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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:04 AM
Original message
Yellowstone Caldera update
http://www.suntimes.com/news/quicktakes/681225,CST-NWS-qt05.article


QT Yellowstone Caldera (the eruptions of which can be violent enough to send a layer of ash 6 feet deep as far away as Chicago and which erupts every 600,000 or so years and last erupted 640,000 years ago) Update:

There were 34 earthquakes at Yellowstone in October.

There were 69 earthquakes in November.

There were 11 earthquakes the first three days of December.

The rise of magma beneath the ground continues at a record rate.

Ho, Ho, Ho!
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ixion Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:06 AM
Response to Original message
1. maybe a white (ash) xmas, eh?
:)
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Tyler Durden Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:06 AM
Response to Original message
2. Sure would solve a lot of those campaign issues, nes ne pas?
Nothing like a supervolcanic catastrophe (is that a double negative?) to take one's mind off the Clinton/Obama mindfuck.

Boom.
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BushOut06 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:11 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Would give * a perfect excuse to declare a state of emergency, give himself dictator powers
We know it's going to happen someday. Hopefully not in our lifetimes. But definitely not while this assclown is in office. He and Cheney are such opportunistic assholes, they'd seize that as excuse to suspend the Constitution, and stay in power indefinitely.
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Tyler Durden Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:19 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. Who would be left to CARE west of the Mississippi?
You have to be alive and well to give a shit who's in charge.
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Virginia Dare Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:20 AM
Response to Reply #4
17. With any luck Cheney will be wintering in Wyoming at the time...
and the chimp would be permanently ensconced in a rubber room someplace.
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GreenPartyVoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 11:53 AM
Response to Reply #4
27. If the caldera blew, ** and Cheney would be in a bunker somewhere while the rest of us
died. Trust me. The state of the nation and the planet after an eruption would be unrecognizable and there would be far fewer people to get money from. (And money might not matter so much anymore anyway.)
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Diamond Dave Donating Member (252 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:08 AM
Response to Original message
3. Quite possibly could be a really merry, kinda explosive, firework kinda
Christmas and Happy New Year, 2008. It could put the stock market and the mortgage meltdown along with "peak oil" in a whole new "merry" kinda light.

Peace and good will to all!!
Ho, HO Ho And HO some more.............

Happy Holidays to one and to all....................... and then some, any one have some spare room on the south side of the planet?
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KewlKat Donating Member (867 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:16 AM
Response to Original message
5. Nice site about it at the link below
SNIP:

The last eruption was 640,000 years ago…so the next is overdue. The next eruption could be 2,500 times the size of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. Volcanologists have been tracking the movement of magma under the park and have calculated that in parts of Yellowstone the ground has risen over seventy centimeters this century.

http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm
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PetrusMonsFormicarum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:26 AM
Response to Original message
7. These stupid banner ads
on DU must be keyed in to certain words/metatags of each post: I'm reading about Yellowstone about to pop its cork and a "Travel Wyoming" ad is having a flashgasm on my screen . . .
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ThomWV Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:30 AM
Response to Original message
8. Everyone be afraid, be very afraid .... horsehshit!
Find something else to worry about that you can not possibly have any effect on what so ever, something like astroids hitting the earth or alien invasions. Or how about this, why don't you spend some time worrying about the Administration in Washington which would gladly lead us into massive destruction that we actually can do something about.
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cali Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:33 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. I don't see that the OP says to worry about it
and it is interesting. I agree that it's laughable to worry about such things, but that doesn't mean it's not fascinating stuff.
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countryjake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 11:49 AM
Response to Reply #8
26. I imagine that NNN0LHI spends plenty of time worrying...
about everything people on this planet should be aware of. There are folk settled and living all around this monster who have no idea it's there or what could, potentially, happen.

Nuttin' wrong with learning about super volcanoes!
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maine_raptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 07:39 AM
Response to Original message
10. Oh, Great!
I just spent a day and a half shoveling, blowing, pushing, and lugging the 2+ feet of white crap that Mother Nature dumped on us here, and now I you tell me I gotta worry about Yellowstone burping!!!!!!!!!!

Jeesh.........:crazy:
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 08:25 AM
Response to Original message
11. Well, maybe it will put a stop to global warming.
We can have a volcanic winter instead.
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Virginia Dare Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:21 AM
Response to Reply #11
18. Always a silver lining...n/t
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shadowknows69 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 08:27 AM
Response to Original message
12. Gaia getting ready to expell the American empire?
Edited on Wed Dec-05-07 08:27 AM by shadowknows69
We are the only hold outs against "Kyoto". There might be a few folks in Australia that will survive it.
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Thothmes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 08:34 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. If we signed Kyoto would that stop the movement of magma under Yellowstone
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shadowknows69 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:13 AM
Response to Reply #13
15. No, but in general principle mother earth might be pissed at us
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Thothmes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-06-07 09:04 AM
Response to Reply #15
29. When did granite or basalt evolve to the point of being able to get pissed?
n/t
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Marrah_G Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 08:56 AM
Response to Original message
14. There won't be much left to worry about if that sucker blows
The one thing Humans cannot control is Mother Nature. If it happens, it happens and there isn't much to do except adapt to the changes afterwards.

It is both fascinating and scary at the same time.

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Virginia Dare Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:19 AM
Response to Original message
16. Hopefully FEMA is on the job!...
not a whole lot you can do but stick your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye!
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dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:34 AM
Response to Original message
19. how abnormal is the earthquake activity they've been having...?
114 earthquakes since october- how uncommon, if at all, is this?

do they have a way of measuring the magma dome in terms of size/volume?
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BadgerLaw2010 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:39 AM
Response to Reply #19
21. No one knows what "normal" for Yellowstone is.
Edited on Wed Dec-05-07 10:42 AM by BadgerLaw2010
It's unique and we've never seen it go off, either in a minor or a major eruption. We don't know what the precursors would be, or how to tell the difference between a big blast and just a minor release of pressure.

It's possible the build-up to a major eruption could be hundreds of years long with all sorts of very clear warning, with earthquake activity fluctuating and rising over decades like a stock market. It's also possible it could blow up with almost no warning at all.

No one was around 640,000 years ago to check. Supervolcanos are very poorly understood - apart from the civilization threatening consequences.
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dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 11:13 AM
Response to Reply #21
23. in the years since yellowstone was discovered-
how uncommon is the current spat of earthquakes? :shrug:

i'm not from the area, so i don't know if the earthquake numbers are wildly abnormal, or just about what you'd normally expect.

or have there been periods of earthquakes like this in the years since it's discovery?

and yes, i realize that geologically speaking, the time since it's discovery is almost infinitesimally short.
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countryjake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 11:37 AM
Response to Reply #19
25. Here's some of their recent research...
Recent ups and downs of the Yellowstone Caldera
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/2007/upsanddowns.html
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dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 01:45 PM
Response to Reply #25
28. thanks, that's pretty much what i was looking for...
"...Given the geologic history of the area, it is likely that the current period of uplift will cease, to be followed by another cycle of subsidence."

i think i can stand down & return to defcon 2 now.
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UTUSN Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:36 AM
Response to Original message
20. A DUer with a geologist-father said the signs of time to worry are:
1) when geology graduate students troop IN for observation, and, 2) when they TROOP the eff OUT in a big effing HURRY!1

That said, it is a major deal. Trouble is, loons like George NOORY love to use it as hysteria, along with topics like the NAFTA superhighway with frequent guest Jerome CORSI, and the immigrant INVASION of the BROWN people, and killer asteroids. But NOT global warming, just the WINGNUT topics.
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Tierra_y_Libertad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 10:39 AM
Response to Original message
22. "There is no safety in the cosmos." Alan Watts
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countryjake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-05-07 11:31 AM
Response to Original message
24. There were 100 to 200 earthquakes, per day, at Yellowstone...
from October 16 to October 20, during the swarm of 1985, and the two largest events (magnitudes 4.9 and 4.3) struck on November 9 of that year.

Tracking Changes in Yellowstone's Restless Volcanic System
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs100-03/


The lowest monthly figure recorded during the past year was only 34 earthquakes at Yellowstone in October.

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Status Page
http://volcano.wr.usgs.gov/yvostatus.php
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