As
we mentioned in May, we traveled to Las Vegas and smell of sulphur was strong.
Lord willing he will postpone eruption until the trumpets.
Cost of Losing Yellowstone
Although it's a long shot to happen in the next few days,
over a longer period of time, there's a good chance that Yellowstone will blow
its top and the simmering caldera will let rip with Mt. St. Helen's (or
greater) magnitude. I've been watching this sort of out of the corner of
one eye because if or when the Yellowstone Park area goes in any kind of
massive eruption, the impacts on food supplies worldwide will be
horrible. The plume area from Yellowstone covers a good-sized chunk of
the Midwest.
Reader reports and items which we have picked up off
news groups are sounding pretty scary. Areas are being closed off, there
are reports of dead animals and even fish are reported dying off in large
numbers. Against this background, the USGS says there is an increase in
government monitoring, such as a recent news release that says in part:
"In response to notably increased heat and steam
emissions in parts of Norris Geyser Basin, the
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory will deploy a
temporary network of seismographs, Global
Positioning System (GPS) receivers, and temperature
loggers. The temporary deployment is intended to
document chemical and physical signals that
accompany this increased activity, to identify the
underground locations of hydrothermal steam sources
and the relationship of the Norris geyser basin to the
background general seismicity, and crustal
deformation of the Yellowstone caldera. It may also
detect any precursory signals to geyser eruptions and
hydrothermal explosions.
A reader sends in this interesting compilation, which
augments other reports we have had:
"fish are floating dead in the streams, and the lake
is closed. A very
strong smell of H2SO4 (sulfur) People were leaving due to
smell --- He also
mentioned that the Seismo sites had been shut down" and
"there is a large
dead zone of animals and vegetation. Immediately outside
this dead zone,
vegetation has stopped growing and animals are migrating out
of the area.
New geysers and mud pots are springing up daily. You can
physically see the
ground bulging up, not only at Yellowstone Lake, but in
several places in
the park" enclosed are 2 brief reports on this matter.
1. First report
Yellowstone is worse than we thought --
The husband of my daughter´s social studies teacher is
staying at the Crow
Reservation in Montana, 100 miles from Yellowstone. He said
that over and
above everything we have heard to date (which he says is
absolutely true),
there is a large dead zone of animals and vegetation.
Immediately outside
this dead zone, vegetation has stopped growing and animals
are migrating out
of the area. New geysers and mud pots are springing up
daily. You can
physically see the ground bulging up, not only at
Yellowstone Lake, but in
several places in the park. They have closed more areas to
the public than
is being reported. There are several areas where the ground
temperature tops
200 degrees. And earthquakes are becoming a daily
occurrence.
2. Second report
Anonymous warning from visitor to yellowstone
Tue Sep 2 2003 3:10:31 pm
From: Scorpio,
Subject: Yellowstone-Problems?
Hello folks, next door neighbor just got back from a weeks
stay in
Yellowstone. we talked and I was told a lot more camping
areas have been
closed off besides around the Lake. he is an avid fisherman,
said the fish
are ffloating dead in the streams, and the lake is closed. A
very strong
smell of H2SO4 (sulfur) People were leaving due to smell ---
He also
mentioned that the Seismo sites had been shut down!??????
Did some homework on Utah and Montana sites YEP---- looks like
things are
not being updated after Aug 29-30-----
Can anyone confirm?? Anyone out there near Yellowstone that
might be able to
fill us in?
Your Thoughts Folks???? Scorpio
Well, you might want to bookmark the Yellowstone
recent quakes map at http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/index.html
so you won't have to search for it if the area pops off shortly.
The other thing to consider is how the economy of Wyoming
and the surrounding states will do should the area become explosively
active. Yellowstone tourism and trade contributes directly about 15% of
Wyoming economic activity. A series of major quakes, explosions, and
volcanic activity could put this event in the class of a
"supervolcano". As one post I found put it:
"When Yellowstone goes off again,
and it will, it will
be a disaster for the United States and eventually, for the whole world. We volcanologists believe it would all begin with the
magma chamber becoming unstable. Observations would begin by seeing
bigger earthquakes, greater uplifting as magma intrudes and gets nearer and
nearer the surface. An earthquake may send a rupture through a brittle
layer similar to breaking the lid off a pressure cooker. This would
generate sheets of magma, which will
perhaps rise up to 30, 40 or 50 kilometers
sending gigantic amounts of debris into the atmosphere. Pyroclastic
flows would cover the whole region, killing tens of thousands of people in
the surrounding area.
The ash carried in the atmosphere and
deposited over vast areas of the United States would have devastating
effects. A plume of material that goes up into the atmosphere, globally,
from the eruption would produce the climatic effects. This would spread
worldwide and have a cooling effect that would most likely destroy the growing
season on a global scale.
As Dr. Ted Nield, of the Geological
Society of London, stated once, “When a supervolcano goes off, it is an order
of magnitude greater than a normal eruption. It produces energy
equivalent to an impact with a comet or an asteroid.” “You can try
diverting an asteroid, but there is nothing at all you can do about a
supervolcano.”
The eruption will throw out cubic kilometers
of rock, ash, dust, sulfur dioxide and so on into the upper atmosphere, where
it will reflect incoming solar radiation, forcing down temperatures on the
earth’s surface. It would be the equivalent of a nuclear winter.
The effects would last for four or five years with crops failing and the whole
ecosystem breaking down."
http://messagequotes.8m.net/Two%20geological%20time%20bombs.doc
|
|
