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Is the Yellowstone Supervolcano About To Blow?

An anonymous reader writes "Apparently, Yellowstone National Park has been having a very unusual number of earthquakes. Many of the most recent tremors have been deeper underground, an ominous sign. Combine that with a rapid rise in elevation over the past three years, and the possibility that earthquake activity from surrounding areas could trigger such an eruption on its own, and you've got the possible warning signs of a supervolcano eruption that would wipe out half to 2/3 of the continental US, plunge global temperatures, and wipe out a very significant chunk of world food sources. Here's a little more info to make your New Year brighter!"

76 of 877 comments (clear)

  1. Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 5, Funny

    After all, if we are going to have the sun blocked out by a huge cloud of dust, it would be fantastic to have as much heat trapped on earth as possible!

    1. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by Linux_ho · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh come on -- that's no good. What am I going to do with all these Obama's the Antichrist pamphlets if you keep spreading all that rational thought around and telling everyone things are going to be OK? No good at all.

      --
      include $sig;
      1;
    2. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by Score+Whore · · Score: 5, Funny

      7. 17. Twenty one. Three point one four. Eighteen thousand, seven hundred and sixty two. Zero point zero three percent.

    3. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by jcr · · Score: 3, Funny

      expect 99.9% of life on Earth to die out

      I hear that 99.9% of statistics that refer to a quantity of 99.9% are made up on the spot for shock value.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    4. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2, Funny

      Think you meant you'd have to kill 10,000 people. The downside is you won't go down in history as a great conqueror for it.

      If you switch to a diet of long pig then you'll be more efficient and won't have to kill as many people.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    5. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by Keen+Anthony · · Score: 3, Funny

      I've said it before, and I'll say it again: take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!

    6. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by Ken_g6 · · Score: 4, Funny

      4 8 15 16 23 42

      Now, just type that in every hour, and the eruption won't happen.

      --
      (T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
    7. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by kv9 · · Score: 4, Funny

      is that you, Chuck Norris? what are you doing posting on slashdot?

    8. Re:Good time to start pumping out GHG then! by Frostalicious · · Score: 4, Funny

      none of the roofs are rated to carry that. All the planted crops, except trees, are killed. All trees less than a few meters die, naturally. You can't plow it. Most plants won't grow in it. Cars won't run for very long when it's in the air and nobody's digging a car out of a few meters of ash without patience, and if you did there's no where to drive it where you won't get bogged down in soft crunchy ash. The ash is suffused with toxic gases, some of which precipitate as acids. When it rains it kills all the life in all the rivers, and the silt changes the course of major rivers and minor streams. When it gets to the Atlantic and the Gulf it kills almost all of the fish in the ocean. It interferes with cell phone reception, TV and radio. A few meters of ash is enough to clog every hydro power plant, every nuclear power plant in the country. It blocks all the railways and all the highways of course, and that's how we move food around. And if you're not directly affected but you don't like America, that would be a fine day to attack.

      Shit, will it really affect my cell phone reception?

  2. It WILL blow up on... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dec 21, 2012

    1. Re:It WILL blow up on... by bledri · · Score: 2, Funny

      You Americans... always thinking that "half to 2/3" of the USA is the same thing as the whole world... :D

      Our schools aren't that bad. It would be like 2/3 of the world. Duh.

      --
      Some privacy policy Slashdot.
    2. Re:It WILL blow up on... by this+great+guy · · Score: 2, Funny

      About to blow up ? Naaah. Don't believe them.
      Urgent: sell 2-story home, 4 BR, 2 BA, on 25000 sq. ft property. Located in beautiful Wyoming next to Yellowstone National Park. Grab it while possible !

    3. Re:It WILL blow up on... by Guy+Harris · · Score: 5, Funny

      Those Mayans were a smart bunch.

      Yup - they figured out how to design a calendar system that would provoke all sorts of speculation and running around in circles in the future.. I nominate the Mayan calendar system for "best troll ever!"

    4. Re:It WILL blow up on... by francium+de+neobie · · Score: 4, Funny

      And in A.D. 2101, war was beginning.

    5. Re:It WILL blow up on... by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, that one's going to go to the Bible or the Quran.

  3. Two multiple hundreds of thousands of years events by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why not? All the mathematical models claimed that the US Financial credit market and the Housing Bubble wouldn't burst at the same time- they calculated that was a once in 75 million years event. Given the luck of the United States lately, a 1/600,000 year event going off right now would just be the icing on the cake.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  4. Warning by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, if it's going to be the apocalypse (and I'm not going to be responsible, much to my chagrin), can you just make sure I get a few weeks' notice? There are... things... I want to do.

    1. Re:Warning by slugtastic · · Score: 5, Funny

      50% end-time-discount hookers, call now!

    2. Re:Warning by syousef · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, if it's going to be the apocalypse (and I'm not going to be responsible, much to my chagrin), can you just make sure I get a few weeks' notice? There are... things... I want to do.

      Those 'things' are girls and they've already told you they wouldn't have sex with you even if the world were ending.

      Oh wait on second thoughts this is slashdot. You do realize that at the end of the world, no one's going to care if you put out a new beta of your new Robocode robot, even if it is unbeatable.

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    3. Re:Warning by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 2, Funny

      So it's the end of the world as we know it?

      But I feel fine!

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  5. Re:Suddenly... by philspear · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are you nuts?!? With 2/3 of the country gone, my 401k is going to be completely ruined! RUINED! It would be a financial catastrophe (in addition to an actual catastrophe)!

  6. Look at the bright side... by Greg_D · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... when the global cooling occurs, it'll get Al Gore to STFU for once.

  7. Re:drilling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Hold on a sec, I need to adjust my tin foil hat to enter this discussion.

  8. Well damn... by DanWS6 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wasn't going to party tonight but this gives me a valid excuse to stop by the liquor store on the way home.

  9. "would wipe out half to 2/3 of the continental US" by DanWS6 · · Score: 4, Funny

    How many Library of Congresses is that?

  10. No boom today. by Werkhaus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.

    1. Re:No boom today. by chill · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!"

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  11. Re:Two multiple hundreds of thousands of years eve by ZorbaTHut · · Score: 4, Funny

    History books will refer to late 2008 as The Year God Decided He Really Hated America.

    (This is only true if the volcano blows within the next 5 hours, and I have to say - if it's going to blow, it should do it then, just for the humor value.)

    --
    Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
  12. Good thing I have been using the simulator... by Daswolfen · · Score: 2, Funny

    With a apocalypse right around the corner, its a good thing that I am spending many hours in the perfect post-apocalyptic simulation, Fallout 3.

    Super Volcano or Nuclear War, the net effect is the same, just one has less radiation.

    --
    Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
  13. Re:Global Warning by Bastard+of+Subhumani · · Score: 5, Funny

    If a volcano erupts, is it considered part of global warming?

    Yes, but only if someone hears it.

    --
    Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
  14. Re:Can't decide by PyroPenguin · · Score: 2, Funny

    When should I start to panic?

    My friend Ford Prefect says, "Don't panic"

  15. 2012 by rlp · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nah, won't happen till Mayan doomsday. Enjoy your New Year. (Though at least we won't have to fix the 2038 bug).

    --
    [Insert pithy quote here]
  16. At times like these by chaossplintered · · Score: 5, Funny

    At times like these, I feel it's appropriate to start rocking back and forth singing:

    Life's a piece of shit
    When you look at it
    Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
    You'll see it's all a show
    Keep 'em laughing as you go
    Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

    And always look on the bright side of life...
    Always look on the right side of life...

  17. Re:GW linked to volcanic activity ?! WTF by slashnik · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Climate change may actually increase the probability of volcanic and earthquake activity!"

    Come on get off the fence, does it or doesn't it.

  18. Re:"would wipe out half to 2/3 of the continental by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Given the expected result of an eruption, that would be 1.0 or so Libraries of Congress. ;)

  19. Re:Somebody call Crono! by jamesh · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yellowstone is a fixed point in history. What happens, happens. There's no stopping it.

    That's just the sort of "bend over and take it up the arse" that has gotten you Americans into the mess you're in right now. You should be out protesting in the streets about this impending supervolcano! If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem. Won't someone _please_ think of the children? Maybe next time you'll vote in a government with a firm policy platform on the whole supervolcano issue. If this supervolcano goes off then the terrorists win.

    I've got plenty more!

  20. Taco Department by RazzleDazzle · · Score: 3, Funny

    Figured taco would post this story from the "maybe the volcano might warm me up dept"

    --
    ZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ONE! Just brushing up for my next big invention: Ethernet over Voice (EoV)
  21. Re:Global Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So I take it my recent venture into the ice-cream business could have been a mistake?

  22. Totally by SageMusings · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hell, I could be so bold as to state some asinine comment on Slashdot and not care about Karma or mod points:

    I love MS, hate Apple, think Linux is cute but just a toy, and man enough to admit I own a copy of the Joy Luck Club on DVD. ...I feel liberated.

    --
    -- Posted from my parent's basement
  23. Re:Can't decide by truthsearch · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please do not panic. Resist the temptation to read or talk to loved ones. Do not attempt sexual relations, as years of TV radiation have left your genitals withered and useless.

  24. Re:Somebody call Crono! by BearRanger · · Score: 4, Funny

    And all this time I thought that if you weren't part of the solution you were part of the precipitate...

  25. Re:Two multiple hundreds of thousands of years eve by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 4, Funny

    Our models of vulcanism are incompletely understood

    We just need to think more logically.

  26. Re:Suddenly... by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you have guns and ammo, you can get food and water. The opposite is not true.

    --
    I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  27. This is Darl McBride's fault by JonnyO · · Score: 3, Funny

    What is it with things named/called Caldera

  28. Re:Somebody call Crono! by jamesh · · Score: 2, Funny

    What's even funnier is that my post is moderated 'Insightful'. Pay attention moderators!!! There was nothing 'Insightful' in my post - it was one of those things you do in the morning when you haven't had your caffeinated energy drink yet.

  29. Re:Um no by WindowlessView · · Score: 2, Funny

    there will be an immense disruption of the electrical and telecommunications grid, immense expense from ash damage and removal

    Now that's what I call a shovel-ready WPA project!

    --
    Leave the gun, take the cannolis.
  30. Re:Global Warning by Rei · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yep. Major rhyolitic, non-huge-caldera-forming eruptions have a far more statistically significant record than anything you could call "supervolcanic", and are only once every ten thousand years or so on average. Far more common. And most earthquake swarms at Yellowstone have nothing to with upcoming volcanic eruptions.

    Sorry to ruin everyone's doomsday fun. ;)

    --
    Anchor: "We take you now to our Chief Meteorologist, Paris Hilton." Paris: "It's hot." Anchor: "Thank you."
  31. Re:Global Warning by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Funny

    cannibalism becoming a viable survival strategy, but the end of the human rice? Hardly.

    Sometimes typos are beautiful!

    --
    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood
  32. Re:Global Warning by an+unsound+mind · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, I spotted that in the preview but let it pass anyway. :P

  33. Re:Global Warning by b4upoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I am warmed and cooled at the same time how will I know what to complain about?

  34. Re:Two multiple hundreds of thousands of years eve by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...it should do it then, just for the humor value.

    God: "Pull my finger..."

  35. Re:Global Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The deaf won't. But there will be people from the govt going around making the "BOOM" asl sign.

  36. DO NOT NAME YOUR DOG TOBA! by rthille · · Score: 4, Funny

    We did, and she's spent her entire life trying to live up to the destructive power of her namesake.

    --
    Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
  37. Dude by /dev/trash · · Score: 2, Funny

    You owe Bush so much, for keep us safe and for keep the crisises that have happened from going realy bad.

  38. Re:Um, no. by davidphogan74 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So you get out the leaf blower. Problem solved, right?

  39. Re:Global Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    People tend to eat nearly as much ice cream in winter as in summer, when the body tends to crave the fat in response to harsher environmental conditions.

    But just to be safe, better add espresso. And liquor. And cigars. And porn.

    You could call it "The Little Vice Age"

  40. Re:Global Warning by JumperCable · · Score: 5, Funny

    Kind of makes the California smoking ban useless.

  41. Re:Global Warning by darkpixel2k · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's more likely to cause global cooling, as TFS and TFA state.

    <VallyGirlVoice>What eeeever. Magma is HOT, dummy.</VallyGirlVoice>

    --
    There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)
  42. Re:Global Warning by ImOnlySleeping · · Score: 5, Funny

    And the starving. There's always the starving.

    --
    Everybody seems to think I'm lazy I don't mind, I think they're crazy
  43. Re:Global Warning by arelas · · Score: 3, Funny

    You would be too hot to handle, yet too cold to hold?

  44. Geothermal time, people! by NeuroManson · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seriously, dedicate a portion of the land towards geothermal power. Any good cook, and any good engineer will tell you that when you want to keep heat under control, you reroute it elsewhere. Build some geothermal plants on the spot, you know how deep the magma is, then building vent/transfer systems around the caldera will in fact cool it down to prevent an eruption, AND you can sell the electricity generated for, well, generations.

    Sheiss, it's so simple, should I really be the one suggesting this? I'm a high school dropout (intellectual as I am), and it's really that obvious.

    --
    Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
  45. Good time to start pumping out bullets then! by Ostracus · · Score: 2, Funny

    "I also grew up training in martial arts which, after a while, typically includes some medical training (along the way I've ended up helping to treat everything up to and including a gunshot wound)."

    I knew we should be keeping our eyes on Ninjas. Now they're throwing bullets.

    --
    Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
  46. Some sobering moves. by Ostracus · · Score: 3, Funny

    "They will happen and when they happen there's a good chance they'll wipe out all human life still on the Earth. Events like these don't have to wipe out mankind. We can choose to not let that happen. Or not."

    That's it! I'm moving to Mars, where it's safer.

    --
    Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
  47. Re:Global Warning by Gandalf_Greyhame · · Score: 2, Funny

    People tend to eat nearly as much ice cream in winter as in summer, when the body tends to crave the fat in response to harsher environmental conditions.

    But just to be safe, better add espresso. And liquor. And cigars. And porn.

    in fact, forget the espresso and the cigars

    --
    I am not stubborn. I am right!
  48. Re:Global Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Soylent green is... rice?!

  49. Last! by nEoN+nOoDlE · · Score: 2, Funny

    Last Post!

    --
    Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
  50. Re:Global Warning by malice · · Score: 5, Funny

    personally, i'd travel to the nearest university where there are the highest concentrations of:

    progressive civic-minded & altruistic individuals
    intellectuals and knowledgeable experts in assorted fields
    innovative freethinkers and fresh young minds

    Awesome. I'll travel to meet up with some hunter friends of mine who have guns and wilderness survival skills... we'll shoot you and your newly found progressive buddies, eat your vegetables, and have a long pig BBQ!

  51. Re:Global Warning by rdnetto · · Score: 2, Funny

    <VallyGirl2Voice>But then it would all, like, cool down, like food does when its, like, heated. Maybe it would, like, cool too much? Oh no! What if I'm not hot anymore? (feints)</VallyGirl2Voice>

    --
    Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
  52. Re:Global Warning by Stuart+Gibson · · Score: 2, Funny

    Of course, our problem here is we can be bussed a maximum of about 150 miles before we run out of land :)

    --
    It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
  53. Re:"would wipe out half to 2/3 of the continental by rdnetto · · Score: 2, Funny

    The three last eruptions were 6000, 700, and 2500 times Mt St Helens 1980 (MSHE), which released 1.67 exajoules (1.673 x 10^18 Joules). According to the esteemed Christopher Thomas 1 Burning Library of Congress (BLoC) is equivalent to 4 petajoules (4 x 10^15 Joules). Converting MSHE to BLoC gives 1 MSHE = 418.25 BLoC. So the last three eruptions were 2509500 BLoC, 292775 BLoC, and 1045625 BLoC, respectively. Since we don't know how big the next eruption will be, let's just assume the mean of the last 3, and that's 1282633.3 BLoCs, or 39% of the total solar energy that strikes the surface of the Earth.

    So the energy crisis is solved? What a relief!

    --
    Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
  54. I for one welcome our new supervolcano overlords by Atrox666 · · Score: 2, Funny

    At least around here we know we'll always have enough virgins to throw in.

  55. Re:Global Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So I take it my recent venture into the ice-cream business could have been a mistake?

    Your production costs will be minimal, at least.

  56. Re:Global Warning by mwilliamson · · Score: 2, Funny

    I know how to make beer, so will bring the beer to the BBQ. I hear slow roasted long pig goes well with a good cold brew.

  57. In Unrelated News ... by TechnicalPenguin · · Score: 2, Funny

    the seismologists studying this earthquake activity all mysteriously resigned and moved to Africa.

  58. Relax everyone, the Germans will survive by vorlich · · Score: 2, Funny

    and immediately restore all of civilisation, just like they did after the fall of Rome, only much quicker this time and the quality will be so much higher and it will be ten times more efficient...

    --
    Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
  59. Re:Global Warning by westlake · · Score: 2, Funny
    I'll travel to meet up with some hunter friends of mine who have guns and wilderness survival skills... we'll shoot you and your newly found progressive buddies, eat your vegetables, and have a long pig BBQ

    Which will keep you alive for what?

    Six weeks, six months?

    Guns need powder and ammunition. Lubricating oils. Spare parts.

    Game becomes hard to find. Edible plants, fruits, nut and berries become hard to find.

    You will need to forage constantly across greater and greater distances.

    Are you sure that mushroom is safe to eat?

    Captain John Smith, who knew something about survival, published a list of provisions he thought essential for every immigrant to Virginia: basically, a year's supply of everything.

    Enough food to eat, so you will never be tempted to dip into to your seed stocks. The hunt will be hard work, not sport, and you are not as good with a gun as you think you are.

    Bring fishooks. Learn how to fish.

    Bring clothes for all seasons. Hammer and nails, axes, planes and saws. Build quickly and build well. The winter will be longer and harsher than any you have known.

    Bring animals. Layers. Breeding stock. Shelter them. Protect them.