Yellowstone magma much bigger than thought


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HELENA, MT ?  The hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 1/2 times larger than previously estimated, meaning the park's super-volcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens, according to a new study.

By measuring seismic waves from earthquakes, scientists were able to map the magma chamber underneath the Yellowstone caldera as 55 miles long, lead author Jamie Farrell of the University of Utah said Monday.

The chamber is 18 miles wide and runs at depths from 3 to 9 miles below the earth, he added.

That means there is enough volcanic material below the surface to match the largest of the super-volcano's three eruptions over the last 2.1 million years, Farrell said.

The largest blast -- the volcano's first -- was 2,000 times the size of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. A similar one would spew large amounts of volcanic material in the atmosphere, where it would circle the earth, he said.

"It would be a global event," Farrell said. "There would be a lot of destruction and a lot of impacts around the globe."

 

"We do believe there will be another eruption, we just don't know when," he said.

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^ very likely. Taking off the pressure could make the gases dissolved in the magma begin to boil out, rapidly. Think in terms of opening an 18 mile wide bottle of Coca Cola that has been dropped a few times.

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^ very likely. Taking off the pressure could make the gases dissolved in the magma begin to boil out, rapidly. Think in terms of opening an 18 mile wide bottle of Coca Cola that has been dropped a few times.

 

 

Diet-Coke and mentos lol

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If this volcano blows it will be likely the end of civilization as we know it.  Been reading up on some of the other great volcano disasters of the past 3000 years, and most of them weren't even in the ball park compared the one under Yellowstone, and their deaf toll was quite large, and in some cases extremely nasty when it came to changing the planets weather patterns. . .have a nice day. . . :woot:

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It's theorized that the Toba supervolcano (Sumatra) blew ~70,000 years ago, causing a global extinction event that left only 3,000 to 10,000 humans alive. This resulted in a genetic bottlenect that can still be seen in our genome.

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If this volcano blows it will be likely the end of civilization as we know it.  Been reading up on some of the other great volcano disasters of the past 3000 years, and most of them weren't even in the ball park compared the one under Yellowstone, and their deaf toll was quite large, and in some cases extremely nasty when it came to changing the planets weather patterns. . .have a nice day. . . :woot:

 

I hope I'm not alive when that happens. I guess I probably won't be after it happens, at least probably not for long. I am really depressed now, thanks. :P

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If this volcano blows it will be likely the end of civilization as we know it.  Been reading up on some of the other great volcano disasters of the past 3000 years, and most of them weren't even in the ball park compared the one under Yellowstone, and their deaf toll was quite large, and in some cases extremely nasty when it came to changing the planets weather patterns. . .have a nice day. . . :woot:

 

Well, I'm already hard of hearing so I won't notice any difference!  

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^ very likely. Taking off the pressure could make the gases dissolved in the magma begin to boil out, rapidly. Think in terms of opening an 18 mile wide bottle of Coca Cola that has been dropped a few times.

 

It's actually not "very likely". The truth is it's probably less than likely. If only it was as simple as a bottle of Coca Cola...

 

ROME?A project to drill deep into the heart of a ?supervolcano? in southern Italy has finally received the green light, despite claims that the drilling would put the population of Naples at risk of small earthquakes or an explosion. Yesterday, Italian news agency ANSA quoted project coordinator Giuseppe De Natale of Italy?s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology as saying that the office of Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris has approved the drilling of a pilot hole 500 meters deep.

The project?s organizers originally intended to bore a 4-kilometer-deep well in the area of the caldera late in 2009, but the plan was put on hold by then-mayor Rosa Russo Iervolino after scientists expressed concerns about the risks.

Among the critics was Benedetto De Vivo, a geochemist at the University of Naples, who told Science in 2010 that the drilling might cause seismic activity or generate an explosion if it allowed the high-pressure supercritical fluids expected to exist at depths of about 3 kilometers or more to come into contact with magma inside the caldera. ?Nobody can say how bad this explosion would be, but it could put at risk some of the surrounding population,? he said. De Vivo added that he didn?t understand why the well was to be located on the grounds of the former Bagnoli steel mill, on the western outskirts of Naples, and not farther west. (De Vivo did not state that the study might trigger an eruption of the supervolcano.)

Collaboration member Ulrich Harms of the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam said at the time that if the drilling is done in a controlled way, ?there is no risk to the public.? He pointed out that many multikilometer wells have been drilled around the world in order to extract geothermal energy, and that these have not caused explosions. He believes the project makes scientific sense: ?It?s not clear if there is a volcanic risk, but it cannot be excluded, and this is why it is better to get more of an idea.?

http://news.sciencemag.org/2012/05/supervolcano-drilling-plan-gets-go-ahead?ref=ra

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I so wish I get to see it blow up, in person, really close. :p

 

Reminds me of that guy in the 2012 movie that was broadcasting from the top of the mountain when it exploded.

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