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Visitors to Yellowstone National Park in the north-western United States know not to be careless about the bears that roam its pines or the many hissing and sizzling geysers that dot its magnificent landscape. Few ever worry about being blown into space, though.
Startling new geological data published in the journal Science suggests that it might be a good idea for most of us – and certainly those living in the region – to be aware that there is more to Yellowstone than grand vistas and abundant wildlife. The hot springs are a clue to what lies beneath: seething layers of molten magma, super-heated gases and hydrothermal liquids.
“Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock,” Professor Smith explained. “But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again.” In other words, something is afoot, but no techniques exist to forecast what comes next. The prediction is easier for single-channel, cone volcanoes. At a caldera such as Yellowstone, the magma could suddenly blow through at any number of locations. “We use the term ‘restless’ to describe these systems.”
And what if the ground at Yellowstone does not start to go down? Well, these calderas, he admits, “occasionally they burp”. Let’s hope the park’s belly-ache resolves itself – such a “burp” would shake half of the planet.
That’s OK. Since the studies come from scientists, half of America won’t even glance up from watching “reality” TV.
#21. Wouldnt it be great if we could devise a way to harness the energy from this caldera, it would probably solve all of our energy concerns.
I remember when only nerd’s (and a few geek’s) knew about this. Mom had a big section on this when we studied plates and abduction and earthquakes.
Then I noticed it has made it into a few disaster movies(catagory 10 to name one), but the women from the old show NYPD saved us….or at least MOST of us.
http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm
Lets put this in perspective…
THIS thing is about 10+ times LARGER then the Volcano in Hawaii..
Its estimated to explode 6000 times MORE Ash into the air then saint helens. AND this is a LAVA volcano like in Hawaii..
“Super explosions, about 1,000 times more material erupted than Mt. St. Helens in 1980, happen about every 600,000 years at Yellowstone,” Wicks says. “And it’s been about 620,000 years since the last super explosive eruption there.”
Opps my numbers are off…
The main concern comes in 2 places.. IF/when it happens, look at the 2 Major rivers in the area. The Snake/columbia river and the Mississippi will be Filled with Ash.
http://tinyurl.com/26doft
http://tinyurl.com/yqahr8
Could the undocumented magma be from CHINA?
Perhaps a few thousand geothermal installations spread around the area would cool the top layers a little bit over a few decades. And we’d have all that energy!
Okay, I don’t know what we’d do with it all, aluminum refining maybe?
This is a good argument for increasing geothermal energy exploitation of the earth. The more heat we tapped from the earth’s crust, the cooler and more stable it will become. Though I’m sure that some purist fanatic will say that reducing the heat of the earth’s crust is somehow a bad thing for nature. While it’s always a good thing for mankind, if it reduces catastrophic geological events. But yeah, you can be certain that some obscure little plant or microbe depends on earthquakes and eruptions. So farming the earth subsurface heat will get a bad rap, on some stupid pro-nature channel. One that’s probably funded by big oil, that wants to prevent Geothermal wells from competing with their product. Places like Yellowstone could easily be tapped for its excess heat. Thus preventing a future destructive event. And still leave it pristene enough for the tourist trade. Just like how NIagra Falls has been developed to produce hydroelectic power. Very few ever notice (or know) that the falls aren’t as powerful as they once were. But some purist would grouse about drilling too close to (read “anywhere near”) the geyser field.
I spent 3 summers of my youth working in the park. At the time, I was pursuing a degree in Geology. What better place to see Geology first hand than Yellowstone? That being said, allow me to make a few observations.
First off, the land beneath Yellowstone is in a conastant state of shift, due to the geological forces underneath. As a result, for instance, Old Faithful has lost it’s clock and goes off within a timeframe, not the every hour on the hour that most people think of from those old Warner Brothers cartoons. Other results are that former geysers that were just as “faithful” have grown dormant and silent, while other vents have formed elsewhere.
Second, and most importantly, when scientists that are studying this phenominon are discussing “soon”, they are talking in terms of geological time. To them, soon includes the years 2007-12,007 AD. Chances are that none of our great great great great grandchildren are going to be around when this goes burp.
Remember, the “Big One” in California was supposed to have already occured back some 15-20 years ago, according to the geological time-table. As I write this, it hasn’t happened quite yet. Geologists know for absolute certainty that it will eventually happen, just not the exact day.
Try to keep things in perspective before believing all these dire warnings. In fact, I would be surprised if any rational Geologists would tell anyone to cancel their trips to Yellowstone over the fear of it going boom.
Why is it all of a sudden so en vogue to create these huge, insurmountable boogiemen and fears in things that we neither have any control over, nor any realistic chance of falling victim to?
this is not NEW (athough I guess if all you watch is Fox News & lying affiliates, it might be)…
The geological record shows that, like clockwork, approx every 640,000 years the yellowstone caldera goes BA-BOOOOM!!… and we’re 2,000 years overdue… sure 2K years isnt much geologically speaking – but just look at current data (aka the gradual rise of the land over the caldera, swelling like a huge blister just waiting for the most inopportune moment to burst and spew its love everywhere)…
Wind patterns will likely blow the majority of the ash east, as current models suggest… so it might not be a bad idea to visit/move to the west coast – incase it does blow soon & turn you into Mr. Crispy.
And tinfoil? bah that shit will just melt – go get some flame-retardant fire-fighter gear
#29, Eric,
Thank you for the insight.
Why is it all of a sudden so en vogue to create these huge, insurmountable boogiemen and fears in things that we neither have any control over, nor any realistic chance of falling victim to?
While that is a reasonable question, I have two answers.
It is always better to be prepared. We can’t control a Hurricane, but knowing it is coming allows us to take evasive action.
People fall victim to natural disasters all the time. A very good example would be the Great Tsunami of 2004. No one there thought they had much chance of dying either.
No, we should not allow our lives to be run by fear (as I think you meant). To be aware and respond intelligently is always wise. Such as building your home on a fault line or repairing your antenna during a lighting storm might be stupid but that does not mean you can’t build a home or repair your antenna ever.
29–Eric==of course we should feel comfortable visiting there===Now–should state or local government study this to the point of issuing maps with color coded areas showing the scale of expected destruction on a major eruption???
And based on that map, should any “town” be built in the red area??? Or should like most coastal areas including New Orleans, should the area be left as a natural buffer for where intelligent people live?
As an armchair astronomy enthusiast, friends and relatives often ask me if they should worry about asteroids. I reply, “Probably not. If you’re into worrying about such things, try large volcanic events instead. For instance, in 1815, the Indonesian island of Tambora blew up, throwing 50 cubic kilometers of ash into the stratosphere, which caused some interesting phenomena, like the Hudson River freezing over in July”.
There’s even a book called “Year Without A Summer”. Fascinating read.
As others have pointed out, this is not unique.
Here in California, the “Long Valley Caldera” has been uplifiting similarly for years (it’s east of Yosemite and south of Mono Lake, near Mammoth, CA).
The potential for tremendous eruptions is present, but not at all a sure thing, just one of many ominous things in this world that “could happen”
Simple geophysics: warm up the atmosphere, and the land will warm as well. Adding energy to matter (ie: warming it up) causes expansion. Expansion, on land, causes volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions kill people and release energy. Volcanic clouds also block sunlight, which further cools the surface (and hence the subsurface).
Oh, a really, really big explosion that utterly screws up the entire planet – well, that would be mostly bad, but some of the results might be good. Every cloud has a silver lining.
Yellowstone blowing up might not be quite as bad as you might think, except in the immediate area around the park, maybe a 100 mile radius.
Look what happened when Mt. St Helens blew. Yes, the immediate area got toasted. The ash that spewed forth to the east (I found ash particles on my mom’s car in Indianapolis a couple days later, believe it or not) increased the fertility of the land it fell on because ash is a fertilizer and a good soil amendment. There were bumper crops the following year where the ash fell.
On the other hand, pick-a-nick baskets might become uncommon at the park for a few years, and Yogi and Boo-Boo might have to move elsewhere.
#36, Contrary to what you suggest, if this caldera does go it will be much bigger than Mt. St. Helens was. If you read the article you would have noticed that Mt. St. Helens took out 240 sq. miles.
Well, these calderas, he admits, “occasionally they burp”. Let’s hope the park’s belly-ache resolves itself – such a “burp” would shake half of the planet.
This is one of those so large and scary it’s incompehensible events. Just like the Azores Islands Tsunami scenerio and the rogue comet/meteor strike, if it ever happens, at minimum, life is never the same again, at most life is over.
So hard to grasp that it’s almost not worth worrying about, since it will happen, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Yeah, but if all life on the planet were destroyed it would be cool. Especially since we wouldn’t have to worry about dying from global warming anymore.
I’ve been wearing tin foil in my socks to prevent this so no one has to worry. I got it covered.
For those that need a bit of reality…
When St. Helens blew its top…If you check there were 3 other volcanes that POPPED… In the next few years we had record snow and rain AROUND the world. The Dust/dirt/ash went around the world 3-5 times before settling..
NOW figure something LIKE 1000 volcanoes POPPING there tops at the SAME time. THAT is what Yellow stone would be like…ALSO consider that Yellowstone is only 1 of the 6 super volcanoes on this planet. AND 3 of them are IN THE USA.