Super volcanoes 'may be predicted'

DougC · #1 by **DougC** » Feb 02, 2012 3:28 am

"The eruption of some of the largest volcanoes on the planet could be predicted several decades before the event, according to researchers."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16834570

Ihavenofingerprints · #2 by **Ihavenofingerprints** » Feb 02, 2012 5:32 am

Good news.

Ironclad · #3 by **Ironclad** » Feb 02, 2012 5:38 am

They want to take this work and go to Yellowstone Park, like right away. That baby will kill us all.

DavidMcC · #4 by **DavidMcC** » May 31, 2012 2:37 pm

Ihavenofingerprints wrote:Good news.

No, actually, it's bad news, considering what the studies show about the Yellowstone magma chamber.

mattthomas · #5 by **mattthomas** » May 31, 2012 3:00 pm

Ironclad wrote:They want to take this work and go to Yellowstone Park, like right away. That baby will kill us all.

Well it WILL certainly kill a large swathe of North America, possibly Canada by the ash cloud alone, but then when you consider that North America is such a massive supplier of cereal around the world there will be a huge decrease in food supply, couple this with a global drop in temperature of a few degrees in the short term as the ash fills the atmosphere and countries such as the UK will struggle to grow enough crops to feed ourselves and many others around the world will die from starvation and hypothermia.

Now there's 3 known super volcanoes in North America, Yellowstone, One in California and one in New Mexico and another 3 in Japan, Indonesia and New Zealand so either way you look at it Africa/Europe is probably best placed to survive a super volcanic eruption which is probably another fact to support the out of Africa theory for the arrival of humans.

But on the plus side, once the devastation has been cleared up, and civilisation rebuilt, you'll have some fucking amazing ground for growing potatoes :cheers:

orpheus · #6 by **orpheus** » May 31, 2012 3:12 pm

DavidMcC wrote:
Ihavenofingerprints wrote:Good news.

No, actually, it's bad news, considering what the studies show about the Yellowstone magma chamber.

I haven't been keeping track. What's the latest?

DavidMcC · #7 by **DavidMcC** » May 31, 2012 3:18 pm

It's in the link to Nature magazine, orpheus:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7383/full/nature10706.html
In a nutshell, magma build-ups seem to be quite short-lived, even when the average time between eruptions is very long, as with Yellowstone.

orpheus · #8 by **orpheus** » May 31, 2012 3:53 pm

DavidMcC wrote:It's in the link to Nature magazine, orpheus:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7383/full/nature10706.html
In a nutshell, magma build-ups seem to be quite short-lived, even when the average time between eruptions is very long, as with Yellowstone.

Thanks. For some reason the link didn't work for me.

BlackBart · #9 by **BlackBart** » May 31, 2012 6:13 pm

Yellowstone? Peh! A mere wet fart compared to the Siberian Traps!! :ahrr:

http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/palaeofile ... traps.html

Macdoc · **#10** by **Macdoc** » May 31, 2012 8:15 pm

Santorini is the big threat for Europe.

DavidMcC · **#11** by **DavidMcC** » Jun 01, 2012 7:37 am

Macdoc wrote:Santorini is the big threat for Europe.

Only in terms of the immediate impact. Yellowstone will have a much longer-lived global effect, eg, on global agriculture and global economic activity generally.

DavidMcC · **#12** by **DavidMcC** » Jun 01, 2012 7:39 am

BlackBart wrote:Yellowstone? Peh! A mere wet fart compared to the Siberian Traps!!

http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/palaeofile ... traps.html

True, but nothing like that is expected to happen again any time soon.