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BS: Is it that time?
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Subject: BS: Is it that time? From: beardedbruce Date: 09 Nov 07 - 07:47 AM "massive eruptions 2 million, 1.3 million and 642,000 years ago," Clock is ticking... Magma pushing up ground in Yellowstone Story Highlights Molten rock flowing up at rate of three inches per year, study found No evidence that an eruption is imminent, study author says Yellowstone was once site of giant volcano Park is site of Old Faithful and hundreds of other geysers WASHINGTON (AP) -- Yellowstone National Park, once the site of a giant volcano, has begun swelling up, possibly because molten rock is accumulating beneath the surface, scientists report. Yellowstone's Great Fountain Basin spews in file photograph provided by the National Parks Service. But, "there is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption," said Robert B. Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. Many giant volcanic craters around the world go up and down over decades without erupting, he said. Smith and colleagues report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the flow of the ancient Yellowstone crater has been moving upward almost 3 inches per year for the past three years. That is more than three times faster than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923, the researchers said. "Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock," Smith said in a statement. "But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again." It's not unusual for ancient volcano sites like Yellowstone and Long Valley, California, to rise and fall, according to the researchers. The Yellowstone volcanic field was produced by what the researchers described as a plume of hot and molten rock beginning at least 400 miles beneath Earth's surface and rising to 30 miles underground, where it widens to about 300 miles across. Blobs of molten rock sometimes rise to refill the magma chamber beneath Yellowstone. The volcano at Yellowstone produced massive eruptions 2 million, 1.3 million and 642,000 years ago, all larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Site of the famed Old Faithful and hundreds of other geysers, Yellowstone sprawls across parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: GUEST,PMB Date: 09 Nov 07 - 07:58 AM Never mind Old Faithful, what about the vents on Hazelhurst Middle Lock top paddles? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: beardedbruce Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:03 AM http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/supervolcano.html "QUESTION: What would happen if a "supervolcano" eruption occurred again at Yellowstone? ANSWER: Such a giant eruption would have regional effects such as falling ash and short-term (years to decades) changes to global climate. The surrounding states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming would be affected, as well as other places in the United States and the world. Such eruptions usually form calderas, broad volcanic depressions created as the ground surface collapses as a result of withdrawal of partially molten rock (magma) below. Fortunately, the chances of this sort of eruption at Yellowstone are exceedingly small in the next few thousands of years. " http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/2005/docudrama.html And you want to worry about car exhausts?????? We may NEED that global warming to keep from freezing over a several-year winter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: beardedbruce Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:05 AM Currently, volcanic activity is exhibited only via numerous geothermal vents scattered throughout the region, including the famous Old Faithful Geyser, but within the past two million years, it has undergone three extremely large explosive eruptions, up to 2,500 times the size of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The three eruptions happened 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and the most recent such eruption produced the Lava Creek Tuff 640,000 years ago and spread a layer of volcanic ash over most of the North American continent. Smaller steam explosions occur every 20,000 years or so; an explosion 13,000 years ago left a 5 kilometer diameter crater at Mary Bay on the edge of Yellowstone Lake (located in the center of the caldera). Additionally, non-explosive eruptions of lava flows have occurred in and near the caldera since the last major eruption; the most recent of these was about 70,000 years ago. Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho is the result of volcanic activity between 11,000 and 2,000 years ago. ... [edit] Volcanic hazard A full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone caldera could result in millions of deaths locally and catastrophic climatic effects globally, but there is little indication that such an eruption is imminent. [1] However, the system is not yet completely understood, and the study of Yellowstone is ongoing. Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which averages +/- 1.5 cm yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure. [citation needed] Major eruptions of the Yellowstone hotspot appear to occur roughly every 700,000 years. The Lava Creek Tuff eruption 630,000 years ago was last major eruption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: beardedbruce Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:10 AM "Smith and colleagues report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the flow of the ancient Yellowstone crater has been moving upward almost 3 inches per year for the past three years." "Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which averages +/- 1.5 cm yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure. " (Wiki) "The magma in this chamber contains gases that are kept dissolved only by the immense pressure that the magma is under. If the pressure is released to a sufficient degree by some geological shift, then some of the gases bubble out and cause the magma to expand. This can cause a runaway reaction. If the expansion results in further relief of pressure, for example, by blowing crust material off the top of the chamber, the result is a very large gas explosion.: (Wiki) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: beardedbruce Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:11 AM USGS Report... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Rapparee Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:18 AM Please tell me that I'll get home from Pittsburgh before she blows. I live 2.5 hours fromYNP. If she blows there isn't a lot anyone anywhere can do about it, so why worry? Craters of the Moon as a lava upwelling, not an explosive-type seismic event. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Sorcha Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:49 AM It's not something I lose any sleep over. It will happen someday and nobody has any control over when. Nobody gets out of this world alive. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: GUEST,Observer Date: 09 Nov 07 - 10:43 AM Rapaire says: "Please tell me that I'll get home from Pittsburgh before she blows." Wouldn't that be a great title for a movie??? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 11:04 AM Is it that time? Yes, it is. I have to pee again. Be back in a minute. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: kendall Date: 09 Nov 07 - 12:52 PM We,re doomed, doomed I tell you. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:05 PM And I have to pee again! Dang! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Bill D Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:52 PM The ones who'll really suffer are those who live in the rest of the world....those close will barely know what hit 'em. But, we may have 20-30 thousand years ...or 10 times that long. Or maybe, as my daddy says, "next October, at 4 o'clock".... If the Discovery Channel is right we need to stay up every night worrying about comets, asteroids, earthquakes, volcanos, super-tornados, tsunamis, killer bees, and maybe even mutant Kudzu. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:54 PM So you expect me to stop worrying about mutant Kudzu, do you, Bill? That's asking a lot. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Bill D Date: 09 Nov 07 - 05:25 PM not to mention The Big Nasturtiums~! THE BIG NASTURTIUMS All of a sudden the big nasturtiums Rose in the night from the ocean's bed, Rested a while in the light of the morning, Turning the sand dunes tiger red. They covered the statue of Abraham Lincoln, They climbed to the top of our church's spire. "Grandpa! Grandpa! Come to the window! Come to the window! Our world's on fire!" Big nasturtiums in the High Sierras, Big nasturtiums in the lands below; Our trains are late and our planes have fallen, And out in the ocean the whistles blow. Over the fields and over the forests, Over the living and over the dead— "I never expected the big nasturtiums To come in my lifetime!" Grandpa said. —Robert Beverly Hale |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Sorcha Date: 09 Nov 07 - 07:12 PM MUTANT kudzu? RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Rapparee Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:10 PM I thought kudzu WAS a mutant. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:25 PM Shitzus are mutants too, aren't they? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Is it that time? From: George Papavgeris Date: 09 Nov 07 - 09:13 PM So, what's the gummint doin' about that, I want to know! |
