Quakes shake loose fears about Yellowstone volcano

Well, we know that eventually Yellowstone is going to blow. Since we can't know exatly when it's going to blow with present technology, we should probably focus more on what we should do on the big day itself. Should we just evacuate everyone and hope for the best? Should we try to engineer some sort of system to lessen the overall damage? Can Captain Caveman be of any help?

Well, we know that eventually Yellowstone is going to blow. Since we can't know exatly when it's going to blow with present technology, we should probably focus more on what we should do on the big day itself. Should we just evacuate everyone and hope for the best? Should we try to engineer some sort of system to lessen the overall damage? Can Captain Caveman be of any help?

I don't think you'd be able to evacuate fast enough. When it blows it'll probably be too late for just about anyone within a thousand miles or so.

We need a Yellowstone Tax to build a gigantic containment vessel. Do it for the children.

Where's Al Bore? Manbearpig is real.

ISTR that the last major eruption from Yellowstone covered 80% of the US with ash. How much, I don't recall.

To Doug Huffman: That's some memory you have their old-timer. ;-)

Americans should feel free to swarm into Mexico and up here to Canada (assuming the winds don't carry much of the ash north) Both nations could use a large number of freedom loving capitalists. And when the skies clear and the planet warms you will have incredible farm land to return to.

You can keep the neocons. We'll use them to stuff the holes. More comfortable to walk on.

I don't think you'd be able to evacuate fast enough. When it blows it'll probably be too late for just about anyone within a thousand miles or so.

So that brings my stated options down to some amazing feat of engineering or Captain Caveman.

Actually, Captain Caveman is the only option. We don't have the materials to contain Yellowstone if it blows. The only real defense against it, is not to be here when it happens.

I look forward to the day this thing finally blows. Maybe we wont have to hear about global warming for a few hundred years.

Actually, Captain Caveman is the only option. We don't have the materials to contain Yellowstone if it blows. The only real defense against it, is not to be here when it happens.

Well, as the articleclaims that we probably have a couple centuries before it blows, you and I probably won't be around. It might be possible to contain it if there is some brilliant breakthrough in material sciences.

Al has formed his volcano credits company now,
expect that he'll start talking about THAT problem
in about another three years, just like before.

hey with that longevity pill thats supposed to come around before the end of, at least my natural lifetime, maybe some of us will be around to see it :)

oh and i suppose that'll be the last thing a number of us would see too...

oh and i suppose that'll be the last thing a number of us would see too...

There are worse ways to go. At least you get a really cool death.

Better than being hit by a minivan!

I think the idea of evacuation is a little silly. A volcanic eruption doesn't happen in slow motion. The speed would preclude any possibility of evacuation. If the size of the eruption is so large that some feel there is time enough for those far enough away, the ensuing smoke and ash would likely block the sun possibly extinguishing life anyway. Its kind of like worrying about the next huge meteorite that might strike the planet.

I think the idea of evacuation is a little silly. A volcanic eruption doesn't happen in slow motion. The speed would preclude any possibility of evacuation. If the size of the eruption is so large that some feel there is time enough for those far enough away, the ensuing smoke and ash would likely block the sun possibly extinguishing life anyway. Its kind of like worrying about the next huge meteorite that might strike the planet.

Actualy, evacuation has been proven to work very well in volcanic eruptions. There's usually some warning before the actual eruption (smoking mountains, boiling mud slides, ect.) and usually most nearby residents are evacuated in time. For something this big, the warning signs will be even more noticeable. As for worrying about the next big meteorite, we already picked out a likely candidate, set a date, and even gave it a name.

I think the idea of evacuation is a little silly. A volcanic eruption doesn't happen in slow motion. The speed would preclude any possibility of evacuation. If the size of the eruption is so large that some feel there is time enough for those far enough away, the ensuing smoke and ash would likely block the sun possibly extinguishing life anyway. Its kind of like worrying about the next huge meteorite that might strike the planet.

Actualy, evacuation has been proven to work very well in volcanic eruptions. There's usually some warning before the actual eruption (smoking mountains, boiling mud slides, ect.) and usually most nearby residents are evacuated in time. For something this big, the warning signs will be even more noticeable. As for worrying about the next big meteorite, we already picked out a likely candidate, set a date, and even gave it a name.

Yeah but you're talking evacuation during a standard eruption where the lava flows down hill. Not an explosive eruption like Mt St Helens. Now take St. Helens and increase the displaced material a thousand fold. You're looking at millions and millions of tons of hot rock and blast furnace temperature ash being blasted into the upper atmosphere. Aside from that ash falling like snow you're getting pelted with volcanic rock, hundreds of miles away, which will start massive fires.

That and, we're not talking a few hundred thousand people driving 40 or 50 miles away, we're talking millions of people driving thousands of miles. It's like a sudden tornado, you're just screwed if you're in the wrong place.

Evacuation is on the cards. When super volcanoes blow there is not one big bang to start with. Over time many volcanoes erupt over the area and possibly at varying start times. This will be bad enough but may give time for evacuation. When the lava pool level drops the big one comes as the land falls in to form the vast caldera. All this may happen over a fair time, or rapidly. There is only one way to find out!

b

in the meantime, could this area be tapped for its geothermal energy?

I lost interest in the article as soon as I read "Run for your lives ... Yellowstone's going to explode!"

What ever! I am not stupid enough to fall for that. I hate media hype.

It is fallacy to predict a major eruption of any volcano. It is just not possible to do with any sort of accuracy, except when the geological evidence is quite plentiful. That only occurs within a short period of time before the eruption.... so short, in fact, that it could be considered part of the event.
Because Yellowstone experienced major eruptions in the past at widely separated, if approximately equal time periods doesn't indicate any likelyhood that this time period will be repeated.
We need a statitician here!

What ever! I am not stupid enough to fall for that. I hate media hype.

But you are stupid enough not to see sarcasm, and to also claim something is stupid without actually analyzing it. I'm not quite sure the millions of years of evolution have quite caught up with you yet.