Volcano acting up in Yellowstone?

[DeniseM]

As you probably know, Yellowstone is in the caldera of a huge volcano. We are supposed to go to Yellowstone in a few weeks:

x.com

x.com

 

[DeniseM]

Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park temporarily closed due to hydrothermal explosion - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

 

[Passepartout]

Wow! We would ordinarily have been there this week, but alas, we sold our IPV week. As the USGS officials said, 'background hydrothermal and seismic activity remain at 'normal' levels.'

So GO, @DeniseM. You may witness something 'earthshaking!'

 

[DeniseM]

We'll go unless the park service advises against it, and it seems like this is a normal occurrence and not related to the Super Volcano. Our life insurance is paid up and we have a trust, so we're good to go!

 

[DrQ]

Reminds me of the videos of people that get too close to glacier face when it collapses into the bay:

 

[billymach4]

Just saw this on the news as well. Scary.

 

[dioxide45]

Someone probably hit a golf ball into the geyser and plugged it up till it finally blew!

 

[Sandy VDH]

106K views · 2.4K reactions | From Yellowstone National Park: Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park is temporarily closed due to a hydrothermal explosion. No injuries were... | By KRDO NewsChannel 13 / KRDO.com | Facebook

From Yellowstone National Park: Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park is temporarily closed due to a hydrothermal explosion. No injuries were...

www.facebook.com

FB video of explosion ay yellowstone.

 

[PigsDad]

We'll go unless the park service advises against it, and it seems like this is a normal occurrence and not related to the Super Volcano. Our life insurance is paid up and we have a trust, so we're good to go!

If the super volcano does go, we're all f'd. I'd rather be snuffed out in the first wave vs. survive and slowly die of starvation as the whole world is thrown into years of darkness and a global winter. There may be some long-term survivors, but it most likely is a species-ending event.

Kurt

 

[dioxide45]

Those people running kind of looked like how I try to run in a nightmare trying to get away from whatever impending doom there is. They certainly weren't running very fast. Even had the one person falling way at the back. I hope all were okay.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

As you probably know, Yellowstone is in the caldera of a huge volcano. We are supposed to go to Yellowstone in a few weeks:

x.com

x.com

Minor correction.

 

[easyrider]

If the super volcano does go, we're all f'd. I'd rather be snuffed out in the first wave vs. survive and slowly die of starvation as the whole world is thrown into years of darkness and a global winter. There may be some long-term survivors, but it most likely is a species-ending event.

Kurt

I doubt your scenario after living through 4 inches of St Hellens ash fall. This is what I think. Zone 1 is about an 80 to 100 mile radius from the eruption site aka the kill zone which kills maybe 100,000 persons. Zone 2 extends out to about 150 miles and has an ash cover of about 10 - 12 ft killing maybe 400,000 persons. Zone 3 is survivable with about 3 ft of ash but displaces about a million persons. Zone 4 extends out to 200 miles from the eruption and has about 18 inches of ash which is survivable but displaces about 11 million persons. Zone 5 extends out from 200 to 600 miles from the eruption and deposits about 6 inches or less of ash and is survivable. Ash fall is dependent on wind so some zones could get more ash than others. The dominate wind for Yellowstone is the Westerlies so there is a good possibility that much of the ash fall blows east.

I wonder how much of a change to global weather results from a Northern Hemisphere eruption. Some of the known big volcanic eruptions caused maybe a 3 degree cooling. Climate scientists claim that the affects of volcanic debris in the stratosphere only last a few weeks and has little to no impact on climate.

Bill

 

[PigsDad]

I doubt your scenario after living through 4 inches of St Hellens ash fall. This is what I think. Zone 1 is about an 80 to 100 mile radius from the eruption site aka the kill zone which kills maybe 100,000 persons. Zone 2 extends out to about 150 miles and has an ash cover of about 10 - 12 ft killing maybe 400,000 persons. Zone 3 is survivable with about 3 ft of ash but displaces about a million persons. Zone 4 extends out to 200 miles from the eruption and has about 18 inches of ash which is survivable but displaces about 11 million persons. Zone 5 extends out from 200 to 600 miles from the eruption and deposits about 6 inches or less of ash and is survivable. Ash fall is dependent on wind so some zones could get more ash than others. The dominate wind for Yellowstone is the Westerlies so there is a good possibility that much of the ash fall blows east.

I wonder how much of a change to global weather results from a Northern Hemisphere eruption. Some of the known big volcanic eruptions caused maybe a 3 degree cooling. Climate scientists claim that the affects of volcanic debris in the stratosphere only last a few weeks and has little to no impact on climate.

I hope you're correct, but a quick search shows that the last Yellowstone eruption produced 10,000 times the amount of ash than the Mount St. Helens eruption. So instead of 4" of ash, it would be 40,000" or almost 2/3 of a mile of ash.

Kurt

 

[Passepartout]

Here's the cause of this explosion:

MSN

 

[DrQ]

Here's the cause of this explosion:

MSN

Just another reminder that we walk among giants.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I doubt your scenario after living through 4 inches of St Hellens ash fall. This is what I think. Zone 1 is about an 80 to 100 mile radius from the eruption site aka the kill zone which kills maybe 100,000 persons. Zone 2 extends out to about 150 miles and has an ash cover of about 10 - 12 ft killing maybe 400,000 persons. Zone 3 is survivable with about 3 ft of ash but displaces about a million persons. Zone 4 extends out to 200 miles from the eruption and has about 18 inches of ash which is survivable but displaces about 11 million persons. Zone 5 extends out from 200 to 600 miles from the eruption and deposits about 6 inches or less of ash and is survivable. Ash fall is dependent on wind so some zones could get more ash than others. The dominate wind for Yellowstone is the Westerlies so there is a good possibility that much of the ash fall blows east.

I wonder how much of a change to global weather results from a Northern Hemisphere eruption. Some of the known big volcanic eruptions caused maybe a 3 degree cooling. Climate scientists claim that the affects of volcanic debris in the stratosphere only last a few weeks and has little to no impact on climate.

Bill

I hope you're correct, but a quick search shows that the last Yellowstone eruption produced 10,000 times the amount of ash than the Mount St. Helens eruption. So instead of 4" of ash, it would be 40,000" or almost 2/3 of a mile of ash.

Kurt

Yes. You are off by at least one order of magnitude; more likely at least two orders of magnitude.

In the scheme of volcanic events. Mt. St. Helens might be classed a moderate event. Mt. St. Helens was roughly one order of magnitude less than the Mt. Mazama eruption that created Crater Lake. Ash from Mt. Mazama has been detected will into Kansas and Nebraska. Mt. Mazama might be considered as an approximation to a worst case eruptive event for a Cascade volcano.

But even Mt. Mazama is a minor volcano compared with the Yellowstone caldera. You can't equate Cascade volacanoes with Yellowstone. They have different origins, and the Yellowstone origins have much more inherent power than the Cascade Volcanoes - as well as almost any other volcano on the Pacific Rim of Fire.

 

[easyrider]

Scientists say there isn't enough molten rock under Yellowstone to cause a new caldera forming eruption at Yellowstone meaning any eruption would be small and would likely be a geyser type or lava flow and not an end of the world as we know it eruption.

An end of the world as we know it event is more likely to happen in our life time when some half wit decides to use nuclear weapons, imo.

Bill

 

[ShawnH]

I think that we dont know enough about supervolcanoes other then a full eruption is probably not a good thing. I also think that Easyrider is correct that while the magma chamber exists, and is much larger then previously thought its not anywhere near a state to cause a super eruption. The thing is, as I eluded to earlier, we dont know how quickly that chamber could become volitile enough to cause a super eruption. Is it years? Months? Weeks? Days? We just dont know. Furthermore while Yellowstone is the most studied, and famous super volcano there are there are 7 other known supervolcanoes on the earth and Yellowstone is one of 3 known in North America, the other 2 being Long Valley in california and the other being Valles caldera in New Mexico. Long Valley and Campi Flegrei in Italy made headlines last year with pretty significant seismic activity and odd thermal anomalies.

I think there are several other just as devastating or worse disasters that potentially could happen other then a super eruption, one being as easyrider mentioned and thats human caused nuclear winter, and another being extra-terestrial impact. seem slike every few years we discover some potentially life ending asteroid that either is days away from passin or had just pased the earth that were previously unknown. whats even scarier is the fact that we know that impacts and near impacts have happened before and scientists have discovered with somewhat accuracy when they happend. We were able to doccument the Tunguska event that occured just 116 years ago that flattened 2000 SQ KM (500,000 acres) of Siberia and that wasnt even an impact event but an air burst and left no crater. should that event happen today, over a city like New york or Paris, immagine the devistation. Or worse what if it happend in the middle if the atlantic or pacific ocean and the resulting Tsunami.

I guess what im saying is there is an awful lot that we have no control over and virtually dont have the ability to stop it if it were to happen. So we should live our lives the best we can.

 

[DrQ]

Scientists say there isn't enough molten rock under Yellowstone to cause a new caldera forming eruption at Yellowstone meaning any eruption would be small and would likely be a geyser type or lava flow and not an end of the world as we know it eruption.

The magma chamber under Yellowstone's danger is not the amount or magma. It is the amount of gas dissolved in the magma.

Once the chamber is breached, the gas expands like shook up bottle of soda pop which has been opened. This expansion would blow open the chamber, taking all the overlying rock strata and turn it into ash. That is why the historic ash coverage of the Yellowstone eruptions are so massive.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

The magma chamber under Yellowstone's danger is not the amount or magma. It is the amount of gas dissolved in the magma.

Once the chamber is breached, the gas expands like shook up bottle of soda pop which has been opened. This expansion would blow open the chamber, taking all the overlying rock strata and turn it into ash. That is why the historic ash coverage of the Yellowstone eruptions are so massive.

Bingo!!! Geochemistry is crucial. The mass of magma is not nearly as important as the explosiveness of the magma. Hawaii volcanoes have large amounts of magma, but they do not erupt as explosively because of chemical differences. Yellowstone geochemistry is highly explosive. Yellowstone has blasted a 100-mile wide scar (the Snake River Plain) through the North American Continental Plate, starting with it's origins as the Grande Rondo volcano in Oregon, which deposited the world's largest basalt lava flows in the Columbia Basin in the Pacific Northwest.

None of the Cascade has had anywhere near the geologic impact of the Yellowstone Caldera. Trying to equate a Mt. St. Helens with a Yellowstone eruption is .... silly.

 

[DrQ]

... Trying to equate a Mt. St. Helens with a Yellowstone eruption is .... silly.

Sort of, but it does have an analogy in scale. Mt St Helens had been dormant a long time and the magma chamber had a lot of dissolved gas. The magma chamber of Mt. St. Helens was not under anywhere as much pressure as Yellowstone and its source is from a plate junction rather than Yellowstone's plume source. But the principle of the destruction and ash coming from the release of pressure rather than lava "spurting" from the chamber is the same.

When the north slope failed, it exposed the magma chamber and the drop in pressure caused the gas to expand and resulted in the subsequent explosion. The lava/magma was frothed into ash along with previously deposited ash from other eruptions.

 

[easyrider]

Trying to equate a Mt. St. Helens with a Yellowstone eruption is .... silly.

It's a fair comparison for my area regarding ash fall. Mt St Hellens dropped 4 inches of ash on us when it erupted. The prediction is that we would get maybe 6 inches of ash in a Yellowstone eruption depending on the strength and direction of the wind. The 4 inches of ash we lived through wasn't a life ending scenario. Below is a link to the geological survey ash fall zone map.

Bill

https://www.cbc.ca/doczone/content/legacy/episodes/supervolcano/gallery/zonemap_main.html

 

[DrQ]

It's a fair comparison for my area regarding ash fall. Mt St Hellens dropped 4 inches of ash on us when it erupted. The prediction is that we would get maybe 6 inches of ash in a Yellowstone eruption depending on the strength and direction of the wind. The 4 inches of ash we lived through wasn't a life ending scenario. Below is a link to the geological survey ash fall zone map.

That's because you are WEST and NORTH of Yellowstone. The prevailing winds are from the WEST and NORTHWEST, silly.

 

[easyrider]

That's because you are WEST and NORTH of Yellowstone. The prevailing winds are from the WEST and NORTHWEST, silly.

I did mention earlier in the thread that the predominant wind at Yellowstone are the Westerlies, lol. I think we are in-between zone 5 and 6 and depending on the strength of the wind maybe only a dusting to about 6 inches of ash which is survivable.

Bill