like the Hawaiian Islands. There's a hole in the mantle but the moving tectonic plate keeps covering it up.

The Yellowstone hot spot is responsible for all the basalt in eastern washington state ten million years ago, when that part of the plate was overhead. It's one of the largest flood basalts ever in earth's history and is miles deep.

The same hot spot is is also responsible for Craters of the Moon, Idaho as it travelled towards its present day location in Yellowstone. Or, more precisely, the North American plate moved westward over the hot spot.

[realisticphish]

13. Did you also know

that we're due for:
A massive earthquake
More tsunamis
Asteroids hitting the earth
Mechanized lemmings ravaging Bangladesh

The Science Channel, Discovery Channel, and the others LOVE this shit. They scare people for a living, and that's about it.

There are LOTS of things that COULD happen. But if the preconditions aren't there, then they won't. Just because some have determined a certin time frame for an even doesn't mean that if we get to 700,ooo years, it'll automatically go off, just to keep on the time frame. It's just geological tabloid stuff.

[Bridget Burke]

21. Many of us are interested in this stuff....

But not actually afraid.

Besides, I live on the Gulf Coast--a giant hurricane will probably take us out!

[realisticphish]

26. oh yeah

don't get me wrong, I love those shows, and love reading about it. But people in general terrify easily, and that's what's happening here, IMHO.

[yellowdogintexas]

34. well, If the New Madrid Fault in Missouri/Illinois/Kentucky goes

first, the US will split in half. There will be a new gulf where the lower Miss Valley used to be.

Memphis, St Louis, Vicksburg, Natchez all under water, probably Paducah KY, Cape G and other points of interest along the river.

The last time it moved the earthquake rang bells in Boston, the Mississippi river ran backwards and created Reelfoot Lake in the Oxbow and other assorted mayhem. Of course it was only 1814

[Burma Jones]

14. It will only take out Red States though, Right?

:sarcasm:

[LynneSin]

15. I'm thinking I'm safe here in Delaware

:D

[Burma Jones]

19. you'll just be flooded out when sea levels rise

I'm heading out to West "by God" Virginia.....Bring Lawyers, Guns and Money.....

[Arugula Latte]

23. Delaware is in the line of the gi-normous cloud of ash that the jet stream

will spread across the continent. In all liklihood your lungs will fill up with silt and you will drown. So, have fun with that ...
:D

[LeftyMom]

28. We're safe out here on the Left Coast though

:woohoo:

[Arugula Latte]

29. Yay! ....

Well, there is that massive 10-point plus earthquake they're expecting, but, hey ...

[Xithras]

30. One might trigger the other.

The detonation of a volcano the size of Yellowstone will change the pressure in the mantle beneath the US and send shockwaves through the mantle. These could knock loose faultlines across the west coast, and set off several of our own volcanos to boot. Imagine St. Helens, Ranier, and Shasta all erupting at once. Even worse, it could set off Long Valley (a smaller supervolcano also due for a detonation), which would bury Nevada, Arizona, and the southern half of California.

[Arugula Latte]

31. Oy vey.

:(

[Deja Q]

16. Well, if it goes "boom" we're all dead.

Thank God.

[Dangerously Amused]

17. kick. :D

[kwassa]

18. All we are is dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wiiiinnnnnddddd!

[anarch]

20. six million ways to die...choose one.

And hey, you know what? If the supervolcano doesn't get you, and the asteroids don't get you, or the giant tsunami from some landslide off the coast of Africa, or a tornado, or lightning, or a flood, or bird flu, or a terrorist attack, or a simple mugging gone bad, or a car accident, or cancer, or a giant anaconda...well, if you survive all that, you're still going to die anyway.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

22. Yup!

To be born is to die, one fine day.....

So LIVE while you can!

Leave your good mark!

It is good to be reminded now and then, of our mortality.......

:hug:

[LibertyLover]

24. Read about Yellowstone a couple of years ago -

what worries me is all the evidence indicating that it is getting active again.

[rustydog]

25. HOLY SHEEEIT, We'd better invade Iran, NOW!

[redqueen]

27. Known about that for years...

I don't know about the 48x18 mile thing, though... what's that based on?

The crust moves across the hotspot, so perhaps the actual hotspot might not be quite that huge... not sure though.

It is fascinating stuff, regardless.

[RetroLounge]

32. Hell, that's why I live in Wisconsin

Nothing natural here can kill you, eat you, or blow you up.

An occasional tornado, but not near the lake.

I feel pretty safe here.

Now if we could just get rid of waukesha county...

RL

[smitty]

38. Maybe a mega tsunami from Lake Michigan will wipe out

Waukesha County. Unfortunately, it'd go through Milwaukee first.

[Strong Atheist]

33. Yeah, seen this before. I am going there in July; it is my favorite

park.

[CabalPowered]

35. I managed to visit when Norris was active .. some pics >>

I'd been a few times and knew most of the features but that summer the real treat was Nymph Lake. A hot spot just emerged where there hadn't been any geothermal feature in recent time. Mother Nature in action...

?cl

?cl

?cl

?cl

Some wandering buffalo

?cl

And my favorite feature

?cl

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

36. You know, I hope I'm old when I see that, I must say, it would be

an amazing site to see, wouldn't it? I would almost will it to happen in my lifetime, but that would suck for my future kids.

[smitty]

37. So many potential catastrophes coming down the tracks :

Global warming, mega tsunamis, category six tornadoes, super hurricanes, the New Madrid Fault waking up, the San Adreas Fault producing a 8.5 quake, Yellowstone erupting in a super volcanic explosion, some tectonic plate off the Northwest coast a producing Seattle leveling quake, a category 3 hurricane hitting New York City during rush hour, Mt Ranier producing a mega mud slide, a life ending collision with an asteroid the size of Manhattan.

I seen them all on TV.