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And another thing on volcanoes. The Unites States has what is probably the most powerful and dangerous supervolcano on earth right smack dab in the middle of the whole outfit. It is called the Yellowstone Caldera. How many of you have visited this place? I have, several times. And it scares the livin' crap out of me every time I have been there. There is no other place on earth where big lakes of water are boiling, steam is coming out of the ground all over the place from vents, and the air quality is so poor in some low areas that no air-breathing organisms can survive there.
It is not a matter of if this thing is going to blow again someday. It's when. And when it does, the chances of the human race surviving it are very, very slim. What is man, in all his smartness, going to do about that one?
If you don't know about it, I would suggest reading about it starting here. And keep in mind that the human race in its entirety does not posses any type of device, including nuclear weapons, that have enough power to blow 240 cubic miles of rock into the upper atmopshere:
The last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Lava Creek eruption which happened nearly 640,000 years ago,[24] ejected approximately 240 cubic miles (1,000 km3) of rock, dust and volcanic ash into the sky.[14]
Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which measures on average 0.6 inches (1.5 cm) yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure.[25][26]
The upward movement of the Yellowstone caldera floor between 2004 and 2008 — almost 3 inches (7.6 cm) each year — was more than three times greater than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923.[27] From mid-summer 2004 through mid-summer 2008, the land surface within the caldera moved upward as much as 8 inches (20 cm) at the White Lake GPS station.[28][29] By the end of 2009, the uplift had slowed significantly and appeared to have stopped.[30] In January 2010, the USGS stated that "uplift of the Yellowstone Caldera has slowed significantly"[31] and that uplift continues but at a slower pace.[32] The U.S. Geological Survey, University of Utah and National Park Service scientists with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory maintain that they "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future. Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable."[14] This conclusion was reiterated in December 2013 in the aftermath of the publication of a study by University of Utah scientists finding that the "size of the magma body beneath Yellowstone is significantly larger than had been thought."
It is not a matter of if this thing is going to blow again someday. It's when. And when it does, the chances of the human race surviving it are very, very slim. What is man, in all his smartness, going to do about that one?
If you don't know about it, I would suggest reading about it starting here. And keep in mind that the human race in its entirety does not posses any type of device, including nuclear weapons, that have enough power to blow 240 cubic miles of rock into the upper atmopshere:
The last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Lava Creek eruption which happened nearly 640,000 years ago,[24] ejected approximately 240 cubic miles (1,000 km3) of rock, dust and volcanic ash into the sky.[14]
Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which measures on average 0.6 inches (1.5 cm) yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure.[25][26]
The upward movement of the Yellowstone caldera floor between 2004 and 2008 — almost 3 inches (7.6 cm) each year — was more than three times greater than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923.[27] From mid-summer 2004 through mid-summer 2008, the land surface within the caldera moved upward as much as 8 inches (20 cm) at the White Lake GPS station.[28][29] By the end of 2009, the uplift had slowed significantly and appeared to have stopped.[30] In January 2010, the USGS stated that "uplift of the Yellowstone Caldera has slowed significantly"[31] and that uplift continues but at a slower pace.[32] The U.S. Geological Survey, University of Utah and National Park Service scientists with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory maintain that they "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future. Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable."[14] This conclusion was reiterated in December 2013 in the aftermath of the publication of a study by University of Utah scientists finding that the "size of the magma body beneath Yellowstone is significantly larger than had been thought."
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