I watched PBS tonight it was showing a NOVA program about Mega-volcanoes. Turns out the biggest one at Yellowstone erupts every 600,000 years, it's been 640,000 years sense it last erupted, I do not know about you guys but I'm moving to Australia, I'm packing my bags as I type this.
Deron.
Volcanoes are pretty interesting in fact, when I lived in Oregon I worked right on the fault line of Mount Hood.
Part of the fault line rests along highway 5 more towards Northwest Portland (if im not mistaken)
Volcanos are pretty radical too. When Krakatoa went off it sent a low pressure wave that circled the Earth three times, not to mention that it destroyed the whole island. We were lucky that Mt. St Helen's was not populated by many people or a city close by, would have leveled them. Could you imagine if it was a ski resort city, one last run would have been a understatement.
I glad these Mega-Volcanos only blow every few hundred thousand years, one of these going off right now would probably wipe out most life on the planet, supposeably would put the planet into a instant ice-age. Not much would grow, everything pretty much starves to death.
Deron.
Deron,
I am not sure if you are familiar with Portland at all? I worked for a company called Con-Way (last year) and it sits right on the volcano fault line of MT.Hood.
(Atleast the main building does). Con-Way is located at NW 21st Ave
Oregon has their volcanos, (now that I am back home) in California we have our lovely earthquakes, that happen every so often.
mega volcanoes going ballistic or large asteroids hitting the earth at supersonic speeds.Both WILL eventually happen again. I saw that show about the super volcanoes-mind boggling-Even Australia isn't far enough away... Makes global warming look like a slight inconvenience (unless you happen to be a penguin or polar bear or live right on the ocean in a flat place like Florida)
My house is only a few miles from the Hayward fault, which according to all quake experts, is supposed to be overdue for a big one. If you think about this stuff too much, it will drive you nuts.
The technology to avoid this is rapidly expanding. Just need to detect the asteroid a few years out and accurately predicts its course, then hit it with a few nuclear blasts to change its trajectory. Hitting it early and knowing its path are the keys to avoiding the disaster. NASA has a budget for this.
"just need to detect the asteroid a few years out"
That should be easy, especially with today's technology.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/06/20/asteroid.miss/
Oops. I blinked.
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Thanks for pointing out that article. Other points to consider are:
1. That rock is now in the database.
2. Bigger rocks that can cause global damage are easier to detect and are of more interest.
http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Asteroids/AsteroidsDescribed.html
You start reading about the impacts that have already happened and the near misses that we are just now documenting and it makes me feel like we are in a shooting gallery at some alien circus with sticky fingered alien kids paying for the pleasure to hurl rocks at us.
Deron.
Don't worry, FEMA says you don't need volcano insurance and everything is okay. What? You don't trust your government? heh
I'll stick with hurricanes, at least we can see them coming days ahead. And this time I've got enough SLA's run an inverter for a week, LOL!
But seriously, not to pick on the flood people too much because their lives have gotten seriously messed up, but unless you were born there and stuck there because of poverty, etc. why would you MOVE next to a levee that's not certified only for a "100 year flood" when one happened 15 years ago?
I'm sure a mega-volcano ready to explode would at least be semi-detectable, at least hours in advance. The shifting of large quantities of magma causes detectable seismic disturbances and the epicenter of these disturbances would be fairly easy to pinpoint and, HEY, it's right where that mega-volcano is thought to exist! Let's get the heck out of here!
But, yeah, it's unlikely the majority of the North American population would fare well given the... well.. at the time it does blow(Assuming it does), there might not be restrictive mass-transportational bottlenecks as there would exist today.
We all understand that planets cool, yes?
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I wonder if we would be able to tell if one of these Mega-volcanoes was getting ready to blow? The scientist today have not been able to predict when the smaller volcanoes go off, hopefully it will different with a larger one, we will sure need some warning.
Deron.