I'm sure that some of you have heard the sensationalist headlines from last week that stated researchers found evidence that the ramp-up to the supervolcano eruption in Yellowstone may actually take decades, not the thousands of years originally hypothesized. I'm not sure if I believe this right now, however I don't know a whole lot about dating crystalline structures - if someone here does, please enlighten us, but to be able to date something that old to within a few decades seems kinda sketchy to me.

In the last 7 years, the area has had a 25 CM ground swell in some places. This probably isn't that big of an issue, because scientists believe that the caldera "breaths" occasionally.

My question though, and the reason for the thread, is what happens if it blows? I looked up some information on volcanic winters, and while there have been several documented over the years, none were from a volcano of the magnitude that Yellowstone is:

From Wikipedia:

Quote :

"The effects of volcanic eruptions on recent winters are modest in scale, but historically have been significant. Most recently, the 1991 explosion of Mount Pinatubo, a stratovolcano in the Philippines, cooled global temperatures for about 2–3 years.[4] In 1883, the explosion of Krakatoa (Krakatau) created volcanic winter-like conditions. The four years following the explosion were unusually cold, and the winter of 1887-1888 included powerful blizzards.[5] Record snowfalls were recorded worldwide. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, a stratovolcano in Indonesia, occasioned mid-summer frosts in New York State and June snowfalls in New England and Newfoundland and Labrador in what came to be known as the "Year Without a Summer" of 1816."

So that's an obvious issue that we would have. But if you look at a map of ash coverage from previous eruptions, the entire midwest would be in major trouble, all the way out to the west coast and down into Texas. All those people are going to need places to go.

-Would it cause overcrowding on the east coast?
-What crops would we lose?
-How much sulfur would be emitted? Would it cause air quality issues here on the east coast?
-What would the drinking water be like west of the Mississippi river, with ash potentially clogging up waterways?

What is concerning to me is that these headlines always mention a potential extinction event. If that were really the case, then do folks in the continental US even stand a chance? What would take us out?

And are there ways we could reduce the impact once it happened? I mean I know this sounds silly, but is there anyway we could do something like send planes above the ash cloud, dumping water on top to try and reduce the size of the ash cloud to keep it from reflecting so much sunlight back?

[Edited on October 16, 2017 at 9:31 AM. Reason : sdfds]

10/16/2017 9:29:39 AM

apparently we can't even afford to have FEMA in PR for more than a few weeks, so if we had a major eruption in Yellowstone we would all be fucked

10/16/2017 9:31:31 AM

Obviously, if this thing blew, it would be far beyond just FEMA to help, if help would even be possible.

10/16/2017 9:49:33 AM

the continent would be fucked for several years

10/16/2017 10:52:16 AM

It would be Donald Obama's fault.

10/16/2017 10:57:39 AM

Trump should go ahead and meet with the president of Yellowstone to come up with a plan

10/16/2017 11:24:49 AM

It would have an impact on the entire global population. And most of the people living in North America would be fucked.

(assuming we're talking about a full on eruption of Yellowstone, not just a minor eruption - minor being relative since it would most likely still be larger in magnitude than any of the other eruptions mentioned earlier in this thread)

[Edited on October 16, 2017 at 11:30 AM. Reason : ]

10/16/2017 11:26:29 AM

I assume that being on the east coast, we might likely have a chance.

10/16/2017 11:56:43 AM

east coast would survive it but you couldn't sustainably live there afterwards for a while

10/16/2017 12:01:08 PM

But why? What would cause the disruption in sustainability? Lack of sunlight? Just general lack of supplies?

10/16/2017 12:03:02 PM

All the volcanic ash for starters that shit messes everything up

10/16/2017 12:45:01 PM

^^The US produces more food than any other country on Earth, and an eruption like that would wipe out most of our agricultural capacity. Food shortages and inflation would be worldwide.

10/16/2017 12:59:44 PM

We would all be fucked if that thing blows.

10/16/2017 1:03:53 PM

I guess what we can hope for then is a series of smaller eruptions over time.

But is there anybody out there familiar with the type of dating method they used to date those crystalline structures? Again, being able to pinpoint decades out of hundreds of thousands, even a million years seems error-prone.

10/16/2017 1:16:17 PM

I think you could expect world war to erupt over food shortages if Yellowstone were to erupt.

10/16/2017 1:52:49 PM

On the bright side, volcanic ash acts as a highly nutrient rich soil

10/16/2017 2:06:01 PM

Needs to hurry the fuck up and put us all out of our misery

10/16/2017 2:17:15 PM

^^yeah, when the sun eventually comes back out in a few years, crops will grow well!

10/16/2017 2:23:30 PM

I understand your sentiment, but there are quicker ways to die than to wait around to be offed by a volcano

10/16/2017 2:24:08 PM

Magma be risin:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1086097/yellowstone-volcano-fears-scientists-monitoring-rising-magma-spt

2/12/2019 3:55:40 PM

Pro tip: don't get your geology news from British tabloids.

2/12/2019 4:07:06 PM

If they can get it right about the royal family, they're A OK in my book.

2/12/2019 4:28:49 PM

extreme geothermic events and figurehead monarchies are largely governed by the same physics

2/12/2019 4:34:53 PM

Please elaborate.

2/12/2019 5:02:57 PM

It's all relative.

2/12/2019 5:34:49 PM

A super volcano eruption would be really fitting.

Also fun fact, climate change increases the chances of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions since melting ice changes the loads on the earths crust creating/shifting tension in tectonic plates.

2/12/2019 9:26:19 PM

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/article_home.html

2/13/2019 1:44:18 AM

we are going to build a wall around the Yellowstone, and the volcano is going to pay for it

2/13/2019 2:06:13 AM

I'm not a climate change denier, but I find it funny that no matter the topic at hand, moron can relate it to climate change.

Got news for you. That volcano blows? Ain't nobody gonna have time for climate change.

^^^And thanks, that was a great article.

[Edited on February 13, 2019 at 9:06 AM. Reason : sda]

2/13/2019 9:04:18 AM

What a radical theory that all of the geologic systems of the planet are interconnected...

2/13/2019 9:51:08 AM

I am ready for the supervolcano eruption. Bring it on.

2/13/2019 10:00:46 AM

So I should start stocking up on canned beans and buy property in South America somewhere?

2/13/2019 10:52:50 AM

Quote :

"Got news for you. That volcano blows? Ain't nobody gonna have time for climate change."

But isn't the point that climate change could trigger that volcano?

2/13/2019 11:07:56 AM

He is willfully ignoring that fact

2/13/2019 11:52:51 AM

You heard it first from Charlie

Cant we send SCP-682 to eat the damn volcano or something?

2/26/2019 5:10:23 PM

Is that a license plate number or what?

2/26/2019 6:17:19 PM

SCP-682 is a large, vaguely reptile-like creature of unknown origin. It appears to be extremely intelligent, and was observed to engage in complex communication with SCP-079 during their limited time of exposure. SCP-682 appears to have a hatred of all life, which has been expressed in several interviews during containment.

Hope that helps.

2/26/2019 9:11:37 PM

It does not help.

2/26/2019 10:19:38 PM

Quote :

"Also fun fact, climate change increases the chances of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions since melting ice changes the loads on the earths crust creating/shifting tension in tectonic plates"

whatever fits your "agenda"

2/26/2019 11:49:37 PM

LOL, fear not as some people will find a way to blame every thing about this planet on humans.

2/27/2019 9:31:38 AM

psshhh, next thing them nuts will be claiming that fracking can contribute to earthquakes and shit, or that industrial pollution causes acid rain. hogwash!

2/27/2019 10:04:37 AM

lol, i heard they think smoking causes cancer

2/27/2019 10:07:31 AM