Scientists closely monitoring Yellowstone. 200 degree ground temperatures reported.

Idaho Observer ^

[Happy2BMe]

O.K.

This explains why the trout aren't biting this year at Yellowstone.

[Johnny_Cipher]

From what I've read about this "supercaldera" already, if it blows, cancel Christmas.

[ccmay]

When Yellowstone does blow, some geologists predict that every living thing within six hundred miles is likely to die.

Oh, please! What a crock of used food. This guy never heard of the inverse-square law.

-ccm

[fhayek]

How 'bout we move the detention camp from Gitmo to Yellowstone?

[dc-zoo]

She's gonna BLOW!!

[Rebelbase]

God forbid this thing is on its way to a super eruption. China may just get its wish to become the dominant superpower.

[cspackler]

may erupt soon

Soon being such a generic term, is that tomorrow, or sometime in the next 200,000 years? What a load of BS. Even used the word "imminent"...

[Ann Archy]

I'll bite...what is the inverse-square law? Be nice, I'm just a housewife.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Not the blast or the heat, but covering the countryside with volcanic ash. I could believe it has that much in it.

[ClearCase_guy]

Well, I assume this means we're all doomed. Damn.

[JennysCool]

I'm sure the PC Patrol is already busy crafting the Yellowstone Post-Volcano Snowmobile Law.

[Rebelbase]

How about enlighting us with your wisdom?

[chance33_98]

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/ Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

[Happy2BMe]

"What a load of BS."

All I wanted was a good day of fishing at the park.

[nhoward14]

Quick! Somebody get Joe up to Yellowstone to talk the volcano out of blowing its top!

[Rockitz]

Oh, the Hugh Manatee!

[null and void]

God forbid this thing is on its way to a super eruption. China may just get its wish to become the dominant superpower.

And the islamofascist would see it as a sign from allah...

[Kevin Curry]

What would be the effect of an eruption?

Immediately before the eruption, there would be large earthquakes in the Yellowstone region. The ground would swell further with most of Yellowstone being uplifted. One earthquake would finally break the layer of rock that holds the magma in - and all the pressure the Earth can build up in 640,000 years would be unleashed in a cataclysmic event.

Magma would be flung 50 kilometres into the atmosphere. Within a thousand kilometres virtually all life would be killed by falling ash, lava flows and the sheer explosive force of the eruption. Volcanic ash would coat places as far away as Iowa and the Gulf of Mexico. One thousand cubic kilometres of lava would pour out of the volcano, enough to coat the whole of the USA with a layer 5 inches thick. The explosion would have a force 2,500 times that of Mount St. Helens. It would be the loudest noise heard by man for 75,000 years, the time of the last super volcano eruption. Within minutes of the eruption tens of thousands would be dead.

The long-term effects would be even more devastating. The thousands of cubic kilometres of ash that would shoot into the atmosphere could block out light from the sun, making global temperatures plummet. This is called a nuclear winter. As during the Sumatra eruption a large percentage of the world's plant life would be killed by the ash and drop in temperature. Also, virtually the entire of the grain harvest of the Great Plains would disappear in hours, as it would be coated in ash. Similar effects around the world would cause massive food shortages. If the temperatures plummet by the 21 degrees they did after the Sumatra eruption the Yellowstone super volcano eruption could truly be an extinction level event.

[Vince Ferrer]

How's our moon base coming along?