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USGS: Yellowstone Super Volcano Threat Set To ‘HIGH’
USGS: Yellowstone Super Volcano Threat Set To ‘HIGH’
The United States Geological Survey has increased the Yellowstone supervolcano threat to “high.” This is the first time that the USGS has updated its volcano threat assessments list since 2006.
The USGS said that 11 of the 18 volcanoes they have classified as a “high threat” or a “very high threat” are located in Washington, Oregon, or California, “where explosive and often snow- and ice-covered edifices can project hazards long distances to densely populated and highly developed areas.”
According to the Epoch Times, the danger list is topped by Kilauea in Hawaii, which has been erupting continuously in 2018. Mount St. Helens as well as Mount Rainier in Washington, Alaska’s Redoubt Volcano, and California’s Mount Shasta are also in the top five, according to what the USGS has said.
Although the Yellowstone supervolcano is a “high” threat, it’s only the 21st most dangerous volcano in the United States. According to Forbes, the assessment that Yellowstone supervolcano was only high was not assigned on a whim. While theYellowstone supervolcano does have the potential for a large eruption, other factors are at play. Such as the fact that it erupts so infrequently, shows no signs of increasing eruption risk today, and is located in a relatively sparsely populated area of the United States which decreases the threat. To be clear, the USGS still ranked the supervolcano as a “high” threat, but it is clearly not the most dangerous volcano in the United States.
Despite the recent gradual uptick in thermal activity in the caldera directly below the supervolcano, the new USGS threat assessment is showing Yellowstone as stable, but dangerous when it does happen to erupt in the future, according to a report by the Missoulan.
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New Data: Yellowstone Supervolcano STRAINED, Magma Chamber Under Immense Pressure
New Data: Yellowstone Supervolcano STRAINED, Magma Chamber Under Immense Pressure
According to a group of seismologists who are monitoring the potentially catastrophic supervolcano, Yellowstone is “under strain.” This new report has reignited fears that the caldera could erupt at any moment.
Experts were alerted to the volcano’s strain after noticing deformation. This process, where subsurface rocks subtly change shapes, is occurring beneath the surface of Yellowstone right now. Researchers state deformation occurs when there is a change in the amount of pressure in the magma chamber and experts are keeping an eye on the development.
Seismologists from UNAVCO, a non-profit university-governed consortium, are using “Global Positioning System (GPS), borehole tiltmeters, and borehole strainmeters” to measure minute changes in deformation at Yellowstone. In an article for the Billings Gazette, David Mencin and Glen Mattioli, geodesists with UNAVCO, say “the strain signal is larger than would be expected if the crust under Yellowstone were completely solid.”
“What that means, at least in their eyes, is that there’s lava flowing that’s allowing pressure to build in the chamber,” says Joe Joseph of The Daily Sheeple. “I don’t know if this is good or bad!”
These independent observations agree with other instruments at Yellowstone, like seismometers, that indicate a zone of semi-molten rock starting about 3 miles beneath the surface. The term “semi-molten” is used because the entire zone contains only between 5 and 15 percent liquid rock that occupies small pockets of space between the solid rock.
But the scientists want to assure the public that these observations are no cause for alarm. “Of course, they’re always gonna say that,” says Joseph. “It’s about 700,000 years ago they say when it erupted and it’s long overdue. So here we are, Yellowstone, yet again, thrust into the news because of some of this new data coming out…,” Joseph said.
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“Don’t Mess With Yellowstone Supervolcano” Geologists Warn NASA
“Don’t Mess With Yellowstone Supervolcano” Geologists Warn NASA
Two weeks ago, we reported that Brian Wilcox, a former member of the NASA Advisory Council on Planetary Defense, had shared a report on what the Space Agency considered one of the greatest natural threats to human civilization: the Yellowstone “supervolcano.”
Following an article published by BBC about super volcanoes last month, a group of NASA researchers got in touch with the media to share a report previously unseen outside the space agency about the threat Yellowstone poses, and what they hypothesize could possibly be done about it.
“I was a member of the NASA Advisory Council on Planetary Defense which studied ways for NASA to defend the planet from asteroids and comets,” explains Brian Wilcox of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology.
“I came to the conclusion during that study that the supervolcano threat is substantially greater than the asteroid or comet threat.”
Yellowstone currently leaks about 60 to 70% of its heat into the atmosphere through stream water which seeps into the magma chamber through cracks, while the rest of the heat builds up as magma and dissolves into volatile gasses. The heat and pressure will reach the threshold, meaning an explosion is inevitable. When NASA scientists considered the fact that a super volcano’s eruption would plunge the earth into a volcanic winter, destroying most sources of food, starvation would then become a real possibility. Food reserves would only last about 74 days, according to the UN, after an eruption of a super volcano, like that under Yellowstone. And they have devised a risky plan that could end up blowing up in their faces. Literally.
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