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Evidence Suggests Updated Timeline Towards Yellowstone's Supervolcano Eruption (nytimes.com)
Camel Pilot writes: Geologist have been aware of fresh magma moving in the Yellowstone's super volcano system. Previously this was thought to precede an eruption by thousands of years. Recent evidence by Hannah Shamloo, a graduate student at Arizona State University, demonstrates that perhaps the timeline from the underground basin filling to eruption is more on the scale of decades. A super volcano eruption has the power to alter life's story on this earth and even destroy all life on a continent. In light of this, it seems like a good time to invest some effort and resources into finding ways to prepare, delay or deflect the potential threat. The research was presented at the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) 2017 conference in Portland, Oregon.
Seems like the thing to do to get recognition in the scientific community these days is to come up with catastrophic predictions. Between global warming, asteroids, Yellowstone, mass extinctions, blah blah blah the list just goes on and on. I really have tuned most of this noise out. It's just people looking to get their name out there on a story that will get eyeball traffic. It's kind of like a modern-day biblical doomsayer.
Yeah, I don't see us beating this one. Engage roman orgy mode.
"Since we are starting ab-initio in a new planet", he said, "the entire planetary infrastructure will be built on sustainable resources from the ground up from the start from get go". Complete with Boring Machines taking all the roads underground, with some tunnels reserved for hyperloop, cars will drive themselves to charging stations, a Dyson Sphere of 2 Astronomical units in diameter will refocus sunlight on the Mars surface to maintain Earth like lighting and temperature.
He said "If Secretary General of UN would sign the contract, all this will be completed in 100 days or it would be free. "
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It'd be neat to know within decade precision when a supervolcano would blow, but that's still a pretty big window for humans to deal with practically. Can you do much to prepare for something on that scale that may or may not happen in 20 years?
Have you ever interacted with the officials that award research grants? They aren't panicky people.
Shouldn't we wait until most people are no longer worried about a global warming catastrophe before we create a new armageddon story?
The Yellowstone hot spot has been a cause for concern for a long, long time. It's also one of those things we can't do much about.
We also have case history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... as the hotspot travels and does it's thing. No need for humans to "create" anything.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
The scientist said that within the human lifte time we might be able to see the effects of what leads to a supervolcano. Basically within decades we could start seeing signs of a supervolcano that might erupt in 100+ years. That's what the article says.
Have you ever interacted with the officials that award research grants? They aren't panicky people.
As well, the definition of a "lot of money" seems to be quite fluid.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Volcanos are good at grounding aircraft - so everyone will have to go on ground transport. Heading south all at once could be tricky - especially if someone puts a wall in the way.
Indeed. All federal funding for the National Science Foundation, which is the vast majority of all government investment in science research (outside of NASA which was 11.3B) is just 5.67 billion dollars for everything. That includes everything from researching Yellowstone to robotics to stem. The majority isn't even spent on hard sciences but rather integrating groups. We are talking grant money of maybe 100k here. Put that into perspective with 824 billion for the military. I'd say 0.000012% of our defense spending is very well spent on something that really could level most of America to smoking ruin, unlike some rag tag terrorists we helped create ourselves to have an excuse to wage wars that financially reward key players. Hell, I'd even up that to 0.001% and still call it financially sound.
From watching The Road I suppose we could stockpile edible insects that live well on dead and dried plant material. Or try to come up with novel ways to confuse future archaeologists, like building a stone henge in the bottom of Lake Erie.
They are not saying it's a matter of decades from now when it will blow. It about how long it took for magma to move into the system until an eruption. The current study says decades, versus a previous study of another volcano that said millenniums.
There's still debate about about pinning down "the precise trigger of the last Yellowstone event."
None of these super volcanos are going to erupt anytime soon. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/1...
So clam down. You're much more likely to get hit by car crossing a street then by a super volcano.
When even Fox News reports that it may be directly and immediately profitable to prevent such a disaster then we have some hope as a species. After all the initial investment would be less than 0.5% of our military budget, it would make money by generating electricity, and the reality is Yellowstone has the potential to level America to smoking ruins with a far far far higher probability than some malnourished idiots with an assault rifle or two on the other side of the planet.
What would happen if "some nutjob" like in North Korea had one good missile and one good nuclear bomb attached to it and lobbed it right into the middle of the Yellowstone caldera? Would that possibly set it off or just make a mess? Or they could just throw a bomb in the back of a cube van and drive right in there. Precarious times we live in.
Global Warming and Mass Extinction, are slow disasters
That depends on what causes the mass extinction or global climate change. A large asteroid impact can cause a mass extinction and a global shift in temperatures on a very short timescale. Similarly, large volcanic eruptions can cool the climate very rapidly causing crops to fail etc.