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Yellowstone supervolcano bigger than once thought

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KDR_11k

Member
A Yellowstone eruption is rather unlikely within our lifetimes. But hey, if you think you're going to die soon, feel free to blow your life savings.

As far as extracting energy, probably not a good idea since geothermal power works by having the magma heat water and using that to run turbines, the craters in Yellowstone were caused by hydrothermal explosions, i.e. water getting into the magma layers and getting vaporized quickly which blew out the stone above it. But maybe there's no risk of that with the way geothermal works. Well, Iceland probably knows how to run that stuff.
 
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IdreamofHIME

Member
Catdaddy said:
Michael Bay presents...
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Already been done
8Ioiych.gif
 
H

Hunter S.

Member
I feel better knowing the Denver Area is not in the death zone, and only in the primary ash zone! No instant death for me!
 
A

Abstruse Moose

Member
diaspora said:
None of those places are even remotely habitable though, not even close. Earth post-explosion would probably be safer. There are no habitable worlds in the solar system that humanity knows of.
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Of course not. Colonizing doesn't mean it's going to like Earth. We'd be an indoors society on any other planet/moon. Staying on Earth is the same as having all your eggs in one basket.
 
kaiju

kaiju

Member
Konstantin Sivkov wants to nuke it: http://www.smh.com.au/world/russian-analyst-urges-nuclear-attack-on-yellowstone-national-park-and-san-andreas-fault-line-20150331-1mbl14.html

A Russian geopolitical analyst says the best way to attack the United States is to detonate nuclear weapons to trigger a supervolcano at Yellowstone National Park or along the San Andreas fault line on California's coast.

"Geologists believe that the Yellowstone supervolcano could explode at any moment. There are signs of growing activity there. Therefore it suffices to push the relatively small, for example the impact of the munition megaton class to initiate an eruption. The consequences will be catastrophic for the United States - a country just disappears," he said.
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Sounds like something straight out of the Dr. Evil playbook.
 
P

Philly40

Member
Nexttothecheddar said:
They should lance that thing, like a boil. Give it a good draining and then slap a band-aid on it.
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I think Christopher Walken is the perfect man for the job.

I've no idea if he has any qualifications in volcanology, but he could look down from a not-to-scale blimp, and do that funny little laugh as Yellowstone wipes out the rest of humanity.
 
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diaspora

Member
Abstruse Moose said:
Of course not. Colonizing doesn't mean it's going to like Earth. We'd be an indoors society on any other planet/moon. Staying on Earth is the same as having all your eggs in one basket.
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Short of striking Mars with a colossal asteroid (Ceres has water) and waiting several hundred thousand years, there's no place in the system we can inhabit indoors or no.
 
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Javaman

Member
I'm sure we'd have several months of signs that thing are speeding up before it blows. Even if 3/4 of the us is covered in ash science will prevail. Food might get more expensive for a while but there's plenty of room to build up in areas not affected.
Most doomsday ideas ignore the powerful combination of science and capitalism.

As far as habituating other planets, it is WAY easier to build indoor permanent indoor habitation on Earth than any other place if it ever became necessary.
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
videodyssey said:
Konstantin Sivkov wants to nuke it: http://www.smh.com.au/world/russian-analyst-urges-nuclear-attack-on-yellowstone-national-park-and-san-andreas-fault-line-20150331-1mbl14.html



Sounds like something straight out of the Dr. Evil playbook.
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He's an idiot. The Mt tambora eruption of 1815 caused a volcanic winter which messed up the climate of the entire northern hemisphere for several years (1816 is known as The Year Without A Summer). I believe estimates of Yellowstone put a major eruption at 10-30x as powerful on the low end, and 80-100x ad powerful on the high end.


A Yellowstone eruption would be terrible for everyone on the planet
 
S

SkyOdin

Member
diaspora said:
Short of striking Mars with a colossal asteroid (Ceres has water) and waiting several hundred thousand years, there's no place in the system we can inhabit indoors or no.
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We don't need a planet, we just need the means to get people and supplies off of the Earth. At that point, we can just build space habitats to live in. All of the engineering has been done, just need the means. You can put self-sufficent space habitats pretty much wherever you want in the solar system.

Habitable planets are not at all necessary to human's survival after leaving Earth.
 
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Hyun Sai

Member
The important thing :

The researchers point out that the previously known upper magma chamber was the immediate source of three cataclysmic eruptions of the Yellowstone caldera 2 million, 1.2 million and 640,000 years ago, and that isn’t changed by discovery of the underlying magma reservoir that supplies the magma chamber.
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bengraven

bengraven

Member
It already was capable of killing almost everyone in the US depending on how the wind blew.

So...now we're all just fucked.
 
K

killer rin

Member
diaspora said:
None of those places are even remotely habitable though, not even close. Earth post-explosion would probably be safer. There are no habitable worlds in the solar system that humanity knows of.
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I say we get to work on that NASA plan of putting blimp cities on Venus. It would at least be the most liveable of the other planets and we could use science to make water, oxygen and rocket fuel.
 
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Acorn

Member
Fuck it if everyone I knew died I wouldn't want to live - is my general view on apocalyptic scenarios. Fuck surviving alone.
 
R

RELAYER

Banned
Interesting how everyone just assumes that the colonization of other planets will simply happen or is even physically possible.
 
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SkyOdin

Member
RELAYER said:
Interesting how everyone just assumes that the colonization of other planets will simply happen or is even physically possible.
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It isn't exactly the realm of complete imagination. Real scientists have been researching and engineering solutions to the problems of living off of Earth for decades. We actually have some scientific weight behind the possibility of living in space.
 
Dr. Buni

Dr. Buni

Member
ThatGuyAgain said:
Sounds like we have approx. 1 million years to do that. The earth will probably be completely abandoned by humans by then.
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More like humans will have died off by then.
Ray Wonder said:
Man that would suck. It would be such a chaotic time. Instantly the world changes, and millions are immediately dead. 640,000 years ago it happened. If I'm in the 100 year gap that it happens. I'm gonna be extra pissed.
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I won't
 
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Jarrod38

Member
I've always wondered would the government warn us if an eruption is coming or would they say screw it and not tell us?
 
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RELAYER

Banned
SkyOdin said:
It isn't exactly the realm of complete imagination.
Real scientists have been researching and engineering solutions to the problems of living off of Earth for decades. We actually have some scientific weight behind the possibility of living in space.
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I never claimed it was "exactly the realm of complete imagination."
What I did say is that it's quite the achievement to consign to mere expectation.
There seems to be a tacit assumption that science can make anything possible provided that enough time and money are involved. Just an interesting mentality to observe.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
KINGofCRA5H said:
Pretty sure it was supposed to blow thousands of years ago. Scientists have a rough record of when it has erupted in the past and IIRC there is a pattern to the amount of time in between eruptions. So, yes there is a chance.



The whole world would be affected, but the entire Western US/Canada would probably be fucked.
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Whew. So Eastern Canada (only important Canada) is safe.
 
kaiju

kaiju

Member
Jarrod38 said:
I've always wondered would the government warn us if an eruption is coming or would they say screw it and not tell us?
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They would definitely tell us. Not sure what would happen after that but we would get a warning.

This latest discovery is due to the recent radar study: http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/radarstudy.htm

From April 9 to 13, 2015, scientists will be using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to map what lies below the ground around Old Faithful Geyser. With a technique that's similar to using ultrasound on a human body, the research will study shallow subsurface structures like the thickness of the hot spring deposits, fractures, vents and cavities.
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