Yellowstone Apocalypse: Geologic Evidence Suggests There May Be Little or No Warning

a reply to: TrueAmerican

Because it is pressure that keeps several things in check, including the magma and gas content. In fact, depressurization is in effect a major catalyst of many volcanic eruptions.

IOW, trying to fix things could create the mother of all BLEVEs (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions).

So why is something with a timetable measured in 10's of thousands of years the news anyway? Premonitions? FWIW my call for September 2015 is an asteroid hit ON the Yellowstone caldera. If you're gonna have a catastrophe do it right.

a reply to: Phage

Thanks Phage for finding the full document. That adds a lot to the OP, so a star for you! I read it all.

From the full doc:

2. The generally rounded morphology of the quartz crystals and their abundant glass embayments suggest decompression, potentially preceded, or accompanied, by rapid heating. The lack of high-Ti overgrowths also suggests rapid ascent with no storage at shallow levels.

3. A large crustal magma reservoir is interpreted to be present beneath Yellowstone caldera at between 16 and 6 km depth, but there is no indication that this reservoir, or parts of it, are currently in an eruptible state. However, rapid reheating and magma extraction events appear to have occurred episodically during times of Central Plateau magmatism.

So again what this is saying is that there is geochemical evidence now to back up the case for a future, rapid ascent eruption, coming from the deep. Rapid reheating. Yikes. Scary. And Aseismic is not good at all. That means little to no earthquakes as warning signs. And further, the document stresses the likelihood of phreatomagmatic (water and magma) eruptions, due to the huge hydrothermal system there. That means explosive.

The rapid reheating thing has been in volcanic news in the last few years. They discovered that in some smaller volcanic systems, deep ascending magmas could reheat and melt upper rocks blocking it much quicker than previously thought. As in like, a month or less. But that's in SMALLER systems. In a case like Yellowstone though, that deep magma chamber is so big that it might be only days or weeks. Because remember, above the melt is partial melt and crystallized rock, which is basically in a transitional state between fully melted and solid. And also, it is highly fractured. So the blockage isn't even rock yet- and thus subject to even more rapid reheating, should the magmatic demons of the deep decide to come calling.

All of this makes me wonder if one day they will discover that a large earthquake there in the right spot is all it takes to start the decompression and eruptive process. But the bottom line is that with each new piece of information science discovers about Yellowstone, it becomes clearer and clearer that there is no taming that beast. And no predicting it either. There is no telling what is going on down there past 40 km around the deep plume. I am just amazed that they still let people walk right on top of it, KNOWING it may blow at any time without warning. You figure they'd at least put up a sign, but that would be bad for business.

"WARNING. YOU ARE NOW STANDING RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF THE LARGEST VOLCANOES ON PLANET EARTH, AND IT COULD BLOW AT ANY TIME. YOU WILL DIE IF IT DOES. ENJOY THE SCENERY HOWEVER.

THANK YOU, THE MANAGEMENT."

a reply to: TrueAmerican
Yeah. Well. I guess you'd have to tell a lot of people that they're living in the wrong place too.
Not sure that would work. People like living in flood plains, tornado, hurricane, and earthquake prone areas too. Other than those little problems, they seem to be nice places.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: TrueAmerican
Yeah. Well. I guess you'd have to tell a lot of people that they're living in the wrong place too.
Not sure that would work. People like living in flood plains, tornado, hurricane, and earthquake prone areas too. Other than those little problems, they seem to be nice places.

that is very true..
here in the pacific north west i seem to be surrounded by potential volcanoes.
would i move? no
alfred e. newman said it best.."what..me worry"?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: TrueAmerican
Yeah. Well. I guess you'd have to tell a lot of people that they're living in the wrong place too.
Not sure that would work. People like living in flood plains, tornado, hurricane, and earthquake prone areas too. Other than those little problems, they seem to be nice places.

Oh I did already, in the style of an old English doomsayer.

I don't suppose you remember FIND A PLACE ? It's an audio podcast of a poem of mine I did back in the good old days on ATS- when we could upload podcasts- with the associated thread and written lyric here. )

a reply to: TrueAmerican



That was really good!

--

We have places to go, but might not have the time to get there.
I just watched a doc. on Yellowstone the other day.. and a movie. Pretty scary!

a reply to: gb540

Aww you're no fun, as of 2012 I thought those predicting the end times were now including zombies to compete with the entertainment that would have been provided by the 2012 missed apocalypse which was the entertainment of witnessing the world ending in such a cool-Mayan-calendar-Annunaki-planet-X way, a consolation in an otherwise crappy situation. An asteroid into Yellowstone doesn't give us gold mining aliens. It doesn't infect us with something turning man into brain eaters, maybe some of which will even do that zombie group dance. Your end of the world scenario...God buddy...it's just...dark...bleak........

originally posted by: TrueAmerican
a reply to: Phage

"WARNING. YOU ARE NOW STANDING RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF THE LARGEST VOLCANOES ON PLANET EARTH, AND IT COULD BLOW AT ANY TIME. YOU WILL DIE IF IT DOES. ENJOY THE SCENERY HOWEVER.

THANK YOU, THE MANAGEMENT."

Well, can't argue with that. If I didn't have to work there occasionally, I wouldn't spend much more time there myself.
However, I do think that my chances of dying were much greater when I had to work in East St. Louis back in my younger days. Hell, my chances of dying are probably greater just traveling down the highway no matter where I am.
That being said, I'd still have to agree. I would guess that a very large percentage of the visitors to the park have no idea of just how precariously they are perched.
Personally, I've been walking on eggshells ever since the swarms of '98 awoke me to the danger that lurks below.
I always took a bit of comfort in thinking that I'd at least have some fair warning that something was up and could adjust accordingly (like packing up and heading South-East very quickly). I know, if it goes - there's no place on Earth that wouldn't be affected, but I'd still run away. Far away.

a reply to: TrueAmerican

I found something maybe of interest ,but I don't really know how far off this dude is and if his loony theory has some real scientific backgrounds of believing what he discovered could be a fact?

But according to his observations he says it could be happening on the 28th of may??

Don't shoot the messenger , but the false prophet after he's being wrong...

Some of you will find what I am about to say woo-woo, some of you will totally understand it. If you find it woo-woo, I'm happy for you and will not reply to any threads that you may express your opinion on why it sounds woo-woo to you.


Earth, Mamacita Gaia, is a LIVING, BREATHING, INTELLIGENT being. She is a she, and she is the mother of our human bodies, the shells of our current life this time around on this planet. She loves us and takes care of us. She feeds us and gives us EVERYTHING we need to live on her.

Lately, humanity has been growing at a very quick pace. We are over 7 billion, which is not sustainable at the way we are currently living. It can be, but again, NOT at the way we are currently living.

Gaia will protect herself from us as she needs to, and the way she does that will differ. She does it all the time and most people have no clue it is even happening.

Right now, humans are destroying her at a very quick pace. All the rain forests being cut down is just ONE example. Digging and drilling for oil is another. All of the natural resources on this planet are there for a reason and play an important role in maintaining homeostasis for GAIA. We are interfering at a pace that is too quick for her to heal herself. The eventual outcome because of this behavior IS going to be a BIG natural disaster, maybe even an extinction level event.

This is the hard truth that people can't wrap their ego's around which is why this cycle of humans is doomed. She has wiped civilizations off the map before and she is about to do it again. There is no one to blame but ourselves. We are greedy and ignorant. As a collective whole we refuse to grow spiritually because most of us are too busy living a RAT RACE. We allow ourselves to be slaves to currency and religious institutions who's only purpose is to control us and enslave us.

I love my life and I live it peacefully and quietly in the mountains away from the noise and craziness of society. I love this earth with all my heart and spirit and it pains me to see how we treat her. When she decides to shake us off, I am all for it and know that it will be for the best. We don't deserve to live on GAIA any longer, all we care about is killing her for $$$ and creature comforts. Shame on this cycle, hopefully the next one will be different and more aware and mindful.

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We will talk about Earthquake mythology and the new prediction/disaster systems that are being created to warn the general public. Read about the quake clusters this weekend in the article below: sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com...…/string-of-earthquakes-i…/
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a reply to: TrueAmerican

Fair play TA, i had missed the aseismic part. That is very scary. I guess i should really go with the geological report on this then but it just makes no sense in that there are always warning signs for volcanic eruptions - even if just a matter of days (which would be enough time to evacuate the immediate area).

As Phage points out, they don't really discuss time scales rather than to say rapid. Is that rapid or rapid on a geological scale? From the report, it seems they aren't really sure, hence hedging their bets by simply stating rapid. Personally, i think one of the warning signs will be rapid ground deformation. But as we know, that in itself isn't much of a warning as all super calderas "breathe" and cause ground deformation anyway. The other tell tale will be an dramatic increase in out gassing - if that starts to happen, it really may be time to get the hell out of dodge.

originally posted by: Segenam

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
The only thing that would matter would be some way to keep it from blowing.

sacrificing a virgin perhaps ? .... could be worth a try chucking one or two in .. i would volunteer to dive in, but alas, i am no longer 'pure of spirit'

My guess is that would cause somewhere else to go off though...in an even larger explosion.

we need lots more virgins ...

Yeah...good luck finding one

I'm aware this is probably a dumb question and I obviously believe the answer is a short "NO"...but...with all the resources and money available, is there any way to actually stop or extinct a volcano? Can it be vented or can pressure be released or something that would delay or end the threat? Even if it was a ridiculously huge operation?

a reply to: WeAreAWAKE

No. Anything man can achieve is a mere blip compared to the power of nature. When it comes to volcanoes, there are certain things we can do to limit destruction but we can't actually stop an eruption. For example, Iceland in the 1970's got rather good at spraying sea water onto lava flows in order to cool the lava (and therefore eventually stop it in its tracks), thereby saving a town.

Some volcanoes (Pico del Teide in Tenerife for example) have had part of the cones cut away in order to try and channel future eruptive events away from populated areas. Time will tell if that is productive or not. For small eruptions, probably not but then when i did geology at college decades ago i had a book with a large section on Teide eruptions and the potnetial is there is cover the entire in more ash than Pompei got - so really, any success would be entirely dependent on the scale of any future eruption.

If Yellowstone were to erupt, how long would it be until I noticed the effects on the East coast?

I like to re-assure my self from time by watching one of the Yellowstone webcams and breathe a sigh of relief when I see that Yellowstone is still there.

originally posted by: Junkheap
If Yellowstone were to erupt, how long would it be until I noticed the effects on the East coast?

I like to re-assure my self from time by watching one of the Yellowstone webcams and breathe a sigh of relief when I see that Yellowstone is still there.

Depending on wind....couple or three days. Once the ash clouds hit it is all over...crops die, people die....it would affect the entire world. That is if it was a super eruption. Temps across the globe would drop 5-10 degrees and stay that way for over 6 years from what I have read. Likely it would kill a very large portion of the world population off.

a reply to: Flavian

Yeah, I'm not sure either how rapid they mean by "rapid." That was pretty unclear. I will say however that in an absolute worst case, it could be as little as hours. This actually happened back in 96 at Okmok in Alaska, and caught our scientists by surprise. From the first micro quake to an escalating swarm to ash at 30,000 feet was a mere 5 hours. I was told that it was a "throat clearing" eruption by one of my contacts who is quite familiar with that incident. So let's just hope that Yellowstone doesn't need to clear its throat any time soon.

I'm also not so sold on the idea that in a case like Yellowstone, due to the sheer massive scale of the chamber and deep plume, that a lot of ground deformation and/or uplift would necessarily happen first. I know many would argue for it as a precursor, but with the recently proposed magma buoyancy theory, I believe it may, and could, bypass uplift episodes completely. Like a switch being flicked. Once that magma reaches critical buoyancy, it might just start ascending through any fractures available. Or break rock quickly. Very quickly. If enough pressure were to build up rapidly due to this phenomenon, there may not be enough time for overlaying rock to take its sweet time and rise gingerly, giving scientists new maps to study. It could just give way instead. And boom. You be dead.