American time bomb.

Yes, this is nothing but pure sensationalism. Massive volcanic eruptions happen on a geological timescale (pun unavoidable). So even if you could find some nervous little ferret of a geologist who said an eruption is imminent, he would mean within the next 250,000 years or some such, because nervous little ferret that he is, he is still a proper geologist. So it's very likely that humanity will have exited the stage in one way or another (exodus to the stars, viral flu, atomic holocaust) long before the Yellowstone even is ripe for occurrence. The media just loves scare stories and are likely under orders from our 'benevolent' American government to keep us frightened. Remember the Ebola virus? Sure, there is such a thing, but I really got the impression that the mass media felt that AIDS was becoming boring so they dug up Ebola for the pure sensationalism effect of it.

We're all gonna die!!!!!! :runaway:
 
Our time bomb has not gone off, yet. But can anyone narrow down how long over due it is. Or how much time is estimated to be left. An what other super volcanoes could be close? I have posted earlier. What I found it has whent off like 3 times in 2.1 million years...
 
Crunchy Cat said:
Cold wave yes. The right 1/3 of the U.S. would be unaffected. The middle 1/3 of the U.S. would have a nice perpetual sooty winter for years to come. The left 1/3 of the U.S. would be evacuated or dead.
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You're saying that a volcanic eruption larger than any in recorded history would not fill the skies with ash all over the planet? I thought the ash from Krakatoa caused a measurable change in the global weather for about one year. Is that wrong? This is much bigger than Krakatoa.
 
Epictetus said:
We're all gonna die!!!!!! :runaway:
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Yep! It's just a matter of when. Nobody ever gets out of this life alive.:D Also, no species ever gets out of extinction either. Over 90% of all species that have ever lived are extinct now, and I don't think humans are any different in that matter than any other animals.
 
You're right Killjoy, and I now see where yo get your name, but can you rewrite that as breaking news?
 
Epictetus said:
You're right Killjoy, and I now see where yo get your name, but can you rewrite that as breaking news?
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Making up the news is not my job, but I do understand a little eye catching dramatization in order to catch the interest of the public in order to make a point. All these major death events they are talking about have happened in the past and the dramatization of these events is not misrepresentation, but is based on actual evidence of past ash depth and range from the eruption point, lava depth and range. We also know that much smaller volcano's can put enough ash into the atmosphere to block a great deal of sun light for a prolonged period of time. Well a super volcano is going to be many orders of magnitude worse. If all the worlds air traffic was grounded for 6 months to a year, how bad would that be? If people world wide couldn't grow any crops for a year, how bad would that be? If a new ice age started how bad would that be?

Just because none of this might happen in our life time doesn't mean it's not going to happen to some of our descendents. So thinking about these type scenarios and gaining knowledge can only be a good thing.
 
Yes, I agree with what you're saying, but think of the timescale. Let's say humanity as we know it has been around 10,000 years. I mean agricultural and pre-agricultural man. Don't like that spectrum? All right let's take five million years of walking upright or slouchy...what's five million years even when the Earth is 4 billion plus? Scaring people with super volcanoes is as over the top as scaring them with the extinction of our sun. Neither is anything to lose sleep over, and there's not a thing, short of migrating to another star, we can do about it anyway. So I say eat, drink and be merry because probably not even the day after tomorrow are we all going to die. :cheers:
 
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Epictetus said:
Yes, I agree with what you're saying, but think of the timescale. Let's say humanity as we know it has been around 10,000 years. I mean agricultural and pre-agricultural man. Don't like that spectrum? All right let's take five million years of walking upright or slouchy...what's five million years even when the Earth is 4 billion plus? Scaring people with super volcanoes is as over the top as scaring them with the extinction of our sun. Neither is anything to lose sleep over, and there's not a thing, short of migrating to another star, we can do about it anyway. So I say eat, drink and be merry because probably not even the day after tomorrow are we all going to die. :cheers:
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Shit happens, but I don't really think anyone's to worried about that volcano erupting in the short term, and I actually like the artful dramatization. If the volcano erupts tomorrow so be it.
 
KilljoyKlown said:
...All these major death events they are talking about have happened in the past and the dramatization of these events is not misrepresentation, but is based on actual evidence of past ash depth and range from the eruption point, lava depth and range. We also know that much smaller volcano's can put enough ash into the atmosphere to block a great deal of sun light for a prolonged period of time. Well a super volcano is going to be many orders of magnitude worse. If all the worlds air traffic was grounded for 6 months to a year, how bad would that be? If people world wide couldn't grow any crops for a year, how bad would that be? If a new ice age started how bad would that be? Just because none of this might happen in our life time doesn't mean it's not going to happen to some of our descendents. So thinking about these type scenarios and gaining knowledge can only be a good thing.
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Yes. I should have addressed the above more directly before, but my point remains the same - what's to be done about any of this anyway? Even the old global warming issue is now dead in the water. Despite the Kyoto Protocol and discussion at countless other high-level government seminars the truth is that world governments are doing NOTHING about the problem. I know some are still in denial of the problem's existence, but it's nonetheless troubling that 'the authorities' are helpless against even a gradual (possible) disaster like global warming.
 
Epictetus said:
Yes. I should have addressed the above more directly before, but my point remains the same - what's to be done about any of this anyway? Even the old global warming issue is now dead in the water. Despite the Kyoto Protocol and discussion at countless other high-level government seminars the truth is that world governments are doing NOTHING about the problem. I know some are still in denial of the problem's existence, but it's nonetheless troubling that 'the authorities' are helpless against even a gradual (possible) disaster like global warming.
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Global warming is a bit off topic, but it will resolve itself one way or another.
 
Epictetus said:
Yes, I agree with what you're saying, but think of the time scale. Let's say humanity as we know it has been around 10,000 years. I mean agricultural and pre-agricultural man. Don't like that spectrum? All right let's take five million years of walking upright or slouchy...what's five million years even when the Earth is 4 billion plus? Scaring people with super volcanoes is as over the top as scaring them with the extinction of our sun. Neither is anything to lose sleep over, and there's not a thing, short of migrating to another star, we can do about it anyway. So I say eat, drink and be merry because probably not even the day after tomorrow are we all going to die. :cheers:
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First off I am not trying to scare you or anyone but this. Is a fact. An this is a forum. Second off if we migrated to another star, we would all burn. So we would need to migrate to another planet. Or fly around like star trek.
 
So we would need to migrate to another planet. Or fly around like star trek.
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Why not try to overcome the problems that we face by coming up with solutions instead of just telling us about the problems? I've said before that there are ways to solve problems if we all just start thinking about ways to do so instead of only seeing there's only a catastrophe that can't be prevented. Instead we should say things that could help us to remedy, stop, protract or prevent any of the things that could wipe out humanity.
 
Buddha12 said:
Why not try to overcome the problems that we face by coming up with solutions instead of just telling us about the problems? I've said before that there are ways to solve problems if we all just start thinking about ways to do so instead of only seeing there's only a catastrophe that can't be prevented. Instead we should say things that could help us to remedy, stop, protract or prevent any of the things that could wipe out humanity.
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I'm not trying to be difficult... but big huge super volcano... what do you suggest?
 
Neverfly said:
I'm not trying to be difficult... but big huge super volcano... what do you suggest?
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Find a way to relieve the pressure... Oops! That's an eruption. Oh! Well back to the drawing board.:D

I would suggest that after we perfect matter transmission, we use the device to move large volumes of magma from the underground chamber to the moon or the Marianas trench. <I won't be holding my breath waiting for this technology>:D
 
KilljoyKlown said:
Find a way to relieve the pressure... Oops! That's an eruption. Oh! Well back to the drawing board.:D

I would suggest that after we perfect matter transmission, we use the device to move large volumes of magma from the underground chamber to the moon or the Marianas trench. <I won't be holding my breath waiting for this technology>:D
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The type of technology required to prevent or avert that kind of disaster wouldn't be around til after we found ways to colonize the solar system and hopefully, travel to the stars.
Even then... it seems unlikely. How to literally alter a tectonic plate?! With that kind of tech, we'd be able to build a planet!

If we assume I was in charge and had the technology to do something... I'd evacuate (not just humans) reasonably as possible.
Then minimize the explosive eruption to a vaguely tolerable degree- and let it blow. Seriously- let nature be nature.

Anything beyond such speculations is really rather useless because of the far reaching requirements of the tech needed.
 
Can anyone even imagine this conversation transpiring 50 years ago, prior to much of our advance in technology?

Interesting how we are more fearful of observable phenomena of grand proportions than we are of the microscopic potentials all around that could prove equally or more devastating. Observably, change is happening at those levels also, and we have no real idea why these shifts occur or how an intervention might be undertaken.

(Okay, Neverfly, you can be in charge of evacuating the danger zone.)
 
scheherazade said:
Can anyone even imagine this conversation transpiring 50 years ago, prior to much of our advance in technology?
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It would be like an episode of Lost in Space, only you would be like Michael J Fox in Back to the Future, shredding the guitar, while the bobby sox crowd just gaped in disbelief. (Actually that's an episode we'd like to see.)
Interesting how we are more fearful of observable phenomena of grand proportions than we are of the microscopic potentials all around that could prove equally or more devastating.
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It seems to say a lot about fear itself, how irrational it gets. Bacteria are ultimately going to make a meal of us, they're the only real enemy.
Observably, change is happening at those levels also, and we have no real idea why these shifts occur or how an intervention might be undertaken.
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It's like the way my skin would crawl watching The Invisible Man. And all those little bugs squirming around in a water drop under a microscope. Then you check the tap water, and if the wino down at the Water Depatment remembered to chlorinate today, they won't be squirming but then you see all those little nano skeletons with barbs and hooks and fangs and it does bring it all home.
(Okay, Neverfly, you can be in charge of evacuating the danger zone.)
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Do you keep a bomb shelter handy where you can run to when the going gets tough? I had a neighbor who treated his like pet rock. Every Saturday when every one else would be lollygagging around in their wife beaters, he'd be out there checking tank pressures, apply sealant to the dome, fiddling with his geiger counter. Like this was a work in progress. Or a best friend.
 
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