Yellowstone Volcano Threat Debunked

“i take anything upurs oops i mean thepackman oops i mean bigsack posts with a grain of salt”

“I think I'll keep an eye on it to see it it's a leftest liberal rag or a right wing neocon commentary site.




Could be neutral I suspose...

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

“The instructions for making tinfoil hats are there somewhere.....”

“ThePackman yes, for the last time I AM NOT UPURS!!!! HE'S A HACK! A WANNA BE!!!!”

“Tee Hee Hee”

“I wonder if they conferred with the same engineers that reported that the Twin Towers would not collapse about 30 minutes before they did.

Man predicting Nature = Disaster!”

“did anyone watch SuperVolcano last night on the Discovery Channel. It was a good show showing what could happen if the area decided to erupt again.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/supervolcano.html”

“I saw it and thought it was a stretch, considering the studied opinions of all the geologists they interviewed. Pretty lousy piece of journalism and very alarmist drama.

Yes, it will happen some day, but that day is not likely to be soon and may not come for many thousands of years. In short, there seemed nearly uniform opinion that the magma chamber is not anywhere near hot enough.”

“I watched part of it, maybe 45min worth while dozing off to sleep. It was interesting but I was tired. Hopefully they will re-run it before the actual event takes place.”

“It was intended to be a fictional depiction of "what if" Geo, it wasn't meant to be news. Even though the dramatization was done in a "newsy" documentary style.

I enjoyed it.”

“I taped it and only have seen the first hour or so. It looked pretty good; kind of a combination of a 70's disaster movie and Nova. If you get on the Utah University seismology website, they have a daily earthquake log of Yellowstone.
http://www.seis.utah.edu/HTML/YPEvents365Days.html

It was ironic to see Tom Brokaw narrate some of it. He's got a ranch about 50 miles due north of the Park!”

“thats a lot of quakes in a yrs time even if quite of few of them are small magnitudes”

“I understand the format. But there are people who will be running around in circles yelling not to go to Yellowstone because of that program.

They would interview a geologist who minimized the danger and then blather on about the damage it could do if ...

Well hell, there are a lot more likely things that we need to worry about than that!

What Aero said explains why Brokaw would abandon his journalistic standards.

Hey Brokejaw, one word: MOVE!”

“It's always rumbling over there! I suppose if it's too quiet we should start worrying.”

“Anyone who avoids the beauty of Yellowstone because of a dramatization film can go visit the worlds largest ball of yarn. JMO”

“I did wonder while viewing it whether the geysers help cool down the magma. There's no doubt it's an active zone. And there is no doubt it has caused catastrophic eruptions in the past.”

“Maybe you haven't heard of the Unexplained Exploding Balls of Yarn exhibit!”

“I don't think this will stop anyone from visiting Yellowstone. In fact I can see more people going now thinking that they may never get to see Yellowstone.

I didn't know that Yellowstone area had erupted before and that magma was running underneath it. Maybe that is why I found it interesting.

Plus who knows when a volcano will erupt. I don't remember but did Mount Saint Helens let us know it was going to blow.”

“The drive to the Park is far more dangerous than the odds of a Supervolcanoe occuring!

Here's a fun site:
http://www.geyserstudy.org/geyser_main.htm”

“The short answer is yes, the eruption was anticipated highly. They managed to get the entire area of Mt. St. Helen's evacuated except for some deceased folks who declined to leave. It was their last dumb decision. Also, some geologists were actively monitoring the volcano and at least one and perhaps several were lost.

What happened in the case of Mt. St. Helens was the growth of the magma dome over a period of many weeks prior to the eruption.

Pinatubo was also expected. Clark Air Base, which sits near the foot of the volcano, was entirely evacuated except for geologists and some security. And they bailed too, when it began.”

“LMAO Aero, when I used to work for the gummint and go backpacking in Shenandoah, my co-workers would ask me whether it was dangerous.

"Hell yeah," I'd say, "traffic is hell on the Beltway!"”

“I did have the same thought - that lots of people would be scared away from Yellowstone - maybe thats good. Its pretty crowded in the summers I hear.

I'm looking forward to heading up that way in a month or so.”

“Watch out for magma, Roam Around.”

“Here's the Park's Official response to concerns:

Q: How imminent is an eruption of the Yellowstone Volcano?

A: There is no evidence that a catastrophic eruption at Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is imminent. Current geologic activity at Yellowstone has remained relatively constant since earth scientists first started monitoring some 30 years ago. Though another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely to occur in the next thousand or even 10,000 years. Scientists have also found no indication of an imminent smaller eruption of lava.

Q: How much advance notice would there be of an eruption?

A: The science of forecasting a volcanic eruption has significantly advanced over the past 25 years. Most scientists think that the buildup preceding a catastrophic eruption would be detectable for weeks and perhaps months to years. Precursors to volcanic eruptions include strong earthquake swarms and rapid ground deformation and typically take place days to weeks before an actual eruption. Scientists at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory* (YVO) closely monitor the Yellowstone region for such precursors. They expect that the buildup to larger eruptions would include intense precursory activity (far exceeding background levels) at multiple spots within the Yellowstone volcano. As at many caldera systems around the world, small earthquakes, ground uplift and subsidence, and gas releases at Yellowstone are commonplace events and do not reflect impending eruptions.

*The YVO is a collaborative effort between the US Geological Survey, the University of Utah, and YNP to monitor and study the Yellowstone Volcano. Congress has given the USGS the responsibility of volcano hazard assessment, and YNP assists the USGS in their volcano monitoring effort.


Q: In regard to volcanic activity, is it safe to visit Yellowstone?
A: Yes. Scientists do not have any indication of an imminent eruption, or any eruption, at this time.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/nature/yellvolcano/index.htm


"Trust us."
last edited: 4/11/05 3:14:36 PM”

“I'm still waiting for the Big Blast! This article was in our paper today...

Evidence backs Yellowstone plume
By MIKE STARK
Of The Gazette Staff

Ken Dueker knows he won't end the debate about what drives the roiling volcanic system beneath Yellowstone National Park. But he may move it ahead.

Dueker, an assistant geology professor at the University of Wyoming, and a team of researchers say they have confirmed the existence of a long column of hot rock that originates 300 miles beneath Yellowstone's surface.

Evidence of the "mantle plume" - which stretches 60 miles in diameter - supports the long-running idea that Yellowstone's fiery geothermal network is fueled by a pipe of magma rising from deep within the Earth, Dueker said. ....
...Instead of deep plumes, they said volcanoes and other features could be driven by a shallow skin of magma beneath the Earth's crust. As continental plates shift and stretch, the magma bubbles up to filled in the gaps, they said.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?ts=1&display=rednews/2005/04/25/build/wyoming/30-yellowstone-plume.inc”

“WASHINGTON - 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.
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But, "there is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption," said Robert B. Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.

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."”