Just In: Yellowstone Is Big (ger)

jd writes "Really big. By using electrical conductivity tests rather than seismic waves, geologists have remapped the Yellowstone caldera. Whilst seismic waves indicate differences in the reflectivity of different materials, it doesn't show everything and contrast isn't always great. By looking at the electrical conductivity instead, different characteristics of molten and semi-molten rock can be measured and observed. The result — the caldera is far larger than had previously been suspected. This doesn't alter the chances of an eruption, and it's not even clear it would change the scale (prior eruptions are very easy to study, as they're on the surface) but it certainly changes the dynamics and our understanding of this fierce supervolcano."

Comments

Potentially an extinction level event?

[Anonymous Coward]

On par with Toba.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Yellowstone eruption was a little smaller than Toba (2500 km^3 as opposed to 2800 km^3) but you probably don't notice after the first thousand cubic kilometers of ash have landed. There are four other supervolcanos known. Certainly these are extinction-level events - the Year Without A Summer was caused by a tiny volcano in comparison, altering global temperatures a mere 0.4'C, but the levels of famine and disease that resulted were staggering. Scale it up a hundredfold and throw in a continent's worth of ash and you're talking major problems for anything on the surface.

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[sortius_nod]

You probably wouldn't know about it seeing as you'd more than likely die from the eruption itself rather than the ash. It's people on the other side of the globe that will die slowly from famine and disease. Consider yourself lucky.

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[RobertM1968]

Considering I live a couple hundred miles from it I'm a gonner in the first wave

Yes, and believe it or not, you're the lucky one. At only a couple hundred miles, you'll be incinerated in just a few minutes as the wave of heat and ejected particles & rocks reaches you at over the speed of sound. Much better than the suffering others will go through who survive. Lucky bastard!

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[magarity]

Considering I live a couple hundred miles from it I'm a gonner in the first wave

Yeah; a friend of mine in southern Japan was moaning about the earthquake problems the northern part was having lately and I said, 'That's nothing; here in Denver we'll show you a *real* natural calamity just as soon as Yellowstone blows."

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[JWSmythe]

    [/me contemplating a lava flow, and trying to hide in a subterranean bunker as "protection"]

    Ya. good idea. Let me know how it goes.

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[syousef]

Should Yellowstone go boom, in the USA the best possible outcome would be to go right along with it.

Go right ahead. More food for the rest of us. If everyone were so defeatist, the human race would have gone extinct long before we developed tools.

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[FunkSoulBrother]

It works in Minecraft!

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[AmonTheMetalhead]

Hey, there's always cannibalism

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[Internetuser1248]

Firstly, you guys and the mayan eotw crowd need to get together and hammer out a compromise. The world can't end twice.

Secondly, 21st may is only a month away, it is bad business to predict the apocalypse so soon. It is going to take you at least that long just to put out a manuscript. Ideally you want to leave yourself six months for a really polished book ready, then a couple more months for negotiation with publishers and the actual printing process. Then ideally you want 2-3 years for the sales to peak properly, and for talkshow interviews and guest appearances. This way when the predicted date rolls around and your predictions are shown to be totally bogus, you have a nice pile of cash to retire with.

Thirdly, does it bother anyone else that the country with the highest per capita belief in an impending apocalypse, the USA, also happens to be the country with the largest nuclear arsenal and a rapidly deteriorating political and economic system? I sometimes get this terrible feeling that whatever nutcase is currently in the whitehouse is just sitting with his finger on a big red button waiting for a sign from god.

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[Sinn3d]

...and you're talking major problems for anything on the surface.

Good thing most of us are in a basement.

Better ask mom to bring down some extra sandwiches & dr peppers, ya know. Just in case.

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[Hognoxious]

Even if you live in Michigan [...] Expect every living thing under ash, no Sun for a decade.

So what's new?

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[Hognoxious]

The ones Allah (pbuH) has chosen will survive. It is His will.

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[Chris Burke]

Even if you live in Michigan [...] Expect every living thing under ash, no Sun for a decade.

So what's new?

Ash, instead of snow. So it'll be gray instead of white, outside of the roads where the slush was already gray.

I welcome this change of pace!

Re:Potentially an extinction level event?

[mr_mischief]

Actually hemp oil and milled hemp seeds are very nutritious and are less perishable than fresh tomatoes. Just sayin'.

Re:is the DHS on top of this?

[countertrolling]

is the DHS on top of this?

Well, we hope they are when the thing blows.. takes care of one problem

Not directly, but pretty close

[billstewart]

They probably don't have an office much closer than Boise, so they're not right on top, but they've always been a bit over the edge.

Re:is the DHS on top of this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude ...

Best comment in YEARS.

Ok, so I'm only an Anonymous Coward, but if I could I'd buy you a beer.

Re:New scale

[Skidborg]

What about Duke Nukem Forever Dead? Where does that go on the scale?

----------
Standing by for apk assault.

Re:Miles/km

[Fluffeh]

Does any one else find it kind of cute how they label the axes in miles, in increments of 50km?

The scientists probably did all of their work in kms, but then changed the numbers to miles so that the average American had a clue to it. It may have been difficult (for some unknown reason) to change the labels to increments of 50 miles...

More evidence...

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

...that the Earth has been sent from the past to kill us.

Re:More evidence...

[R3d M3rcury]

Which is why we need to kill it first.

Re:More evidence...

[ShiftyOne]

Is that the plot to Terminator 4? I have a feeling Arnold could stop this.

Re:More evidence...

[ColdWetDog]

Which is why we need to kill it first.

Hey, give us a break! We're working on it.

Avariciously yours, Dick Cheney & Co.

Re:More evidence...

[ruiner13]

Is that the plot to Terminator 4?

You mean this: Terminator Salvation (T4)?

No, you didn't miss anything...

Re:New scale

[martin-boundary]

Do you have alert color codes to go with that? I get a bit confused with the words sometimes.

Great!

[WindBourne]

Lets tap it for geo-thermal. The issue with a previous attempt is that they simply pulled the steam from it. Instead, it should be a recycling generator in which it re-injects the water back into the ground.

Re:Great!

[frecky]

Isn't this what we do already ? Inject water in hydraulic fracturing for Shale gas ?

Re:Great!

[Sulphur]

Lets tap it for geo-thermal. The issue with a previous attempt is that they simply pulled the steam from it. Instead, it should be a recycling generator in which it re-injects the water back into the ground.

Boom, Baby, Boom.

Re:Great!

[jd]

It's an interesting idea and there should be a way to make it work, but previous attempts at injecting water into geothermally active areas have tended to cause mini earthquakes. It would take some doing to get it right and I'm not sure I'm inclined to trust the companies capable of the drilling necessary.

Re:Great!

[jd]

If they ever get a commercial fusion reactor, the "waste" heat would be more than sufficient for you to recycle garbage into ultra-pure reservoirs of the elements within it. The radiation might alter a few of them in the process (you can turn platinum into gold even in fission reactors, it's just kinda pointless).

Re:Great!

[confused one]

The formation is hot enough that you could use a closed loop, cycling pressurized water in through loop of pipe acting as a heat exchanger.

Re:Great!

[WindBourne]

Nope. Totally different things. In your example, you use pretty wicked chemicals under extreme pressure to force open cracks. With what I am talking about, you pull water out as steam which drops the pressure a bit, but then re-inject the water back into it, which slowly raises the pressure back up to what it was.

Caldera is not what got bigger

[Anonymous Coward]

The caldera is not any bigger, just the arear of hot rock or melt under the area. The caldera (collapse feature) is still exactly the same size

Re:Caldera is not what got bigger

[cthulhu11]

Thank you - I was about to post the same observation

I expect Sony will have their lawyers to it soon..

[damn_registrars]

... as this clearly seems like an even bigger example of "geohot".

Re:is the DHS on top of this?

[Low Ranked Craig]

if not there's always Rosie O'donnell.

Re:New scale

[neonmonk]

Stillbirth?

Re:New scale

[The Grim Reefer2]

Sorry, color codes are simply too difficult for us to understand, especially when it never changes. The new system has two levels:

1. Fucked

and

2. Place your head firmly between you legs, and kiss your ass goodbye.

Re:is the DHS on top of this?

[ZosX]

Too bad you are just a coward.

Re:Whilst? 1750 called, they want their word back.

[dbIII]

Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun

Re:Complete this series

[AvitarX]

without getting all fancy, 700k to 660k to 620k (time between events)

I think it happened 20k years ago and we're all safe.

Re:New scale

[Anonymous Coward]

Reincarnated aka undead.

Re:is the DHS on top of this?

[SeNtM]

Shouldn't the house and senate be planning a trip to yellowstone soon??? I am sick and tired about hearing how hard it is getting by on $175k a year.

Re:Complete this series

[mkiwi]

Just to be sure, we better nuke the volcano. From the moon.

Yellowstone's big, yeah yeah

[neko the frog]

It's not small, no no

Re:is the DHS on top of this?

[ThePromenader]

...or Rod Blagojevich's hair, that should plug it nicely.

Re:Whilst? 1750 called, they want their word back.

[ThePromenader]

Whence the vitriol? Whither your goal? Nitpicking natter is worth but a lump of coal.

Better Article

[Scorch_Mechanic]

The one in the summary is fine, but the original (better) article is here:
http://www.unews.utah.edu/p/?r=032411-5
It talks more in depth about how they actually did the imaging. It's actually quite interesting.

Re:is the DHS on top of this?

[Sulphur]

if not there's always Rosie O'donnell.

Yes, but fire can't melt rock.

Re:Complete this series

[Sulphur]

Just to be sure, we better nuke the volcano. From the moon.

Just to be realistic, nuke the moon. From the volcano.

Re:Whilst? 1750 called, they want their word back.

[samjam]

me-thinkerish perfectous cromulatory expressionator

Re:New scale

[EdZ]

I'm not seeing "Mostly Dead".

Re:Whilst? 1750 called, they want their word back.

[dbIII]

It's a quote written in 1387 from the prologue to Canterbury Tales and just about everybody here will be able to understand all six words (I used to be an engineer not a literary type). It just shows how much the above poster is whining about something not fitting in a 600 word doubleplusgood dictionary.

Re:Whilst? 1750 called, they want their word back.

[Rysc]

You're out of line. Whilst is not nearly as archaic as your other examples and is still often found used for artistic or stylistic purposes, especially in formal contexts.

Lets do some grade school math!

[DontBlameCanada]

2Million->1.3Mill->642,000 years ago. Let's following the series!

2M->1.3M = 700,000
1.3M->642,000=658,000
642,000->??

Interval of ~670,000 years +/- 21,000.

Next eruption: 642,000 - 670,000 = 28000 +/- 21000 = essentially any time, ouch.

Re:Lets do some grade school math!

[Ol Olsoc]

But this isn't grade school math. It's probabilitiesI've seen this in a lot of places, and the Quaking Fear and Apocalypse channel uses it to good effect. (History Channel)

The eruption interval gives some idea of what might be expected, but there is no such thing as being "due" for an eruption. There would be nothing to stop an eruption next year, then another one a hundred years form now. or 5 million years later. Likewise, with the hot spot staying more or less in one place, and the land moving over top of it, does the new overburden have a mitigating or accelerating effect? Does entropy play into this?

Is there going to be another eruption? Probably. As to when, for us humans, and for what we might do about it, it might as well be a stochastic process.

Re:New scale

[Skidborg]

Hiya, apk. You don't disappoint.

Geothermal energy question

[wcrowe]

I have a serious (and perhaps stupid) question related to the topic. Given the interest in alternative energy, the size of the Yellowstone caldera, and its proximity to the surface, is it a completely silly idea to exploit it as an energy source? Are there already geothermal power plants in the Yellowstone area?

Re:Geothermal energy question

[spike hay]

I don't know about Yellowstone in particular, but there are some tentative plans to exploit Newberry Crater (another shield volcano caldera, but much smaller). Interestingly, the same types of magnetotelluric techniques are being used to map promising sites for geothermal plants.

Two different concepts

[WindBourne]

What you are talking about is EGS. It is about drilling DEEP and then injecting below the bedrock. Minor tremors would be expected, but nothing major. As confused one speaks about, you want a closed loop in shallow well. THat is not a big deal. The reason why the only small one was shot down, is that they were not injecting back. As such, they were depleting the water out of the system. That would destroy geysers all over. And few want to see old faithful gone.

Re:New scale

[Skidborg]

I was trusting in your vast intellect to figure it out and tell me. After all, I don't have a doctorate degree in neurology like you do. I probably can't be trusted with a formidable question such as the one you pose.

Re:New scale

[mr_mischief]

The "Hollywood" episode of Happy Days played on TV here in Houston today. Both parts (it was a two-parter).

Yes, that's the one where Fonzie jumps the (now proverbial) shark.

Re:I expect Sony will have their lawyers to it soo

[mr_mischief]

He was only prevented from messing with the PlayStation series of consoles, not volcanic features of national parks.

Re:I expect Sony will have their lawyers to it soo

[damn_registrars]

The joke: >>---------------->





.....



You: :(

Re:New scale

[Skidborg]

I don't have to answer it. I am a being with free will. I choose to defy you, and egg you on.

Re:I expect Sony will have their lawyers to it soo

[mr_mischief]

um, no.

Straight man ----> .....

people who take a second to get that the straight man is also making a joke .....

people like you who point out that the straight man's joke missed the joke .....

humor for pond scum