But that time, there shouldn't be too many 'human' (were they homo sapiens?), so the remaining 10000 may be still a noticeably big part of the overall population.... but now....?! From 6 Billion to what? 2? (Adam and Eve? 
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Yellowstone super volcano.
- Thread starter Will Sheephogan
- Start date
Yea....You're right! A reasonable amount of people left over after the big one hits in the middle of Yellowstone would be just about two.....and maybe a big snake hanging out in an apple tree handing out apples for nutritional purposes......
Let me see....Was it John 3:18 or was it Genesis????
Atta Boy
Let me see....Was it John 3:18 or was it Genesis????
Atta Boy
You can't honestly believe that a volcano could reduce the earths population from 6 billion down to single figures?! Human can adapt well, its amazing what we can achieve if we're left with no other option. Most who can afford a gas mask, a roof over their head and a hydro setup should survive just fine. Not ideal living conditions, most in the third world and the USA would suffer horrific loss. Third world countries through starvation and lack of filtered air, the USA through lava flows and general mayhem.
The species would survive elsewhere tho and eventually prosper once the fallout winter was over and could grow food naturally again, in say 50 - 100 years. We'd have to use up most of our fossil fuel resources and come up with alternatives to provide warmth and light 24/7, but hey, its not like we'd have to worry about polluting the environment!!
The species would survive elsewhere tho and eventually prosper once the fallout winter was over and could grow food naturally again, in say 50 - 100 years. We'd have to use up most of our fossil fuel resources and come up with alternatives to provide warmth and light 24/7, but hey, its not like we'd have to worry about polluting the environment!!
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Probably somewhat close to single digits. Certainly less then 1% of what exists now. This would be a global catastrophe, and there would be no 'elsewhere' to go. The only people who would live would be those able to:
use some energy source not provided by the sun
have an airtight shelter
have a green house with artificial light
isolated enough that their setup isn't trashed by the masses in the aftermath
This is assuming the amount of sun blocking ash predicted would actually happen
Let's see if we can imagine a 6 to 10 mile wide asteroid or bigger plowing it's way thru the atmosphere and burying itself right in the middle of Yellowstone, the world's largest supervolcano, which by the way, is just about ready to blow it's top off again like it does every 600,000 plus years or so....Worst case scenario? I think it is, short of being sucked into a supermassive blackhole....Of course anyone left over after the asteroid hits would soon probably run out out of McDonalds hamburgers to eat anyway.....
Atta Boy
Atta Boy
I wonder if mountain men have greater chance of surviving since they've been living with less sunlight.....
(Aaaahhhhh! It's yeti!!!!)
(Aaaahhhhh! It's yeti!!!!)
Let's see, the Dutch have large natural gas reserves, wich they currently use to provide light and heat for a large amount of greenhouses (flowers, fruits and vegetables are one of our largest exportproducts). With the exportmarkets no longer there, "smashed" by some catastrophic event, the productlevels should be sufficient to feed the internal population, provided a strong leader and good coordination is there to get our shit together when everybody is losing is head, but I have my doubts about my government having such drastical backupplan or the abillity to make it work fast, damn bureaucrats! Just look how many trouble we have to recover from some simple powerouttages or bushfires, in this supposedly technologically advanced age.
Also, some primitive populations would be able to survive in mines/caves, wich always have the same warm climate deep underground and insects to feed on, wich in their turn also not rely on sunlight but sulphur/hydrogen bacteria.
I think only the hypermodern man and the primitive bushman will survive, but it looks pretty bad for people who rely on montly paychecks and used to get food at mcdonalds. Organisation and sticking together will be the key
Also, some primitive populations would be able to survive in mines/caves, wich always have the same warm climate deep underground and insects to feed on, wich in their turn also not rely on sunlight but sulphur/hydrogen bacteria.
I think only the hypermodern man and the primitive bushman will survive, but it looks pretty bad for people who rely on montly paychecks and used to get food at mcdonalds. Organisation and sticking together will be the key
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i know this may sound incredibly dumb, but could you just make a filter that sits high above the volcano, i mean sure the lava would destroy the area around but if the filter could grab some of the ash maybe like 1/2 of it...
im a idiot...
EDIT: oh and if there was anyone prediction on when this will blow, do you think it would be 2004-2050 or farther in the future?
im a idiot...
EDIT: oh and if there was anyone prediction on when this will blow, do you think it would be 2004-2050 or farther in the future?
I think the key in controlling supervolcanoes is to make them explode every thousand years, not allowing them to build up such a huge magmalake in the coarse of a few hundredthousand years.
But I don't have a clear idea how to vent this supervolcanoe now that is has reached gigantic proportions. One should think of a way to scoop magma out of the lake while preventing the pressure to drop....
But I don't have a clear idea how to vent this supervolcanoe now that is has reached gigantic proportions. One should think of a way to scoop magma out of the lake while preventing the pressure to drop....
B
buddhafish
Guest
no problem. while we're at it, we should lower the sea level a bit so that melting ice bergs won't flood los angeles.
Keep in mind that the object that created the famous meteor crater in Arizona 25,000 years ago had it impacted in Montana, could have easily made Yellowstone blow it's top. That object that created Arizona Meteor crater was the size of a small hydrogen bomb and would of, if it hit Yellowstone, created the biggest supervolcano eruptions of all time....Watch out for the next one....It could be headed for Montana.
Atta Boy
Atta Boy
If and when Yellowstone Caldera erupts again, and I don't doubt that it will, it's unclear whether or not the eruption would be on the same scale as Toba. The earth is constantly cooling, and the North American plate is constantly moving, and the evidence isn't conclusive as to whether or not the crust composition is the same as it was prior to previous eruptions.
Supposing that it did erupt again in our lifetime, and was anything close to previous eruptions, I'm sure the damage and loss of life would be horrific, but certainly nothing akin to the situation the followed the Toba eruption. The population bottleneck that resulted from that eruption was largely a result of stone age man not being a very adaptable creature, relative to what we are today. Were the world to see a 2-4* drop in global temp. for a period of a few years while the ejecta cleared itself from the atmosphere, there would be significant impact on farming, but considering that farmers grow more food than can be eaten, mankind would not be in great jeopardy of becoming extinct.
It's more likely now that the Caldera will vent itself in a series of smaller events.
Supposing that it did erupt again in our lifetime, and was anything close to previous eruptions, I'm sure the damage and loss of life would be horrific, but certainly nothing akin to the situation the followed the Toba eruption. The population bottleneck that resulted from that eruption was largely a result of stone age man not being a very adaptable creature, relative to what we are today. Were the world to see a 2-4* drop in global temp. for a period of a few years while the ejecta cleared itself from the atmosphere, there would be significant impact on farming, but considering that farmers grow more food than can be eaten, mankind would not be in great jeopardy of becoming extinct.
It's more likely now that the Caldera will vent itself in a series of smaller events.
15ofthe19 said:
O.K.....The next time Yellowstone has a magnitude 5.0 or greater earthquake, maybe you can take a good nearby viewing location, maybe in a boat somewhere in the middle of Yellowstone lake and give us an update when the first eruption occurs.....or "venting" as you call it....Maybe a first hand account will encourage others to do the same thing....Right? I'm not too sure that many of the current active volcano chasers will be so entusiastic about watching nearby or at close range, a series of venting eruptions from the Yellowstone supervolcano as you are.....if there is any venting happens at all....I predict a couple of big 5.0 magnitude earthquakes in the Yellowstone area and one big blast and that's it. Keep us posted.
Atta Boy
uh, by the way, what are actually the 'ashes' spitted out by volcanoes? Molten-n-cooled parts of the mountain? Solidified gas which reacts to other particle?
can't we make some carbonfire large umbrella suspended from stratospheric blimps to act as ceiling to contain the fine ashes that would otherwise spread through the whole atmosphere ? That would make it large local disaster but not necessarely global..?
also as a last resort, what happen to fine dust particle clouds if they are caught in the middle of a large atomic explosion, woudn't many particles evaporate into gas ? effectively loosing it's sunblocking properties?
(and especially for Atta boy, the hydrogen bombs could be used to desintegrate incoming meteorite that heading for yellowstone as well)
Maybe 3 or four hydrogen bombs in the high atmosphere could breakdown the dustcloud before it spreads out?
but who cares anyway, Fermi Labs or Global warming or Bush misstaking the red button for Janets nipples will get us first
also as a last resort, what happen to fine dust particle clouds if they are caught in the middle of a large atomic explosion, woudn't many particles evaporate into gas ? effectively loosing it's sunblocking properties?
(and especially for Atta boy, the hydrogen bombs could be used to desintegrate incoming meteorite that heading for yellowstone as well)
Maybe 3 or four hydrogen bombs in the high atmosphere could breakdown the dustcloud before it spreads out?
but who cares anyway, Fermi Labs or Global warming or Bush misstaking the red button for Janets nipples will get us first
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Madscientist1
Registered Member
The press release from Yellowstone and the following faq is definetly controversial. They've closed off the Norris Geyser however when questioned about it's safety for staff and visitors they claim yes.But then again what can you do? Order a full scale evac of 600 + miles for something that can happen at anytime? I guese it's just a waiting game...pretty scary though. I have heard numerous different reports of the magma moving in other areas away from yellowstone...but there still exists swollen ground and temperature rising, and methane gas counts rising as well....who knows..if someone does.....they're not saying anything....
river-wind
Valued Senior Member
RE: the reduction of the human population.
Every cell in our bodies has a few mitochondria in it- a tiny organelle used in the process of getting energy out of chemicals. This organelle was (according to theory) once a seperate cell, with it's own reproductive cycle, etc. At one point, a cell came along and engulfed the mitochondria cell, in a processes called "internal sybiosis" (IIRC), basically making the smaller cell a part of the larger cell.
This is the theory for a few reasons, the one which applies here is because mitochonria have their own DNA. it is not currently used for anything (as far as we know), but it is passed from mother to child inside the egg. No mitochondira is passed from the father to the child.
Now, DNA mutates at a regular rate, and so the varience between two individuals can be esitmated by the amount of difference between the mitochonrial DNA.
some scientists, having done a full study of mitochondrial differences between samples from all the populations on the planet, concluded that the human population was once pretty big, but was reduced to a few thousand individuals at one time - a bottleneck which reduced the variation strains to a select few.
But we survived, even when there were only a few thousand people over the entire planet. Yes, I could see a world- catastrophy eliminating the population alltogether. However, if a small section of the population survived the initial catastrophy, then as long as the environment of the planet did not vary too significantly (more than a 50 deg. F temp difference, for instance), I would expect the human population to rebound.
If anyone survives, then the knowledge of mnany previous generations survives with them. Farming, etc won't be completely lost were the population to be reduced to a few hundred. The chances are good that at least one individual will have some knowledge of growing plants.
Every cell in our bodies has a few mitochondria in it- a tiny organelle used in the process of getting energy out of chemicals. This organelle was (according to theory) once a seperate cell, with it's own reproductive cycle, etc. At one point, a cell came along and engulfed the mitochondria cell, in a processes called "internal sybiosis" (IIRC), basically making the smaller cell a part of the larger cell.
This is the theory for a few reasons, the one which applies here is because mitochonria have their own DNA. it is not currently used for anything (as far as we know), but it is passed from mother to child inside the egg. No mitochondira is passed from the father to the child.
Now, DNA mutates at a regular rate, and so the varience between two individuals can be esitmated by the amount of difference between the mitochonrial DNA.
some scientists, having done a full study of mitochondrial differences between samples from all the populations on the planet, concluded that the human population was once pretty big, but was reduced to a few thousand individuals at one time - a bottleneck which reduced the variation strains to a select few.
But we survived, even when there were only a few thousand people over the entire planet. Yes, I could see a world- catastrophy eliminating the population alltogether. However, if a small section of the population survived the initial catastrophy, then as long as the environment of the planet did not vary too significantly (more than a 50 deg. F temp difference, for instance), I would expect the human population to rebound.
If anyone survives, then the knowledge of mnany previous generations survives with them. Farming, etc won't be completely lost were the population to be reduced to a few hundred. The chances are good that at least one individual will have some knowledge of growing plants.