Free Republic

More than 3.5 million people visit Yellowstone—the jewel in the United States's national park crown—every year. They gawk at the geysers, crisscross the canyons, bond with the bison, and take selfies with the scenery. So far no one, as far as I know, has ever gone to Yellowstone to commit murder, murder most foul. But it's not a bad spot for it! (If you're a murderer—and we don't advocate that you become one.) The park actually contains a narrow corridor less than two miles wide where evildoers could do literally anything, and the law couldn't touch them. Beware when you...

Although fears of a Yellowstone volcanic blast go viral every few years, there are better things to worry about than a catastrophic supereruption exploding from the bowels of Yellowstone National Park. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Yellowstone Volcano Observatory always pooh-pooh these worrisome memes, but that doesn't mean researchers are ignoring the possible consequences of a supereruption. Along with forecasting the damage, scientists constantly monitor the region for signs of molten rock tunneling underground. Scientists scrutinize past supereruptions, as well as smaller volcanic blasts, to predict what would happen if the Yellowstone Volcano did blow. Here's a deeper...

Volcanic eruptions have occurred at their highest rate in 300 years, and experts caution that there could be a massive "super-volcano" with the potential to kill millions and destroy substantial amounts of wildlife. Scientists at the European Science Foundation said super-volcanoes could erupt within the next 80 years, reported the Tech Times. Researchers said the active volcanoes that could prove to be the most dangerous are Yellowstone in Wyoming, Mount Vesuvius in Campagnia, Italy, and Popocatépetl near Mexico City. If any of the three erupt, the damage would be "beyond the imagination of anything man’s activity and global warming could...

April 23, 2015 – University of Utah seismologists discovered and made images of a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock 12 to 28 miles beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano, and it is 4.4 times larger than the shallower, long-known magma chamber. The hot rock in the newly discovered, deeper magma reservoir would fill the 1,000-cubic-mile Grand Canyon 11.2 times, while the previously known magma chamber would fill the Grand Canyon 2.5 times, says postdoctoral researcher Jamie Farrell, a co-author of the study published online today in the journal Science. “For the first time, we have imaged the continuous volcanic plumbing system...

A Waterloo man and his dog made a harrowing escape from the clutches of a vicious black bear Thursday while portaging near Wawa, Ont. Tom Tilley, 55, killed the nearly 200-pound bear by jumping on its back and stabbing the aggressive animal with a six-inch hunting knife after his dog alerted him and distracted the bear. "Love is a very powerful emotion and my thought right away was, 'You're not going to kill my dog,' " Tilley said yesterday. "I really consider my dog a hero. Without that first warning I would have had the bear clamping down on my...

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. -- Wildlife officials say they used doughnuts to catch a bear in Bonita Springs. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says a small young female bear was trapped Monday morning, five days after it was set free. Wildlife biologists are towing the bear in the trap to the Ocala National Forest. There, the bear will be tranquilized, receive a radio collar, be weighed and then released--again. Authorities also trapped a 225-pound male bear in the same area two weeks ago. Copyright 2