[Kosh]

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/2248210


Ka-Boom?

[Grimper]

I've seen docos about yellowstone, and supposedly the explosion will be bigger than than Krakatoa.

[Polpolion]

Old news; saw this on a documentary on PBS years ago. Pretty interesting, though.

[ssmit132]

I've seen docos about yellowstone, and supposedly the explosion will be bigger than than Krakatoa.

How bigger than Krakatoa, then?

And anyway, we'll only know what it'll be like if (when) it happens. Which I wouldn't be surprised if it did. At least we're the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

EDIT: Proximity is not strictly a measure for survivability:

The Lake Toba eruption plunged the Earth into a volcanic winter, eradicating an estimated 60%[6][7][8][9][10] of the human population (although humans managed to survive, even in the vicinity of the volcano[11]), and was responsible for the formation of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere.

[achtung]

nah, it won't quite be that bad. most predictions expect the immediate danger zone to have a radius of 1000-1600km, with pumice & ash deposit probably covering all of California and most of the Midwest. but rather than being burned, most deaths/injuries will likely be caused by ash inhalation.

luckily, modern humans have the benefit of science and technology.given enough warning, most people within range of the volcanic
explosion and subsequent lava/pyroclastic flow (70,000 to 100,000+ individuals by some estimates) can be evacuated beforehand. everyone else will simply have to stay in doors for a couple of days before they too can be evacuated outside of the ash cover area.

the USGS seems pretty confident that the YVO monitoring program will detect any premonitory indicators (such as emissions of magmatic gases) of any such impending disaster. and studies indicate that, if there is a volcanic eruption, it is not likely to be a caldera-forming supervolcanic eruption due to insufficient rhyolitic magma-storage to sustain such an event.

in the event that a caldera-forming eruption takes place, then yes the ash will probably circle the entire globe and lower the temperature in the lower atmosphere for a few years, and that can have a severe impact on the ecology of the planet. but it's certainly survivable. and the chances of such an event actually occurring is still statistically insignificant--contrary to what is often reported, are are not "overdue" for a supervolcanic eruption. (the mean interval between such eruptions is 710,000 years, not 600,000 years.)

if others are interested, you can read the USGS's report on the Preliminary Assessment of Volcanic and Hydrothermal Hazards in Yellowstone National Park and Vicinity (the actual report is in PDF format).

From a comment on slashdot by lysergic.acid.

Sounds much more sensible to me.

[karajorma]

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/2248210


Ka-Boom?

Doubt it. Earthquakes in the area aren't exactly uncommon and there have been big quakes in the exact same place in the last 50 years.

Sooner or later Yellowstone probably will blow again but I'm not going to worry about an even that happens every half million years until the scientists start saying they think it's likely.

[BloodEagle]

In unrelated news, most dams in the United States are in a state of advanced decay.

Don't worry about that impending disaster, though.

[Black Wolf]

I've seen docos about yellowstone, and supposedly the explosion will be bigger than than Krakatoa.

How bigger than Krakatoa, then?

Incomparably bigger. Orders of magnitude. Volcanoes get classified by scale equivalence of ejecta (At solid igneous densities, so SGs of around 3). Krakatoa, if my shoddy memory of second year is any good, ejected 20 or so cubic km (equivalent). Supervolcanoes the size of Yellowstone will drop 500 to a thousand, maybe more. The last properly big one from there left a layer of tuff (volcanic ash - essentially you can think of it as a volcanically derived igneous sediment) which is one of the best dating strata for the last million years in the US becasue it's more or less everywhere.

Geology is trying to kill you all over the world though, so don't get too worked up about this. There are lots of other scary plaqces to worry about Fortunately, almost none of them are in Australia.

[Grimper]

Ahhhh..don't you just love living in Aus?

Oh and to all you foreigners...we get to ride in kangaroos. I also have a pet croc, which unfortunately ate my Koala.

[ssmit132]

Oh and to all you foreigners...we get to ride in kangaroos.

Don't spread false advertising!

[Grimper]

Aw can't I enjoy our stereotype for a minute?

[Mars]

As someone living in the first major city to be destroyed if and when it does blow . . . I choose to ignore this.

[Mongoose]

Geology is trying to kill you all over the world though, so don't get too worked up about this. There are lots of other scary plaqces to worry about Fortunately, almost none of them are in Australia.

Yeah, but we don't have killer snakes and stingrays and koalas swarming all over the place, thirsty for our blood.

[Nuclear1]

As long as it doesn't blow between now and June 09, I'm fine with it. Will never be in in the western states after that.

[captain-custard]

Ahhhh..don't you just love living in Aus?

Oh and to all you foreigners...we get to ride in kangaroos. I also have a pet croc, which unfortunately ate my Koala.

damn roo rootin  tankgirl aussies, but where the geology isn't scary the spiders and snakes make up for it , and if thats not enough , you just lost at home .....(ok for the first time in a million years but you still lost)   happy new year mate!

[Flipside]

How bigger than Krakatoa, then?

Put it this way, you know the states around Ohio have several feet of ash-rich top-soil?

That was from last time.

[Retsof]

As someone living in the first major city to be destroyed if and when it does blow . . . I choose to ignore this.

Right there with ya.

[Scuddie]

How bigger than Krakatoa, then?

Krakatoa doesn't have the pressure to cause a massive rupture in the lithosphere.  Yellowstone does.

To put it into context, imagine a break in the North American continent several miles wide, and spans from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.  That's what Yellowstone can do.

[Spicious]

Yeah, but we don't have killer snakes and stingrays and koalas swarming all over the place, thirsty for our blood.

How could you forget the spiders (and the kangaroos for that matter)?

[Flipside]

It's the sheep you really have to look out for, turn your back for a second...

Oh, and talking of Geological trouble, apparently, as London is expanding so quickly, it's actually causing the local area to sink under its weight, thus increasing flood-risks