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Yellowstone Supervolcano Even Bigger Than We Realized
The Washington Post reports that the "supervolcano" beneath Yellowstone National Park (which, thankfully, did not kill us all in 2004, or in 2008 ) may be more dangerous when it does erupt than anyone realized until recently. Scientists have today published a paper documenting their discovery of an even
larger, deeper pool of magma below the already huge reservoir near the surface. From the article:
On Thursday, a team from the University of Utah published a study, in the journal Science, that for the first time offers a complete diagram of the plumbing of the Yellowstone volcanic system.
The new report fills in a missing link of the system. It describes a large reservoir of hot rock, mostly solid but with some melted rock in the mix, that lies beneath a shallow, already-documented magma chamber. The newly discovered reservoir is 4.5 times larger than the chamber above it. There's enough magma there to fill the Grand Canyon. The reservoir is on top of a long plume of magma that emerges from deep within the Earth's mantle. ...
“This is like a giant conduit. It starts down at 1,000 kilometers. It's a pipe that starts down in the Earth," said Robert Smith, emeritus professor of geophysics at the University of Utah and a co-author of the new paper. ... The next major, calderic eruption could be within the boundaries of the park, northeast of the old caldera. “If you have this crustal magma system that is beneath the pre-Cambrian rocks, eventually if you get enough fluid in that system, enough magma, you can create another caldera, another set of giant explosions," Smith said. "There’s no reason to think it couldn’t continue that same process and repeat that process to the northeast.”
Here's to hoping they don't find any oil there, given the earthquakes it's caused in OK.
Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom.
whatever we do, we shouldn't let them loose.
two negatives, and you can guess the rest.
Maybe there is no coal, but with all those trees, magma, and limestone this park would make a perfect location to start a steel producing fortress.
Seems like these stories always come with quite a bit of fear mongering. We all died without the new findings, and we still die with them. *shrug* Kind of like fretting about a giant asteroid impact. Some things are out of our control, and fear/panic won't change that.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
GeoThermal Energy anyone?
It's been an oil producing area for over 100 years
And maybe mitigate or eliminate a possible extinction event down the road.
Chile's Calbuco volcano erupted on April 22, "at around 1800 local time". The second picture in this article shows the eruption at sunset. From that picture, you can see that the ash and smoke from the eruption have begun to spread. According to this web page, sunset in Chile these days is about 7:10 pm. So about an hour after the eruption, the clouds of dust and smoke had already started to spread.
Does anyone know if the smoke and ash particles are magnetic? If so, then maybe we can cut down on their spread through the atmosphere, by putting billions of magnetically-charged balloons into the atmosphere above Yellowstone, just before the eruption. Hopefully they would attract some of the smoke and ash particles, and eventually fall back to the earth.
(Of course, this assumes that we'll have a few hours warning before the eruption, and that the balloons are all ready to go.)
How can this comment be rated insightful when it completely ignores the differences in geology between Yellowstone and Oklahoma?
All this talk about the super-volcano that doesn't have an obvious peak reminds me of a zit I had on my back once... it was SO BIG--the sloped edges were almost flat that you couldn't tell that it was a zit. But when it finally burst, it was like a half cup of puss and mucous.
Living just northeast of Yellowstone means never having to worry about saying goodbye. It'll be over so fast you'll miss it.
is it of no significance as it only kills muricans or is it important and do the rest of us have to worry about it to well beyond not being able to fly for out holidays a while.!
(Of course, this assumes that we'll have a few hours warning before the eruption
I think we'll probably have a few generations of warning. Ash is mostly silica, especially with Yellowstone eruptions. It won't be magnetic. And a bad eruption would be tens to hundreds of cubic kilometers of ash and stuff. You aren't going to push that around with wimpy balloons.
The ideal solution here is to build up a considerable global food supplies of several years and not be there when the volcano erupts.
If Yellowstone goes boom it will almost certainly wipe out most complex life on the planet, and we'll be very fortunate not to count ourselves among the casualties. I'm afraid some balloons just aren't going to cut it.
I have a question. Just what is being consumed to keep such a monstrous magma chamber X2 burning? Coal? Oil? something is keeping it molten.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Build a trench from yellowstone to the grand canyon.
The Yellowstone supervolcano killed ME in both 2004 AND 2008, you insensitive clod!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
When it does erupt again, the humans might be long gone. Or, maybe not.
The real question is, will humans still be here after it erupts....
I was around when St. Helen's blew up, and that was a relatively modest eruption. A super volcano could be extinction event if it is big enough.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I see they've finally found the Earth's belly button.
I thought it was widely known that when Yellowstone finally does go up, that will be an extinction-level event. Most of the planet will become completely uninhabitable for decades. Right on the equator might be habitable, but you can bet your bottom dollar the current residents will be pushed out by those with better weapons.
Prepping for this is a joke. No power, no running water, no crops, no breathable air on the surface, for years and years. Your basement shelter won't keep you alive for a month under those conditions.
Pipe all that magma into the ocean, release vast amounts of steam that turns into precipitation to end droughts, easy. You're welcome, now get to work and make that happen.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
A super volcano could be extinction event if it is big enough.
Not unless it is a lot bigger. The one that occurred around the time of the extinction of the Dinosaurs gave rise to the Deccan Traps.
To put the scale of this extinction-level eruption in context the article mentions that the new, larger chamber under Yellowstone contains enough magma to fill the Grand Canyon which according to here is 4,170 cubic kilometres. The Deccan trap eruptions produced 512,000 cubic kilometres over 30k years. A Yellowstone eruption would certainly cause a lot of devastation over a large area of North America but its peanuts compared to an extinction level event.
Thank goodness the republicans have cut funding for projects like these out of the new NSF geosciences budget.
The last thing we need to do is learn about the risk associated with living on our planet. No doubt it will be far better if the residents of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and points east never worry about science and certainly a lot cheaper just to refer to such potential catastrophe as the "rapture". After all, who needs scientists when we have Michelle Bachmann?
I don't get it. How big is it compared to the size of Texas? How many Libraries Of Congress will fit in it?
The most we could possibly do with current technology is just a drop in the bucket.
Find some inactive seismic fault, pump some fracking lube down there, and every 90 minutes it's going to spray methane hydrates into the sky like billowing clouds of cash!
which, thankfully, did not kill us all in 2004, or in 2008
2005-2007: no data
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
rill into them to release the pressure in the form of lava.
All volcanos are merely giant zits that will pop unless lanced.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Is this a scenario where a mega-eruption is about to destroy "life as we know it"?
Where are the stepper boxes? Did someone see Lobsang?
I wonder if it could be done? In Iceland they are drilling for energy, drill a little deeper and drain of the magma pool a little bit at a time to relieve the pressure.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/icelandic-drilling-project-opens-door-to-volcano-powered-electricity/
I know I don't want another year without a summer like in 1816!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
There must be a lot of diamonds, redstone, lapis lazuli and obsidians around it
1. The Russians came out last week and stated that they were specifically targeting Yellowstone with nukes as a way to take out at least 2/3 of the US. They seem to think if they can get penetration with several nukes they can kick off an eruption. Crazy Russians. Maybe we do live in a glass house after all. 2. Since we seem to be able to create earth quakes by simply dumping salt water and waste water into miles deep caverns below West Texas and Oklahoma why can't we use that water to cool and solidify and artificially stabilize the magma chamber. In Iceland they were able to cool lava flows and they have saved several towns by pumping cool ocean water on the on coming lava flows. You would think that we can truly become masters of this planet.
Paul E. Bahre