Oh no! Thank God I'll be in Europe for the next two weeks!
GJ said 1 day later
The real science: Yellowstone will wipe out half the US when it blows...and it could blow tomorrow. Or next week. Or, probably far more likely, at some point in the next 500,000 years. The magma rising could certainly be a harbinger, but we simply haven't been watching it long enough to know for sure. It could certainly be a typical cyclic item that only happens say every 1,000 years.
Steve said 1 day later
That's one problem with the world becoming overrun by humans. Whenever there is a natural disaster, the effects on humanity are going to be huge. The earthquake and resulting tsunami a couple of years ago the day after Christmas are an example of this. Fortunately, we have become fairly good about predicting or giving some kind of warning about most natural disasters (in fact, I think the tsunami warning systems have even gotten a lot better since that tragedy). Unfortunately, major volcanic eruptions happen so rarely that we don't have nearly the experience at understanding or being able to predict when they will happen, and when they happen, there is no time to react. Hopefully, by the time Yellowstone blows up, we will have found bigger and better planets to inhabit.
Perhaps we could also study ways to safely relieve the pressure that causes these major eruptions. I know, sounds a little crazy now, but who knows what the future holds.
GJ said 2 days later
Actually, scientists have been toying with that idea for quite a few years (the releasing pressure item). However, the amount of energy required (just look at how much is released with an eruption) makes it a daunting task, indeed.
The ever growing population of humans will generally be held in check, one way or another, by nature. The larger we get, the more impact any major event will have (any of the four horsemen). It's good to be king! :)
Geoff said 2 days later
Funny you bring Yellowstone up, I was just watching TV last night talking about super volcanoes...apparently Yellow blows it's top every 650-800,000 years (based on previous explosions from 3 million years ago). I guess we are right at the 650k mark....so it could blow anytime now, and it would cover anything within 1000 miles of it in 5 feet of soot...with the closer ones probably a wee bit more :)
I think the more likely event in the near future is the volcano in Africa (name escapes me) where there is a chance half the mountain will collapse in the ocean and send a 75 foot wave onto our east coast line.
But, even before both of these, we'll be invaded by aliens...so says the Sci-fi channel anyway ;)
GJ said 3 days later
The 650-800k estimate is the most popular guesstimate, but it leaves a rather large 150k year error window. Considering that it's only blown three times, the biggest time 1.2M years ago, and the last two considerably smaller in size, the next blast if and when it comes may well be smaller still. The fact that events 2 and 3 were equidistant from event 1 doesn't have any bearing on a future event 4. It may not happen for another million years...but of course, the longer it goes, the bigger the next event.
