Supervolcano beneath Yellowstone update: Caldera Volcano shocks researchers

I would not worry to much about Shasta. It follows a 600 year cycle, and it's last eruption was only 200 years ago.

If I was to worry about one conventional volcano in North America, it would be Mount Hood. She has been having swarm quakes off and on since 1980, and hot spring activity in the region has increased over the last 30 years. There are millions of people living in the plains around this volcano, and her 12 glaciers make this a catastrophe waiting to happen because of lahars.

Mount Rainer is much less of an eruption threat at the moment, but it's potential for disaster is even greater, because of it's proximity to Seattle and it's 26 major glaciers. If it ever went, this lahar would be streaming through the suburbs of Seattle.

Back to Yellowstone, I would expect the main eruption to be prestaged by multiple smaller ones in the area. More then likely new cinder cones popping up on the outer edges as the pressure tried to escape through old fractures in the crust. That appears to be the pattern, and Southern Idaho is peppered with cinder cones from earlier eruptions. It is literally almost impossible to look around that part of the state and not see cinder cones.

There are even a fair amount of prospectors that hunt these cinder cones for diamonds.

 

N/W volcanic cycles will be disrupted by a Yellowstone event.

 

Hey I NEVER EVER have stated I am a master of English Grammar....however I have a few friends who have gotten their PhD's at Oxford and their Doctorates were specific to English Lit. or some other WORTHLESS FIELD OF STUDY as a PhD in English Lit. even if you do get it at Oxford and 50 Cents won't buy you a cup of coffee.

However.....ANY level Degree from MIT will make you a Millionaire.

AboveAlpha

 

I know he knew this I just wanted to make sure he knew I knew this.

Don't make me come over there!!!!

AboveAlpha

 

Not a single bit. They are totally separate and unrelated at all.

The West Coast volcanos (Cascades, Sierra-Nevadas, etc) are Subduction Zone volcanos, coming from fissures in the crust where the various Pacific Ocean plates are being pushed under the North American Plate.

Yellowstone is a Hot Spot, totally separate from (and in fact much deeper) then the subduction going on further West.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Volcanoes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_hot_spot

There is no relationship between these at all. No more then an Earthquake in California can cause one in Michigan.

 

You know...just to add to this....I always get a good chuckle when certain people argue with me after I tell them..."Because the North American Tectonic Plate is being subducted under the Pacific Plate it is impossible for the west coast of California to break off and sink into the Pacific Ocean."

The thing is this modern day fable of the western half of California having it be just a matter of time before it breaks off and sinks....is so prevalent and ingrained into so many peoples minds due to Hollywood Idiocy or other issues...some people will fight with me tooth and nail in an attempt to maintain their own ignorance.

AboveAlpha

 

Just saying that any misunderstanding was of your own manufacture, owing to your saying one thing and meaning another.

Mom's PhD in English Lit (Edinburgh) stood her in good stead, but, she would not recommend it to others.

 

Your understanding of faults and how massive super volcanic events, effect all the surronding structure is lacking. I'll simplify the concept for you. Hit a big church bell with a BB gun pellet and a pidgeon sitting next to the bell might blink. Swing the 15lb cast iron ringer and a monk plowing a field 5 miles away will know its quiting time. A yellowstone event will be a much larger strike on this bell we live on, a bell full of cracks, than everyone may be able to grasp. Pick your volcano and that pick will set the outside boundry of the event effect. I'll stick with Shasta and hope it is not the Husband bulge. You may pick something on the east side of the continental divide. West yellowstone bulge maybe. The point, No one knows. We would all be guessing. Ring the bell with that big of hammer, And your guess of what faults react is just as valid as my guess.

 

Sorry, other way around, the lighter Continental Plate is sliding under the heaver Oceanic Plates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Plate

But you are very right, it is not going to "break off into the sea", but that part is sliding Northward. The Western part of California is resting on the Pacific Plate, which is not subducting in that area, but sliding North (along the famous San Andreas Fault). At the same time the Gulf of California is stretching and moving northward through the Baja Rift.

But since this will not be noticeable for tens of millions of years, I do not worry about it at all.

 

I heard someone talking bout Cali falling into the sea, so i had them draw a picture of how it would work.
They thought Cali is like a shelf, with water under it. I actually convinced them that its not so!
(must not have been a creationist, they can never be convinced they are wrong about anything.)

 

8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of * sorrows.
Zechariah 14:12 KJV

And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away (from the heat) while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

Yellowstone at least 50% bigger ... New Madrid fault runs down the Mississippi for thousands of miles and is past due for earthquakes, man I wonder if prepping is of any use really. Well we should put our treasures up in heaven because the earth will not be a frendily pace one day.

Matthew 6:19-21 KJV - Lay not up for yourselves treasures But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. See you there I hope.

reva

 

To correct a typo I did not catch, I meant to say the North American plate is sliding over, not under the Pacific Plate.

The problem with Plate Tectonics is that it is hard to explain to most people (like Supervolcanos) because they do not have the appropriate scale to understand it. I think most estimates have California separating in around 40-50 million years (at about the same time Africa-Europe and Asia combine into a single continent), and rejoining as the plate begins to subduct under North American plate at about 200-250 million years when the continents again all combine to form Pangaea Ultima.

 

Not quite sure that Yellowstone is 50% bigger then, but OK.

And you are missing a lot of what New Madrid is.

It is not a fault, but a fault system. In reality it is the scar of 750 million year old Continental Rift (like we have in the Great Rift Valley, the Gulf of California, and in Idaho 10 million years ago). In that area the continent tried to split in two when Rodinia broke apart, and left behind a thin and brittle rock structure. The rift has not appreciably spread in hundreds of millions of years, but the lower land is why the Mississippi runs where it does, and some believe that in another 100 million years or so it may actually become the base of a new mountain range, as future continental collisions cause this weaker rock to compress more then the rest of the continent and compress to form a new mountain range, similar to and possibly even larger then where India and Asia collided.

And the Earth has never been friendly. Extinction events happening every score million years, supervolcanos, ice ages, comet and asteroid collisions, cycles between Hothouse and Snowball Earth, super oceans and super continents making most of the planet uninhabitable, the list is endless.

We are just lucky enough to be living in a time of "relative" quiet. Most people are simply unaware of the extremes our planet has been through in the past, and will go through again in the future.

 

that's just it, you'd be changing the volcano. to vent it enough not to explode, you'd have to vent it enough to flow. but hey?!, do you want to kill the western half of NA or evac WY, ID and MT?

 

Im just being pedantic i guess, but the high sillica magma of St H or Y-stone
simply will not flow at surface pressures. The trapped gasses explode out of it, flinging fragments. Under a microscope, "ash" looks a lot like broken glass, which of course, is basically what it is.

 

silicon being the 2nd most abundant element element on earth and being the main component of rock, it should nearly look like glass, it almost is! but it
's still mostly pulverized rock.

you know, the Romans used volcanic ash in their cement. the stuff cures underwater and keeps hardening. how many modern buildings do you think will out live the Flavian Amphitheatre?

 

You can't "vent it". We are talking about a caldera with a magma chamber that is over 4,000 cubic kilometers. And has been said many times, when this molten high-silicate stuff hits the atmosphere, it explodes.

What you are saying is akin to trying to pour water onto molten metal.

[video=youtube;i3NO45s9MOA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3NO45s9MOA[/video]

 

Shroom....that is WHAT I POSTED!!!!

Sheeze!

AboveAlpha

 

Nods, and I corrected my own typo a few posts later, with the Continental plate is sliding over the Ocean plate, which is subducting under the continent.

I did not have enough blood in my alcohol system when I made that post.

 

LOL!!!!

Damn Low Alcohol Levels!!!

Thanks for being a stand up guy and posting this.

AboveAlpha

 

No problem, if I make a mistake I have no problem in saying "Oooops, I blew it" and begging mea culpa.

Unlike some in these forums who just dig in twice as deep and will not admit that their pants were on fire, even if their genitals were roasting.

*grin*

 

Lava Flow recipe

Scale ingredients to servings
1 oz light rum
1 oz Malibu® coconut rum
2 oz strawberries
1 banana
2 oz pineapple juice
2 oz coconut cream

Blend banana, coconut cream, and pineapple juice in a blender and set aside. In the bottom of a hurricane glass, stir together both rums and strawberries.

Pour banana/coconut/pineapple mix slowly into the glass. The strawberry/rum mix should creep up the sides of the glass to make a wonderful looking (and tasting) summertime cocktail!


* It was obviously too much fruit in your drink!

 

Thanks, if I ever want something that sweet, will remember that.

My particular poison is the following:

1 Tumbler glass
4-5 ice cubes
Cover ice with Canadian Mist

Replace Whiskey or Ice Cubes as needed

 

Agreed, I only drink fancy, time-consuming prep sweet drinks if someone else makes them for me!

But I see your problem---it's the ice cubes!

 

I was at a geyser in Yellowstone a few years back. The ranger said that somebody dropped a fridge into it (I guess it was before they had boardwalks fencing everything off) and the fridge was shot out about 300' (so he said).

I'm not going to pretend to know how calderas work, but it seems that blocking those vents is a bad idea.