Posted on 04/01/2005 3:01:49 PM PST by DannyTN
That claim is disputed, not an expert so i have no idea. But there does seem to be a arguement about that.
As long as Yellowstone continues to vent it is not that big a worry. It is when it doesn't vent that we should worry. That said, what is the evidence for repeated super-volcanos. I'm not saying, but only speculating that they could be one time events...where the explosion destroys the process leading to the vent in the first place.
yellowstone is one huge volcano (caldera) its surface has rose 2-3 feet in the recent past. when it goes
so do the cockroaches. :D
Actually the more ventng the more to worry about. The venting we see at yellowstone is not the volcano venting, it is groundwater being heated by the magma chamber. the more venting the closer the magma chamber is to the ground water and the earth surface. If the magma chamber gets winin a few miles of the surface ...... BOOM!
"We should be able to tap into this gas as an energy source."
You can and it is(well the heat not the gas), it's called geothermal energy. You shoot water down a hole, the hot ground turns it to steam and you use that to spin a turbine to produce electricity.
The gas is a noxious mix of toxic elements that make dirty coal technology look as clean as solar power. I'm not sure how you would use the sulfurous gases as anything but a giant fart gun.
Just a side note, another one that threatens to go off on a massive scale is Long Valley
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/california/long_valley.html
Well, there was an earthquake the day after Christmas, and the day after Easter. What's the next big Christian holiday? The earthquake'll happen the next day...
Can't we just drop a tactical nuke on any such volcano to take it out before it erupts?
"...what is the evidence for repeated super-volcnaos"? - blanknoone
The underlying "Yellowstone" structure began with a comet strike that punctured the upper and lower crust of the earth, causing lava flows that formed the Columbia River Plateau - in Washington State! Later, as the upper crust moved towards the Pacific, the punctured lower crust again allowed massive flows, forming the Snake River Plain - in Idaho. Now, Yellowstone, in Wyoming, has moved over that same weakened lower crust; it's blown in a big way there three times, so far. Repetition enough?
Volumes, in cubic miles, of major eruptions (the last three are Yellowstone):
Mount St Helens, 1980 -- 0.24 c.m.
Pinatubo, 1991 -- 2.4 c.m.
Krakatoa, 1883 -- 4.3 c.m.
Mount Mazama, ~ 7600 ya -- 18 c.m.
Tambora, 1815 -- 36 c.m.
Island Park Caldera (West of Yellowstone), 1.3 mya -- 67 c.m.
Yellowstone, 630,000 ya -- 240 c.m.
Yellowstone, 2 million years ago -- 600 cubic miles!
Other "Yellowstone" eruptions may have been larger, but are impossible to measure. The main evidence they've left behind is in the form of the Snake River Plain. The mountains that once stood there were destoyed by successive eruptions as the Yellowstone "hot spot" moved beneath them.
> Or is this another "theory", like "evolution".
That's a good point - on what grounds can they claim this? Sometimes, I have some problems with these modern biology that tell us that evolution is fact, a fetus isn't a person, and dehydration is a good way to die. :P Perhaps it's wrong of me to lump them all together, but you keep seing this sort of assertion of completely speculative stuff as if they're absolute facts.
Yikes! tick, tick, tick.
Exactly. I remember growing up, when a lot of explanations included the phrase, "we think it happened like this...", or "we believe this happened". Now it is all absolute, undeniable fact.
I guess some us frogs in the pot realize that the temperature is slowly being turned up to boiling point. ;)
Got a link? That would be a good read.
Don't forget the Deccan traps (~60my ago) weighing in at 12,000 cubic miles of lava(!)
Welcome to FR, by the way.
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