General / Off-Topic Yellowstone National Park - Supervolcano

BACKER #-4112

BACKER #-4112
Recently, I noticed a bit of this in the media, didn't think much of it earlier, but since I visited a couple of large volcanoes in the Philippines,
Taal Volcano and Mt Pinatubo, it somewhat hit home. Each one is majestic and fascinating in its own way. These are some large craters
as you can tell from the Wiki articles linked. Some good documentaries on YouTube for those interested.

A few images:
Taal Volcano:







Mt Pinatubo:








Knowing the size of the catastrophes these wonders of nature can cause, they do not compare to the size of the Yellowstone Caldera.
I have not been to Yellowstone, but from watching a few documentaries, it got me thinking, what if it did go off?

This article I have read, about NASA drilling a hole into the volcano and pumping water into it sounds a bit too Bruce Willis...
Fair enough, the number of earthquakes are up and it may seem like the thing is about burst, but I am not sure about going around
poking a sleeping dragon. We may not get to see WW3 if NASA messes this one up.

BBC Article: NASAs ambitious plan to save earth from a supervolcano

Most people I know, could not care less or have a "She'll be right" mentality, like they do with most things, but I can't help but think about it.
Anyone else has any thoughts/concerns on this? It seems far too real to be another doomsday story made up by those Nibiru people...
 

Gully Foyle

Gully Foyle
That burps loudly and the San Andreas fault goes sprong.

Scientific American map of the calderas:

4LNvre6.jpg


Possible ash cloud, Science.org
um8uTop.jpg
 

Alien

Alien
If (read - "when") Yellowstone does go, say goodbye to most of America.

OT - someone recently fell into one of the acid lakes there, and the Police can't decide if it was murder or suicide as no body can be recovered and there's no evidence to say one way or the other.
 

Remus

Remus
I know some of you in Britain hate everything related to the BBC.

Nevertheless I think that this TV fiction is one of the best TV entertainment on the subject you will find.

Definitively worth a a watch !

And the cool part is that everything they say is backed with facts and not some bull science. :)

1Cv9_AdB5Nw
[video=youtube_share;1Cv9_AdB5Nw]https://youtu.be/1Cv9_AdB5Nw[/video]
 

AkenBosch

AkenBosch
CMDR M. Lehman said:
The very best I could hope for is to die with both middle fingers extended and hope that my ashy remains are unearthed that way, Pompeii-style.
Click to expand...

Speaking of Pompei, since we are on the topic of supervolcanoes don't forget about the Campi Flegrei area in southern Italy, up there on the potential cataclismic factor together with Yellowstone and Toba Lake. It's been giving away worrying signs of waking up for some years now...if that pops, they'll find people buried in ashes just about everywhere around the Mediterranean area...
 

khaos526

khaos526
Well at least everyone will be safe from Yellowstone for at least the next 10,000 years. So not sure we'll even be around as a race at that point let alone having our many many generations after us experiencing it at all...
 

BACKER #-4112

BACKER #-4112
metatheurgist said:
Best thing is that there are other super volcanoes around.
Click to expand...

Suggestions are welcome.
I just watched another documentary about one in Iceland, the last time it went off, apparently it devastated a large portion of Europe.

Remus said:
... I think that this TV fiction is one of the best TV entertainment on the subject you will find.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that one, I enjoyed watching it.

AkenBosch said:
... don't forget about the Campi Flegrei area in southern Italy, ...
Click to expand...

Will be looking up that one next.
 

Arry

Arry
Yellowstone is a biggie, but there are over a dozen across the planet; that can put a hemisphere into darkness for a couple of years. Not much is going to come out the other side of that.
 

askavir

askavir
A yellowstone eruption would be a global disaster, probably the biggest one in the history of mankind.

OP, if you're into craters, check out this pic from the Tambora caldera in Indonesia. Tambora was the greatest volcanic eruption in the history of mankind. You could fit a small city in it's caldera.

Tambora.jpg

384586_620.jpg
 

Flimley

Flimley
In a fatal twist of irony. Whilst everybody worries about Yellowstone simply blowing..... Imagine an asteroid hitting the earth ? Right in the Yellowstone park. [yesnod]
That should sort out those fat cats up in Washing DC !

Flimley
 

BACKER #-4112

BACKER #-4112
askavir said:
... check out this pic from the Tambora caldera in Indonesia. ...
Click to expand...

Interesting stuff right there, if that one did go off, it would be too close to home for me in Australia.
I couldn't help but compare it with Taal crater. There is an interesting story on Wiki (linked in OP) about the 1754 eruption.

K1u3rQq.png


You can see a road going around the top of the main crater, that's the old prehistoric crater, a lake formed in the old crater and finally
the new crater you see in the middle of the lake was formed during the 1965 eruption. The main lake is home to a lot of fish-farmers,
who grow Telapia in the fertile waters. Oddly enough, the new crater in the middle of the lake, has a lake in it too. Highly acidic water
that is still bubbling away in some spots. Also, it stinks. Probably from all the sulphur...

In the first image in the OP, Taal, is taken from the edge of the old crater, near Tagaytay. You can barely make out the opposite side.
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Manticore said:
All I could think of when I saw this thread title was 2012, the movie:

https://i.makeagif.com/media/5-04-2017/_olisq.gif
Click to expand...
I loved that movie.

It was so bad, it was brilliant. Lol


What happens if we just dig a hole in the volcano and release the pressure slowly?

:p

I read they are going to try and pump water down there to cool it.

Sometimes, I do wonder if messing with things is actually a bad idea. Lol

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 
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