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[spiderman123]

Don't volcanic eruptions happen because of a process instead of an event?

If it's the former, then I would assume the more time has passed, the likelier it is. I might also be completely bullshitting you of course.

:O!!! goodbye penis.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

sweet, move along folks. nothing to see here.

The ashfall will travel all the way around the world and hit the west coast eventually. We'll just suffer a nuclear winter is all.

 

[NotWii]

In the case of volcanos, is the "we're due" thing just the gambler's fallacy, or does the likelyhood of a rare volcanic event increase over time?

cycles

He's practically the unofficial mascot of The Science Channel and he's on pretty much every science-related show on the History Channel.

I would pay good money to see a cage match between him and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Michio Kaku would win, no doubt about it

 

[Jenga]

The ashfall will travel all the way around the world and hit the west coast eventually. We'll just suffer a nuclear winter is all.

so basically we'll all become russian

 

[Sohter.Nura]

I really like the Japanese guy and his excitement. The lady actually pissed me off cause he said it would wipe out the united states (as we know it) and she kept asking things like "would it be the end of the world (as we know it)" and is it something like what destroyed the dinossaurs.

 

[Evenball]

But racism will be over because we're all the same color when we're covered in ash!

please dont remind me of that movie

 

[Ashes]

That's not a very big deal. If you're right then you'll be around to say 'I told ya so' but if you're wrong you'll be dead so who cares about your penis anyways?

Nice try. You need to cut off your penis now in order to prove your dedication.

Hear, hear.

 

[threenote]

funny that, since i heard/read other scientists say it's overdue and it could go off any day.

read up

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3024/

 

[Jenga]

I really like the Japanese guy and his excitement. The lady actually pissed me off cause he said it would wipe out the united states (as we know it) and she kept asking things like "would it be the end of the world (as we know it)" and is it something like what destroyed the dinossaurs.

I know it's CNN and all, but somehow I doubt most interviewers know about how a supervolcano works

 

[SyNapSe]

I went to Yellowstone last year. Incredible place to visit; We are certainly fucked even if it decides to have a minor eruption. A bizarre surface that can make you feel like you're walking on the surface of another planet at times. To my knowledge, there is nowhere else in the world with the same type of above soil geothermal activity.

 

[water_wendi]

I don't why people think it would just be The U.S. that suffers, if the eruption was big enough it would create a cloud of debris that could sit in the Earth's atmosphere for years possibly, blocking sunlight meaning the globe's temperature would fall and food crops would be destroyed. More people would die from famine than the explosion itself.

Global society as we know it would completely collapse. Most of North America would be uninhabitable for an indeterminate amount of generations. The global temp drops would force most of Europe/China to have to relocate to survive. The lucky ones would be those within 500 miles of Yellowstone that die in an instant. People on the East Coast would mostly be permanently deafened from the shock wave.

All around, Yellowstone blowing would ruin everyones whole afternoon.

 

[Sohter.Nura]

I know it's CNN and all, but somehow I doubt most interviewers know about how a supervolcano works

You're right! But my point is, if you are doing an interview with the guy, at least give yourself the trouble of listening to what he is saying and stop asking stupid questions which he has just answered!

 

[Smiles and Cries]

updated OP with a map

who which takes us out first Solar Storms or Yellowstone?

 

[antonz]

I don't why people think it would just be The U.S. that suffers, if the eruption was big enough it would create a cloud of debris that could sit in the Earth's atmosphere for years, blocking sunlight meaning the globe's temperature would fall and food crops would be destroyed. More people would die from famine than the explosion itself.

Oh yeah. Yellowstone eruption would be a global extinction event for most life on the planet.

Western North America would die relatively fast while the rest of the world froze to death.

 

[Koodo]

All around, Yellowstone blowing would ruin everyones whole afternoon.

As long as it lets me have breakfast.

 

[MetalAlien]

Oh yeah. Yellowstone eruption would be a global extinction event for most life on the planet.

Western North America would die relatively fast while the rest of the world froze to death.

Everything is proceeding as you have forseen.

 

[Jenga]

updated OP with a map

who which takes us out first Solar Storms or Yellowstone?

so basically all the lame states no one cares about and canada

im ok with this

 

[antonz]

Everything is proceeding as you have forseen.

Young fool. Only now at the end do you understand.

 

[vas_a_morir]

so basically all the lame states no one cares about and canada

im ok with this

Yeah, Fuck the Flames. The Jackets persists while Calgary dies pissed.

 

[Zozz]

I know it's CNN and all, but somehow I doubt most interviewers know about how a supervolcano works

But you'd think these people would do some research before their segment.

 

[spiderman123]

so basically all the lame states no one cares about and canada

im ok with this

excuse me but CANADA will be ok. Saskatchewan nobody really lives there. Alberta meh and B.C even Jesus knows not to go there.

 

[zero_suit]

so basically all the lame states no one cares about and canada

im ok with this

Those would be the "lucky" ones who would die immediately. Everyone else around the world would starve or freeze to death.

 

[NotWii]

I really like the Japanese guy and his excitement. The lady actually pissed me off cause he said it would wipe out the united states (as we know it) and she kept asking things like "would it be the end of the world (as we know it)" and is it something like what destroyed the dinossaurs.

She is there for the uninformed masses to empathize with

 

[Metalic Sand]

so basically we'll all become russian

I like the sound of this. Russian women for all!

 

[MetalAlien]

Vegas baby, I get a close to front row seat and I don't have to stick around and freeze!

 

[XiaNaphryz]

There are two other calderas in the US. The one in eastern California is somewhat active.

In May 1980, a strong earthquake swarm that included four Richter magnitude 6 earthquakes struck the southern margin of Long Valley Caldera associated with a 10 inch (25-cm), dome-shaped uplift of the caldera floor. These events marked the onset of the latest period of caldera unrest that continues to this day. This ongoing unrest includes recurring earthquake swarms and continued dome-shaped uplift of the central section of the caldera (the resurgent dome) accompanied by changes in thermal springs and gas emissions. After the quake another road was created as an escape route. Its name at first was proposed as the "Mammoth Escape Route" but was changed to the Mammoth Scenic Loop after Mammoth area businesses and land owners complained.

Here's how much area was affected last time it blew:

 

[Koodo]

excuse me but CANADA will be ok. Saskatchewan nobody really lives there. Alberta meh and B.C even Jesus knows not to go there.

Spoiler

I live in Alberta though

 

[vas_a_morir]

Waiting to Exhale 2: Judgement Day

 

[Herpes Reasons]

I wonder if its possible bomb or nuke a volcano into submission kind of like how they trigger snow avalanches with small explosions.

21st century war wont be against political lines and ideologies, it will be against mother nature!

There are two other calderas in the US. The one in eastern California is somewhat active.


Here's how much area was affected last time it blew:

i see the bay area wont be affected.
this map is rigged.

 

[water_wendi]

Vegas baby, I get a close to front row seat and I don't have to stick around and freeze!

We just get enough hot gas to give everyone in the entire city 2nd and 3rd degree burns. Then you figure the sulfuric acid raining down. The city would be entirely dead within days.

 

[dabig2]

Yellowstone erupting would be the end of humanity as we recognize it. We'd all need to go underground.

I would rather be incinerated in the blast then spend the next year or two living miserably struggling to survive, only to die cold and hungry.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

The N. Geo article says they found lava flow at 10milimetres. If it was 2 milimeters then they would be concerned but they currently are not.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

History Channel does these things best :lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vn6kxfD3Ek

 

[Jenga]

Yellowstone erupting would be the end of humanity as we recognize it. We'd all need to go underground.

I would rather be incinerated in the blast then spend the next year or two living miserably struggling to survive, only to die cold and hungry.

i for one loved metro 2033

 

[spiderman123]

Yellowstone erupting would be the end of humanity as we recognize it. We'd all need to go underground.

I would rather be incinerated in the blast then spend the next year or two living miserably struggling to survive, only to die cold and hungry.

You should start buying Mcdonalds burgers and stock up that shit never goes old.

 

[snackman]

Planet X!?

 

[MetalAlien]

We just get enough hot gas to give everyone in the entire city 2nd and 3rd degree burns. Then you figure the sulfuric acid raining down. The city would be entirely dead within days.

Pshaw, We get that every July and August already!

 

[cntr]

Yeah, Yellowstone erupting would have planet-wide effects. We'd be doomed.

Doubt it's going to happen now, though.

 

[Lost Fragment]

Up next on CNN: how did Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner grow up to be a deranged killer? We interview Chief Veterinarian from the Canadian Veterinary Research Center to find out.

Kidding aside, from everything I've heard about this volcano everything he said was pretty accurate. Really don't like how Kaku likes to feed sensationalism though.

 

[Koodo]

So basically all of us within the circle of death will be partying it up in heaven while you surviving commoners outside will be reenacting the Paleolithic age.

 

[pestul]

Yeah, Yellowstone erupting would have planet-wide effects. We'd be doomed.

Doubt it's going to happen now, though.

No probably just one of the supervolcanoes we don't know about going up..

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Doubt it's going to happen now, though.

It can happen at any point within the next 100,000-200,000 years and still be considered more or less "on-schedule" going by the 3 previous eruptions.

No probably just one of the supervolcanoes we don't know about going up..

Geologists have done a pretty good job of locating all the current caldera hot-spots in the world. If one suddenly appears out of nowhere, it'll be noticed right away.

 

[Teknoman]

Waiting to Exhale 2: Judgement Day

lol nice.

EDIT: About that map, would that be the eruption radius, or just the range debris could fall?

 

[slit]

So basically all of us within the circle of death will be partying it up in heaven while you surviving commoners outside will be reenacting the Paleolithic age.

Good thing the United States has all these gun shops around. All of us on the east coast could just blow our brains out.

supervolcanos really are no joke. from what i've read, apparently tens/hundreds of thousands years ago a supervolcano erupted and wiped out the vast majority[/i ] of humans on earth. not directly, but it spewed so much ash in the air that very little sunlight reached earth... mass excinctions followed and only the luckiest humans survived.

Yeah, we've been over that.

 

[astroturfing]

supervolcanos really are no joke. from what i've read, apparently tens/hundreds of thousands years ago a supervolcano erupted and wiped out the vast majority of humans on earth. not directly, but it spewed so much ash in the air that very little sunlight reached earth... mass excinctions followed and only the luckiest humans survived.

 

[Slavik81]

I doubt it would result in the end of life as we know it. Solar power might be gone, but we'd still have wind, coal, hydroelectric and other sources of power.

Growing food might be tough, but we could cull our farm animals. That would give us an immediate increase in available food and would nearly halve demand for grains.

We could also dramatically cut our spending on anything less than vital. The United States and Canada would probably pull their militaries back home, and get working on building greenhouses.

Large-scale food growth with electrical lighting would be incredibly expensive, but if we dedicated our entire economy to sustenance, rather than the higher-level needs we focus on now, I think we'd mostly survive.

But you'd think these people would do some research before their segment.

They clearly knew something. The interviewer corrected him when he mistakenly said it had been millions of years since the last eruption.

 

[sonicfan]

Deposits from these two.


Better image....

The other is the Valles Caldera in New Mexico. It threw ash deposits as far away as Iowa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Caldera


If any of these blow, the world is fucked, for 100s, maybe 1000s of years.....

 

[heliosRAzi]

I remember watching a special on the Discovery channel about this. America is basically fucked, of course. Outside the circle of death, ash will build up and cause buildings to cave in. There will be no sunlight. The entire world would be affected if this happened.

Here is a preview for it

 

[_Bro]

I doubt it would result in the end of life as we know it. Solar power might be gone, but we'd still have wind, coal, hydroelectric and other sources of power.

Growing food might be tough, but we could cull our farm animals. That would give us an immediate increase in available food and would nearly halve demand for grains.

We could also dramatically cut our spending on anything less than vital. The United States and Canada would probably pull their militaries back home, and get working on building greenhouses.

Large-scale food growth with electrical lighting would be incredibly expensive, but if we dedicated our entire economy to sustenance, rather than the higher-level needs we focus on now, I think we'd mostly survive.


They clearly knew something. The interviewer corrected him when he mistakenly said it had been millions of years since the last eruption.

You're still under the impression that countries will continue to trade vast resources. The cost of trading is the consumption of energy.

The culling of animals would result in extinction, the availability of grain would only be temporary. You're thinking short term.

Mt Saint Helens was an eruption that affected a large land mass, imagine what this would do.

And water would be tainted from debris, the cost of filtering the entire planets water would be a high energy cost. It's most likely life as we know it at an end.

Chances are it won't happen in our life time. The area has been under pressure, it continues to build pressure. The "big breath" could actually be a shift under the crust that is keeping us alive, btw.

 

[Scrow]

I don't why people think it would just be The U.S. that suffers, if the eruption was big enough it would create a cloud of debris that could sit in the Earth's atmosphere for years, blocking sunlight, meaning the globe's temperature would fall and food crops would be destroyed. More people would die from famine than the explosion itself.

it's not just what would stay in the atmosphere, the heavier ash would fall directly on the bread belt of america, blanketing the crops in several feet of ash wiping out a huge chunk of food production.

read up

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3024/

"Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable."

so yeah, could happen tomorrow, could happen thousands of years from now.