Yellowstone “Supervolcano” Eruption Soon?
Politics / Climate Change Nov 11, 2007 - 02:02 AM GMT
According to the National Geographic, the Yellowstone caldera has been rising at a rate of approximately 3 inches every year since the middle of 2004, three times faster than any previous measurements.
Although the Supervolcano hasn’t produced any eruption for at least 70,000 years, it is still very active and most experts believe that it will erupt at some time in the future. Whether this will be a moderate eruption (comparable to Mount St. Helens), or something much larger and potentially more catastrophic globally, is impossible to predict.
The last major eruption at Yellowstone was 640,000 years ago, which created a caldera some 40 miles in width, but these have happened on a fairly regular basis over the last two million years, and it could be said that the next is overdue.
The current changes at Yellowstone were detected by global positioning system stations and radar instruments on an orbiting satellite, but Kenneth Pierce of the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman, Montana said “..the Yellowstone caldera has inflated and deflated about six to eight times without a volcanic eruption” during the last 14,000 years. Robert Smith, a geophysics professor at the University of Utah who co-authored the recent study agreed “Calderas go up and down” but “occasionally they burp”.
A large “burp”, as Robert Smith puts it, could produce catastrophic effects for the world population and a similar eruption of the Supervolcano in Toba (Indonesia) 75,000 years ago is believed to have wiped out 60% of the human population. On that occasion the Toba Supervolcano ejected almost three times as much material as the Yellowstone eruption did 640,000 years ago. However, the Yellowstone caldera can do much worse and this occurred 2.2 million years ago.
Indonesia has also seen some recent volcanic activity, and scientists are concerned that Mount Kelud might be on the verge of a devastating eruption. A number of volcanoes in the region have been spewing out hot ash, molten rock and dark smoke, including Anak Krakatao (Child of Krakatoa). Kelud killed more than 5,000 people following an eruption in 1919.
A large eruption could easily plunge the Earth into a “volcanic winter” and worsen the present climatic changes we are experiencing. Some have suggested that these “changes” might even be connected with Global Warming, and if the cause is originating from space, this may well be true.
The following extracts from the book "Global Warming - The Final Solution" might be of interest:
Friday, September 03 2021
It wasn’t just the melting ice that concerned the authorities, although this was serious enough, but the increased volcanic activity that was seen in the last five years, along with strong earthquakes. Could this trigger the eruption of a super volcano and finish off what little chance we had of survival?
Sunday, October 12 2025
We received devastating news from America that the super-volcano under Yellowstone Park had erupted. It was impossible to know the force of the eruption as all the zones close to the volcano were wiped out very quickly. It was also difficult for anyone to fly too close because of the volcanic ash that had been ejected into the atmosphere. Some satellite reports were obtained later, and these indicated a large eruption had taken place.
Whilst the eruption itself would not pose any immediate danger to us, it would be catastrophic to most of North America and would almost certainly end any hope they had of a future. As the ash cloud spread across the globe, other countries would also be affected, including Russia. We had a little more time, but not much.
The cloud would probably cover the entire planet in time and our chances of surviving the consequences were practically zero. It seemed that all our efforts, over so many years, would count for nothing as this latest tragedy placed the final nail in all our coffins.
Our planet constantly faces many potential life ending threats, most of which we are unable to do anything about. These are of serious concern of course, but we shouldn’t let them interfere with our daily routines. However, there is no reason why we can’t prepare ourselves for certain scenarios and the book offers suggestions in that respect. We must not confuse fear and ignorance with sensible precautions.
By Ian Brockwell
http://www.Profindsearch.com
Ian Brockwell is the creator of Profindsearch.com and interests include writing, teaching, politics, climate change, UFO reports, businesses of all descriptions, medicine and generally trying to enjoy life. Profindsearch is a very small search engine, which hopes to be a Google one day! (We can all dream) Article source
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