This will all seem unimportant when a volcano kills us all.

Not to prey on the reader's emotions and fear-monger, but there is a pretty good chance a global holocaust will soon occur. Although either the assassination of Obama or the Israel-Gaza conflict escalating into a global war may seem like two more likely scenarios, the global apocalypse that I think we need to address is the coming volcopalypse when the Yellowstone Caldera erupts again.

The Yellowstone Caldera is a giant supervolcano that sits underneath most of Yellowstone National Park in the northwest corner of Wyoming. The caldera is composed of unusually light, hot magma that sits very near the surface. Almost like clockwork, the caldera has massively erupted every 700,000 years or so. The last eruption was approximately 680,000 years ago. Do you see where I am going with this?

One good way geologists have of predicting how soon a volcano will erupt is to track the frequency of the earthquakes near or in the volcano. In the case of Yellowstone, thousands of small to intense earthquakes have been recorded since the 50's. It is believed the intensity of these earthquakes is increasing (3000+ earthquakes in 1985).

Another good way geologists try to predict how soon a volcano may erupt is they track the elevation of the plug...the plug being the solid rock that is sealing the opening of the volcano. As the pressure builds, the volcano will slowly push the plug upwards until it is sufficiently loose and the volcano blows it off. The height of the plug at Yellowstone Caldera is rising, and the rate of rise is also rising. That is, the plug is accelerating upwards.

So just how devastating will it be when Yellowstone explodes again? Well, nuclear winter is a good way to put it. It might cool the temperature of the earth by 2 degrees or so, causing an extended, devastating winter in many parts of the world. It would cause acid rain to fall on much of the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, devastating forests and farmland. Ash from the explosion would reach China, and Russia. The sun would not appear in some parts of the world for many, many days.

Anyway, just a spot of great news to cheer up your week!


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