23 Responses to “Yellowstone Supervolcano Doomsday Watch”

1. #1 |  Kieffer |  January 2nd, 2009 at 2:03 pm

   This is the way the world ends
   This is the way the world ends
   This is the way the world ends
   Not with a bang but a WTF

      +4
2. #2 |  Cynical In CA |  January 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm

   For anyone who is interested, I responded to comments directed at me at the post “Uh Oh,” which dealt with this subject. Wanted to give y’all a chance to rebut.

      +2
3. #3 |  Clyde |  January 2nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm

   I guess you could spin this as a positive — each mini-quake *is* releasing a little tension. How many 2.5 earthquakes does it take to release the equivalent pressure of a 8.0?

      +0
4. #4 |  grainGod |  January 2nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm

   meh, stop trying to fear monger please.

      --3
5. #5 |  Cynical In CA |  January 2nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm

   The scale is logarithmic, so each unit increase translates to an increase by a factor of 10.

   Thus, an “8″ is 100,000 times more powerful than a “3,” if I did the math right. So you’d need more than 100,000 “2.5’s” to equal an “8.”

      +0
6. #6 |  Steve Verdon |  January 2nd, 2009 at 2:41 pm

   These three big eruptions were 640,000 years ago, 660,000 years earlier, and 800,000 years before that. See a pattern? Lurid reports suggest we’re almost due, even overdue, but the pattern is illusory. Over the past 4.5 million years, large Yellowstone eruptions have come at irregular intervals of 300,000 to 2.4 million years. Furthermore, a series of smaller eruptions (relatively; one was Krakatoa-esque in magnitude) between 170,000 and 70,000 years ago ejected as much material as a super — perhaps enough to relieve the pressure, and danger, for a while.

   Can we now put this to bed? I mean really, are we really that low in intelligence that we have to still sit around and scare ourselves silly to the point of stupid action when there is little reason too?

   What’s the chance of a supereruption anywhere in the world in the next 50 years? Estimates range from one chance in 1,000 to one in 10,000 — hardly cause for panic.

   That’s it I’m buying a gun and heading to the mountains. Anybody comes to the door I shoot first and second and hell the third time’s the charm! Then I’ll ask who you are.

   I think we have more to fear from our own government agents.

      +3
7. #7 |  grainGod |  January 2nd, 2009 at 3:04 pm

   Thanks Steve, glad to hear another voice of reason. I’ve noticed a lot of blogs have been fear mongering over this in the last week or so. The type of blog doesn’t matter…..fear = site hits

      --2
8. #8 |  Aspasia |  January 2nd, 2009 at 4:37 pm

   Hmmm…so maybe I don’t need to worry about finding a job soon?

      +1
9. #9 |  David |  January 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm

   Radley is fearmongering, but somebody quoting the same article Radley linked to is “another voice of reason.” Okay.

      +3
10. #10 |  claude |  January 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    Its 6 degrees here. Send some of that lava this way please. tyia.

       +1
11. #11 |  Mike |  January 2nd, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    Meanwhile, James Pethokoukis of U.S. News & World Report notes that over the last 10 years there have been 128 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater in the Yellowstone area, and there were just four such quakes in the entire 1980

    I wonder if the uptick in quakes detected compared to the 80’s is just because we have better monitoring now. You may not be comparing apples to apples. Greens do this crap all the time in claiming a rise in tornados that, oddly enough, exactly corresponds to the rise in our monitoring stations.

       +2
12. #12 |  Eric |  January 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    Mike - I had the same thought. Maybe we are just better at detecting it. But any way you look it at, there is something goofy going on at Yellowstone in the past couple of weeks.

    I don’t think Radley is fear-mongering. I think he just has the same fascination with this that many of us do, but he has a blog with several thousand readers that he can post to.

       +5
13. #13 |  ClubMedSux |  January 2nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    I wonder if the uptick in quakes detected compared to the 80’s is just because we have better monitoring now.

    I don’t really know much about geology, but as a former meteorologist I’m well aware of the influence of changes in technology when comparing historical events (see, e.g., the number of tornadoes reported in 1900 vs. 2000). That being said, I would think that improvements in earthquake detection could play a significant role if we were discussing the number of quakes LESS THAN 2.5 in magnitude, but I’d like to think that we were pretty good at detecting earthquakes GREATER THAN 2.5 back in 1980. Any geologists out there care to chime in?

       +0
14. #14 |  OldGreyOne |  January 2nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm

    Let’s get some REAL fear mongering going. Read Phil Plaits’ “Death from the Skies!”.

    Something like Yellowstone blows and your not going to be able to do much about it. Doomsday rock hits the planet. Gamma ray burst scours the planet sterile. Plain and simple. You can’t do a damn thing about it. Not advocating “Don’t worry…be happy”. Just live life to the best you can. Me, I’m planning on buying a 50 foot motorsailer in about 5 years and taking the wife and kid around the world a few times. If the planet explodes, oh well. At least I have a worthwhile goal to strive for.

       +1
15. #15 |  Kathy |  January 2nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm

    Why is this fear mongering? Of course there isnt much anyone can do about it, but what we can do, lets do. If it is going to go off why not shut down the reactors in the USA so that the East coast isnt nuclear waste? Humans have survived this before and they were not as technologically advanced as we are and yes there are things we can do, shut down the nukes on the East coast so those folks can rebuild. Why not stock pile some food and water for the folks on the East coast and maybe evac some of the west coast folks? I live on the West coast and maybe I am toast here but I dont think the East coast folks have to be. This whole, lets just give up crap annoys me, maybe you give up folks just dont want to spend the money to make the lives of those who survive a little easier? Why not recall all of our troops and have them help us get ready for this if it is going to happen. Good way to spend my tax dollars IMO, helping my fellow citizens survive this if it is going to go off. We are a brave and strong people and we are smart. I think we have forgotten this.

       --4
16. #16 |  Warren |  January 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 pm

    It’s the Mole Men, in the final stages of their plan to rid the world of surface dwellers.

    Damn you Mole Men!

       +1
17. #17 |  Mattocracy |  January 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    At least we won’t have to worry about global warming if yellowstone erupts.

       +1
18. #18 |  Oh Great! Now What? » Blog Archive » Now For Something Really Big To Worry About |  January 2nd, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    [...] function showImage(img){ return (function(){ img.style.display=’inline’; }) } var ul = document.createElement(’ul’); for (var i=0, post; post = Delicious.posts[i]; i++) { var li = document.createElement(’li’); var a = document.createElement(’a'); a.setAttribute(’href’, post.u); a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(post.d)); li.appendChild(a); ul.appendChild(li); } ul.setAttribute(’id’, ‘delicious-list’); document.getElementById(’delicious-box’).appendChild(ul); Now For Something Really Big To Worry About Jan02 2 January 2009, mudslide @ 4:05 pm Yellowstone Supervolcano Doomsday Watch [...]

       +0
19. #19 |  Gerald A |  January 2nd, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    Not if it’s gonna blow, but when. Number of shows on it on TV last few years. When it happens, we’re screwed. Since we can’t do anything about it, why worry.

       +0
20. #20 |  OldGreyOne |  January 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    Kathy,

    Please note the emoticon. Meant as a joke. Book is very good.

    Who is giving up? I am concerned/worried about things I have control over. I have at least three months of supplies for my family and the means to defend ourselves. I try not to depend on anyone but my immediate family.

       +0
21. #21 |  Scared Stiff |  January 3rd, 2009 at 10:11 pm

    NO yellowstone earthquakes in the past 24 hours! woohoo!!

       +0
22. #22 |  Milkman |  April 22nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    http://www.videosift.com/video/Yellowstone-Super-Volcano-A-Geological-Doomsday

       +0
23. #23 |  Milkman |  April 22nd, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    here is a web page if you want to read some cool stuff

    http://www.thecityedition.com/Pages/Archive/2009/2012_Doomsday_Prediction.html

       +0

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