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Just In: Yellowstone Is Big (ger)

Posted by timothy on from the when-montana-and-wyoming-indicate-scale dept.

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."

11 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Potentially an extinction level event? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

    1. Re:Potentially an extinction level event? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:Potentially an extinction level event? by sortius_nod · · Score: 2

      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.

    3. Re:Potentially an extinction level event? by RobertM1968 · · Score: 2

      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!

      --
      StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
    4. Re:Potentially an extinction level event? by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 2

      It works in Minecraft!

  2. Re:is the DHS on top of this? by countertrolling · · Score: 5, Funny

    is the DHS on top of this?

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

    --
    For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
  3. Re:More evidence... by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Funny

    Which is why we need to kill it first.

  4. Re:More evidence... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

    Which is why we need to kill it first.

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

    Avariciously yours, Dick Cheney & Co.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  5. Caldera is not what got bigger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    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

  6. I expect Sony will have their lawyers to it soon.. by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Funny

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

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  7. Better Article by Scorch_Mechanic · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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