Super Volcano Will Challenge Civilization, Geologists Warn

www.livescience.com...

The eruption of a super volcano "sooner or later" will chill the planet and threaten human civilization, British scientists warned Tuesday.

And now the bad news: There's not much anyone can do about it.

Several volcanoes around the world are capable of gigantic eruptions unlike anything witnessed in recorded history, based on geologic evidence of past events, the scientists said. Such eruptions would dwarf those of Mount St. Helens, Krakatoa, Pinatubo and anything else going back dozens of millennia.

this does not sound good...

i once saw a show about pompeii and i thought that was horrible...

this super volcano will make pompeii seem like nothing...

Supporting Evidence

The warning is not new. Geologists in the United States detailed a similar scenario in 2001, when they found evidence suggesting volcanic activity in Yellowstone National Park will eventually lead to a colossal eruption. Half the United States will be covered in ash up to 3 feet (1 meter) deep, according to a study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Explosions of this magnitude "happen about every 600,000 years at Yellowstone," says Chuck Wicks of the U.S. Geological Survey, who has studied the possibilities in separate work. "And it's been about 620,000 years since the last super explosive eruption there."

Past volcanic catastrophes at Yellowstone and elsewhere remain evident as giant collapsed basins called calderas.

A super eruption is a scaled up version of a typical volcanic outburst, Sparks explained. Each is caused by a rising and growing chamber of hot molten rock known as magma.

"In super eruptions the magma chamber is huge," Sparks said. The eruption is rapid, occurring in a matter of days. "When the magma erupts the overlying rocks collapse into the chamber, which has reduced its pressure due to the eruption. The collapse forms the huge crater."

The eruption pumps dust and chemicals into the atmosphere for years, screening the Sun and cooling the planet. Earth is plunged into a perpetual winter, some models predict, causing plant and animal species disappear forever.

"The whole of a continent might be covered by ash, which might take many years -- possibly decades -- to erode away and for vegetation to recover," Sparks said.

Yellowstone may be winding down geologically, experts say. But they believe it harbors at least one final punch. Globally, there are still plenty of possibilities for super volcano eruptions, even as Earth quiets down over the long haul of its 4.5-billion-year existence.

"The Earth is of course losing energy, but at a very slow rate, and the effects are only really noticeable over billions rather than millions of years," Sparks said.

if a super volcano errupts, it will be a disaster the modern world has never seen before...

many people will be killed and many others will be affected by it, even if they do not live near the errupting volcano...

Other Information

The predicted effect a super volcano at Yellowstone.

The Science and History of Volcanoes

I saw a show on this this weekend on Mational Geographic. Very Scary stuff. If the Yellowstone super volcano were to explode, not only would it plunge the US into darkness, it would have global impact. I can't remember the specifics of it right now, but they also mentioned a global cooking that would be linked to such an explosion.

While it would not directly and immediately kill large numbers of people, it has the possibility of being an event that cause mass extinctionsm, and the near extintion of humans.

VERY scary stuff...

if will affect the entire world...

and also:

And now the bad news: There's not much anyone can do about it.

this sucks...

A gigantic asteroid impact will in turn make a super volcano look like nothing, and that will happen too at some point in the future. We have no idea when either event will occur, so it's not really worth losing sleep over yet.

The problem is, statistically, both of these events are long overdue.

With our current knowledge there is nothing we can do about it.
Hopefully this event will happen later rather than sooner. Our future advancements are only limited by our imagination. I believe if we all manage not to kill each other we will be able to unlock the secrets of the universe and there will be nothing we can not control.

I saw the National Geographic show too. If it erupts, we'll probably stand a better chance then our ancestors what with our technology and freeze-dried food, but still, it will be a catastrophic situation.

It's ironic... we know so much about killing living things, but we hardly know about the things that can not only keep us alive but kill us as easily as well.

I agree with djohn, it's really nothing to lose sleep over. If it happens, it happens. But we should be prepared to survive it. I think we can survive it, but it all starts on a personal level.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
A gigantic asteroid impact will in turn make a super volcano look like nothing, and that will happen too at some point in the future. We have no idea when either event will occur, so it's not really worth losing sleep over yet.

true...

i am not losing sleep over it though because i live in NY

but it is still VERY scary...

when it happens, we will all have died years earlier as a result of a giant tsunami created by a massive asteroid that hit the earth creating rapid weather changes.


alarmist nonsense.

Originally posted by Crakeur
when it happens, we will all have died years earlier as a result of a giant tsunami created by a massive asteroid that hit the earth creating rapid weather changes.


alarmist nonsense.

alarmist nonsense???

you are talking about an asteroid hitting the earth and making a giang wave...

please...

Problem is alarmist or not these events are happening now in 2005 ....

It is going to happen and the huge amount of volcanic and earthquake activity is showing the warning signs.

I have said all along something big is happening towards the end of March..

The Indonesia side of the Pac Plate is squishing up so i'd say we will have some major brakaway on the california side

Mayet, it is alarmist nonsense as I have seen prediction about the ring of fire going off ever since I've been on the net(since '94), if it DOES happen nothing we can do about it anyway except evacuation.

Alarmist Nonsense is an interpretation.

I like to call it being prepared and watchfullness.
You say evacuation, have you looked at the idea of evacuating a town within an hour or so. I would much rather be watching events closely so that I know what to do when.

Well it seems a movie is being shown next week about this.

news.bbc.co.uk...

The drama Supervolcano is broadcast in two parts, on BBC One on Sunday 13 March and Monday 14 March. Both transmissions are at 2100 GMT. Two science documentaries called Supervolcano: The Truth About Yellowstone are broadcast after the drama, on BBC Two. Again, these air on Sunday and Monday but at the later time of 2200 GMT

Now if only I could view BBC

very good and thanks...

this should be good...

Here's an interesting book about the Dark Ages and how they changed the world. The author believes a major catastrophe--like a caldara blowing-- dramatically changed the earth.
Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of Modern Civilization

Could an enormous volcanic eruption have had such influence on the world as a whole, and could the same thing happen tomorrow? Catastrophe makes no predictions, but leaves the reader with a new sense of history, nature, and destiny.

you're going to be prepared how?

every so often some group of scientists come up with some doomsday story that might happen in the next 1000 years. I'm more afraid of getting hit by a bus. There is nothing we can do to prepare for these doomsday issues short of moving to areas that might not be hit. since there are so few areas that will be safe from all of these disasters, there's no point worrying about it.

Prepare why? what's the point?


Super Volcanoes, Asteriods and the likes are the least of our worries. On a
daily basis, over 40,000 people die on america's highways every year,
over a ten year period that amounts to well over 400,000 deaths.

You should be a little bit more worried about your daily commute then you
are about events you have no control over. I live about 200 miles from
Yellowstone. If it goes it goes, but I'm not going to let it control my life..


[edit on 10-3-2005 by TheHorseChestnut]

Originally posted by TheHorseChestnut
Prepare why? what's the point?


Super Volcanoes, Asteriods and the likes are the least of our worries. On a
daily basis, over 40,000 people die on america's highways every year,
over a ten year period that amounts to well over 400,000 deaths.

You should be a little bit more worried about your daily commute then you
are about events you have no control over. I live about 200 miles from
Yellowstone. If it goes it goes, but I'm not going to let it control my life..

[edit on 10-3-2005 by TheHorseChestnut]

i live in NY...

you think i am worried or even care about this???

this is ATS...

i post this to share information to people...