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Yellowstone takes a "Deep Breath" Super Volcano

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XiaNaphryz said:
So instead of dying right away, you get to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear winter and the survivors all fighting for dwindling supplies and food.

So long as we can use VATS, I doubt the threat of others is much to be concerned with.

Besides, so long as there are survivors to fight, there is food to eat. :O
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
CabbageRed said:
So long as we can use VATS, I doubt the threat of others is much to be concerned with.

Besides, so long as there are survivors to fight, there is food to eat. :O
What if the Russians or Chinese end up fighting against EU for the leftovers of the US in a bid to gain more resources? That's a bit beyond your Fallout wasteland scenario.
 

ronito

Member
CabbageRed said:
So long as we can use VATS, I doubt the threat of others is much to be concerned with.

Besides, so long as there are survivors to fight, there is food to eat. :O
oh god. If the future is going to be like Fallout 3 I'd just rather die.
 

Pandaman

Everything is moe to me
XiaNaphryz said:
What if the Russians or Chinese end up fighting against EU for the leftovers of the US in a bid to gain more resources? That's a bit beyond your Fallout wasteland scenario.
i think he was implying that he'd eat the chinese and russians.
 
ronito said:
oh god. If the future is going to be like Fallout 3 I'd just rather die.
Ya the friggen world is gonna crash like every hour and your gonna have to keep restarting back at your last save. It's gonna get real old real quick.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
So instead of dying right away, you get to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear winter and the survivors all fighting for dwindling supplies and food.

He'd actually probably be vaporized by super-heated gases traveling at insane speeds before it came to that.
 

GDGF

Soothsayer
Shalashaska161 said:
Ya the friggen world is gonna crash like every hour and your gonna have to keep restarting back at your last save. It's gonna get real old real quick.

Gotta remember not to send my companions back to the hotel.
 
Smiles and Cries said:
updated OP with a map

yellowstone-volcano.gif


who which takes us out first Solar Storms or Yellowstone?

Teabaggers
 

valeo

Member
I remember reading this in Bill Bryson's Short History Of Nearly Everything. It's a real possibility. (according to me, the dude who knows nothing)

There are also thousands of other things beyond human control that could destroy the Earth at any moment so it's best not to worry!
 

lupin23rd

Member
CabbageRed said:
So long as we can use VATS, I doubt the threat of others is much to be concerned with.

Besides, so long as there are survivors to fight, there is food to eat. :O

Fuck VATS, you just need high speech points!
 

Neki

Member
Take that Calgary! We'll take the capital and provincial university and you can have the volcano blast!
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
I thought of asking this in its own thread, but I've been starting too many threads lately.

If the worst actually comes to pass and this thing explodes, resulting in the projected worst-case scenarios, do you realistically believe you would have the will to keep living, assuming you aren't one of the millions killed directly by the explosion? I'm not entirely clear on exactly the projections, but from what I've read, I gather that most people in that circle die almost immediately either from the explosion or falling ash, and that much of North America is buried not long after, just not necessarily to the extent of a fatal Pompeii depth. The rest of the world quickly darkens and the global climate tumbles to chilling temperatures, gradually killing off most vegetation and animals. Base your path on where you'd most likely be assuming this would happen in the next few years, though yes, that does take the choice out of some of your hands.

As for me, I'm on the US East Coast, so presumably I would be severely affected, though I don't know if the supposed deafening of everyone here could actually happen. Presumably the devastation would ultimately disrupt or cripple the entire energy and communications infrastructure of the nation, so local communities would be entirely on their own. Would the ash clouds encircling the world disrupt satellite communications? There might be fuel enough to last for a few months or more between what gasoline remained in stations, whatever trees could be harvested, and whatever else, but once that's all gone, staying warm would be problematic. Food would be an incredible scarcity as well, as I don't think there are much in the way of farmers here anymore, not that it would matter with the climate disruption. I suppose in desperate life-or-death circumstances I could resort to cannibalism of the already-dead, like the soccer players in the Andes, but I would never be able to kill someone to that end. Wish as many problems as they have administrating now, I can't imagine the federal or state governments would be able to do much of anything at this point, if they are even trying.

I'll freely admit that I have neither the skills nor the leadership aptitude for forming a survival community in the aftermath. Maybe if someone else was able to do so, I'd join up if there was some way I could meaningfully contribute. Otherwise, if everything came down to a free for all, I also admit that I'd probably just kill myself if the elements didn't do it first.
 
FlightOfHeaven said:
DoE floods money into geothermal electric tech
Insert millions of massive geothermal converters into trouble area
Drain area of energy
Avoid blowout while powering AMERICA
PROFIT & SUCCESS

Someone put this man in the DoE!

PS. Indiana stays safe! We'll figure out a way to survive!!!
 

sonicfan

Venerable Member
People don't seem to realize how much of the world's food supply is sort of a just in time inventory thing. Plus, vast amounts of people even today live on the edge of starvation. It we were to get a supervolcano today, I would bet 80% of those in Africa would starve to death, many in southeast Asia and south America too. The US, Canada and Europe wouldn't fare that great either, there would be a total breakdown of food production, travel, energy production etc. There are just so many more people on the planet today even compared to say when the US was founded. World population has gone from under 1 billion and soon will be over 7 billion...

400px-World-Population-1800-2100.png


modern technology, medicine, etc. provides a lot of those people the means to live, take that away, for a year or two, and we will see what happens.....Yeah, humanity will survive, but we will see the deaths of so many people, it will boggle your mind...
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
sonicfan said:
Yeah, humanity will survive, but we will see the deaths of so many people, it will boggle your mind...
yeah, hypothetically. most of this stuff is pretty much just jerk-off material for survivalists. there was a long-time gaffer who used to do this stuff he was even more wii than wii; good times.

Dire things are happening. Plague? Funny weather? Why are we watching the news, reading the news, keeping up with the news? Only to enforce our fancy – probably a necessary lie – that these are crucial times, and we are in on them. Newly revealed, and I am in the know: crazy people, bunches of them! New diseases, sways in power, floods! Can the news from dynastic Egypt have been any different?
 
DarthWoo said:
I thought of asking this in its own thread, but I've been starting too many threads lately.

If the worst actually comes to pass and this thing explodes, resulting in the projected worst-case scenarios, do you realistically believe you would have the will to keep living, assuming you aren't one of the millions killed directly by the explosion? I'm not entirely clear on exactly the projections, but from what I've read, I gather that most people in that circle die almost immediately either from the explosion or falling ash, and that much of North America is buried not long after, just not necessarily to the extent of a fatal Pompeii depth. The rest of the world quickly darkens and the global climate tumbles to chilling temperatures, gradually killing off most vegetation and animals. Base your path on where you'd most likely be assuming this would happen in the next few years, though yes, that does take the choice out of some of your hands.

As for me, I'm on the US East Coast, so presumably I would be severely affected, though I don't know if the supposed deafening of everyone here could actually happen. Presumably the devastation would ultimately disrupt or cripple the entire energy and communications infrastructure of the nation, so local communities would be entirely on their own. Would the ash clouds encircling the world disrupt satellite communications? There might be fuel enough to last for a few months or more between what gasoline remained in stations, whatever trees could be harvested, and whatever else, but once that's all gone, staying warm would be problematic. Food would be an incredible scarcity as well, as I don't think there are much in the way of farmers here anymore, not that it would matter with the climate disruption. I suppose in desperate life-or-death circumstances I could resort to cannibalism of the already-dead, like the soccer players in the Andes, but I would never be able to kill someone to that end. Wish as many problems as they have administrating now, I can't imagine the federal or state governments would be able to do much of anything at this point, if they are even trying.

I'll freely admit that I have neither the skills nor the leadership aptitude for forming a survival community in the aftermath. Maybe if someone else was able to do so, I'd join up if there was some way I could meaningfully contribute. Otherwise, if everything came down to a free for all, I also admit that I'd probably just kill myself if the elements didn't do it first.

Yeah that is pretty dire.
I see no hope in me personally surviving the aftermath for humanity,
disorder would be massive. I doubt the government could keep control or help.

yet I think with all the underground caves and mines and maybe some kind of advanced hydroponics could be done.

the insane thing is we could be preparing for the worst right now, science says it will happen yet we go on without even making plans for the survival of the human race.

Its because we feel it would be a waste of money to plan for something that may not occur until 100,000 years from now. I guess that would be a good reason to sit back and wait.
 
I'm right on the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border (north-east part of the minimum safe distance)... I'll get ash raining down from the sky.
 

gunther

Member
Wii said:
Minor swarm
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/42.52.-115.-105.php

More interestingly, there were 4.6 and 3.5 quakes earlier today, but they have been removed from USGS's site
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/uu00005729.php
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/uu00005831.php

Maybe false positives, but probably something to keep your eye on

cmon, you paranoid, quakes probably happen all the time.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
LiveFromKyoto said:
Incidentally, McCarthy has hinted that this was the disaster behind the events in The Road. Do not want. Fix it, Obama.

Ah thats cool, me and a friend were discussing what could be the potential cause of the book's apocalypse and Yellowstone super volcano was my theory.

We're fucked if this happens.
 

NotWii

Banned
gunther said:
cmon, you paranoid, quakes probably happen all the time.
Yeah, swarms at yellowstone do

But it's that possible 4.6 that raises a yellow flag, that doesn't happen all the time
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Time to buy a dingy and load it up with enough supplies to at least live well out in the middle of the ocean for a year or so. After all, if the point of capitalism is to make as much money as possible in the economy, shouldn't the end all be trying to be the last man alive?
 

Garcia

Member
There was a similar swarm like this a couple of years ago. I don't understand why some "experts" keep saying this is unusual and hasn't been like this for over a decade. It's pretty normal.
 
Wii said:
Yeah, swarms at yellowstone do

But it's that possible 4.6 that raises a yellow flag, that doesn't happen all the time

Yeah, thats a fairly large earthquake but there would need to be a bunch in succession for anyone to get really worried.
 

RiZ III

Member
I have a suspicion that all you people obsessed with giant disasters are religious. You all want to see the end of the world.
 

Degen

Member
RiZ III said:
I have a suspicion that all you people obsessed with giant disasters are religious. You all want to see the end of the world.
well that was random

i'll let someone else take the bait, though
 

koam

Member
RiZ III said:
I have a suspicion that all you people obsessed with giant disasters are religious. You all want to see the end of the world.

I'm not religious at all, i just want to say "where's your god now?" before i burn to a crisp
 

Home

Member
We should nuke Yellowstone before it's too late, it's the only way to be sure!

EDIT: Reading up on supervolcanoes and volcanic winters, it doesn't seem to really threaten our existence as a species. Billions may die but some would survive (I'd probably die :().
 

Cyan

Banned
RiZ III said:
I have a suspicion that all you people obsessed with giant disasters are religious. You all want to see the end of the world.
You don't have to be religious to know that someday R'lyeh will rise and the sleeper wake. And when that happens, we all die.

Cthulhu fhtagn.
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
So if you had ridiculous amounts of money, let's say from having won the lottery or something, how would you build a survival shelter for something like this, assuming we had a reasonable amount of time before anything actually happened? I was thinking I'd want something neat like The Swan station from Lost. Obviously building something quite that large would be impractical, but generally the underground concrete bunker is the idea. If I had enough money I'd buy a parcel of land somewhere and build the bunker underneath my dream home. Being underground though, lighting would be an issue.

What kind of power sources can someone actually rely on in a post-apocalyptic world? I know some people have geothermal heating and AC, but as far as I know, using geothermal for electricity is only in the realm of large scale facilities and require heavy maintenance. Erecting a bunch of home wind turbines might work, but the power would be intermittent at best. Solar would be almost completely pointless with the ash clouds. Those Bloom Box things sound interesting, but you still need natural gas or something to run them.
 

NotWii

Banned
DarthWoo said:
What kind of power sources can someone actually rely on in a post-apocalyptic world? I know some people have geothermal heating and AC, but as far as I know, using geothermal for electricity is only in the realm of large scale facilities and require heavy maintenance. Erecting a bunch of home wind turbines might work, but the power would be intermittent at best. Solar would be almost completely pointless with the ash clouds. Those Bloom Box things sound interesting, but you still need natural gas or something to run them.
turbines + car batteries, fairly portable and you can run essentials from it for hydroponic food production, lighting, and looking up an offline copy of wikipedia on your laptop could be a good idea I guess

hand crank just in case you need radio, hand powered torches
 
DarthWoo said:
I thought of asking this in its own thread, but I've been starting too many threads lately.

If the worst actually comes to pass and this thing explodes, resulting in the projected worst-case scenarios, do you realistically believe you would have the will to keep living, assuming you aren't one of the millions killed directly by the explosion? I'm not entirely clear on exactly the projections, but from what I've read, I gather that most people in that circle die almost immediately either from the explosion or falling ash, and that much of North America is buried not long after, just not necessarily to the extent of a fatal Pompeii depth. The rest of the world quickly darkens and the global climate tumbles to chilling temperatures, gradually killing off most vegetation and animals. Base your path on where you'd most likely be assuming this would happen in the next few years, though yes, that does take the choice out of some of your hands.

As for me, I'm on the US East Coast, so presumably I would be severely affected, though I don't know if the supposed deafening of everyone here could actually happen. Presumably the devastation would ultimately disrupt or cripple the entire energy and communications infrastructure of the nation, so local communities would be entirely on their own. Would the ash clouds encircling the world disrupt satellite communications? There might be fuel enough to last for a few months or more between what gasoline remained in stations, whatever trees could be harvested, and whatever else, but once that's all gone, staying warm would be problematic. Food would be an incredible scarcity as well, as I don't think there are much in the way of farmers here anymore, not that it would matter with the climate disruption. I suppose in desperate life-or-death circumstances I could resort to cannibalism of the already-dead, like the soccer players in the Andes, but I would never be able to kill someone to that end. Wish as many problems as they have administrating now, I can't imagine the federal or state governments would be able to do much of anything at this point, if they are even trying.

I'll freely admit that I have neither the skills nor the leadership aptitude for forming a survival community in the aftermath. Maybe if someone else was able to do so, I'd join up if there was some way I could meaningfully contribute. Otherwise, if everything came down to a free for all, I also admit that I'd probably just kill myself if the elements didn't do it first.

Iunno, Earth's had plenty of planet wide extinctions in the past - one of them actually dwindled the our ancestor's planet wide population to at least 15 000!

We'll find a way to survive and make it through either that nuclear winter or so. The only real way for full human extinction is if the whole world mimicked the "Great Dying" event, which (from what I gathered) required full-on destruction from ALL of our ozone from a nearby Supernova aeons ago + the volcanic activity of Siberia + something to do with too much carbon in the oceans

For more accurate info, google "wiki Great Dying"
 
Garcia said:
There was a similar swarm like this a couple of years ago. I don't understand why some "experts" keep saying this is unusual and hasn't been like this for over a decade. It's pretty normal.

Yeap. Not to mention I have no idea why the fuck they're interviewing Michio Kaku for this. He is is physicist. If they want a real answer, talk to a geologist at the USGS.
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
hydragonwarrior said:
Iunno, Earth's had plenty of planet wide extinctions in the past - one of them actually dwindled the our ancestor's planet wide population to at least 15 000!

We'll find a way to survive and make it through either that nuclear winter or so. The only real way for full human extinction is if the whole world mimicked the "Great Dying" event, which (from what I gathered) required full-on destruction from ALL of our ozone from a nearby Supernova aeons ago + the volcanic activity of Siberia + something to do with too much carbon in the oceans

For more accurate info, google "wiki Great Dying"

I think one of the big differences is that now most of the world is probably incapable of the self-sufficiency required to survive without a global or even a relatively local economy and infrastructure in place. I have no idea how sapient our ancestors would have been for any previous near-extinction level events, but they were probably much more capable of survival. Sure, early on we'd probably have lots of people banding together and managing to get by on scavenged food and supplies, but once that runs out and the remaining technology starts breaking down, having the right people in each group to maintain what is left and (if it is even possible given the climate impact) to produce new food will be critical, and I'm just not sure today's humanity possesses the drive.
 

toxicgonzo

Taxes?! Isn't this the line for Metallica?
DarthWoo said:
So if you had ridiculous amounts of money, let's say from having won the lottery or something, how would you build a survival shelter for something like this, assuming we had a reasonable amount of time before anything actually happened? I was thinking I'd want something neat like The Swan station from Lost. Obviously building something quite that large would be impractical, but generally the underground concrete bunker is the idea. If I had enough money I'd buy a parcel of land somewhere and build the bunker underneath my dream home. Being underground though, lighting would be an issue.

What kind of power sources can someone actually rely on in a post-apocalyptic world? I know some people have geothermal heating and AC, but as far as I know, using geothermal for electricity is only in the realm of large scale facilities and require heavy maintenance. Erecting a bunch of home wind turbines might work, but the power would be intermittent at best. Solar would be almost completely pointless with the ash clouds. Those Bloom Box things sound interesting, but you still need natural gas or something to run them.
This guy is selling underground luxury bunkers.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-09/can-you-save-house-end-world

The Barstow bunker was built to withstand a 50-megaton nuclear blast 10 miles away, 450mph winds, a magnitude-10 earthquake, 10 days of 1,250°F surface fires, and three weeks beneath any flood
 
Scrow said:
yeah, America is pretty much fucked when this goes off.



you really can't make that prediction, just like no one can say that it will happen tomorrow.

Thats not really true. Volcano's aren't like earthquakes. They have significant warning signs. Usually you know months in advance something is up.
 
SyNapSe said:
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.
Hawaii. Although apparently there's now some debate about this among geologists (and obviously there's the continental crust/oceanic crust difference between the two).
 
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