Some worrisome news from Greg Laden’s Science blog, also in the running for Best Science Blog
Note: Image below was not part of the original story
Seismic Activity at Yellowstone by Greg Laden
Anyway, I’ve got a few resources for you in case you want to explore this further. To begin with, I recommend a look at my earlier post on this matter:
As you have surely heard, the Yellowstone Caldera … the place where Old Faithful and the Geyser Basin reside … has been undergoing increased “activity” including some earthquakes and a rising up of the land. Is this a big problem? Should the evacuate? Should those of us living only a few states away start wearing earplugs?
My sister, Elizabeth, publishes a newspaper in the vicinity of Yellowstone and they’ve got a very comprehensive piece on he caldera. In fact, my sister’s nickname is Caldera Girl. So she really knows her Calderas.
Tracking Changes in Yellowstone’s Restless Volcanic System
…Since the 1970s, scientists have tracked rapid uplift and subsidence of the ground and significant changes in hydrothermal features and earthquake activity. In 2001, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the University of Utah, and Yellowstone National Park to strengthen scientists’ ability to track activity that could result in hazardous seismic, hydrothermal, or volcanic events in the region…
Finally, we’ve got this somewhat hokey but still fun to watch movie of how we are all totally doomed (h/t Caldera Girl).
The good news is, if this sucker blows, global warming is not going to be a problem.
I am personally keeping close watch on the seismic activity in the area and if I see anything ominous I’ll let you know. As soon as I finish packing and driving about 2,000 miles to the south of here.
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Karl, more reference for you:
A star spends most of its time getting brighter as it ages. The Earth is about 80% through its span of time where it will be a habitable place for life. It is probably much beyond that, maybe 95% through its span if time where it is a habitable place for life like us.
I’m glad I injected some humor into your day!
😀
It was not intentional, (although a Freudian slip cannot be ruled out, being well within my normal typing error range). Sometimes my keyboard has a mind of its own, and the mind is frequently well ahead of where the fingers are typing. I am not used to posting a no-edit environment, and need to keep that in mind as I proof read my posts.
Larry
Jokes aside…. It must be an interesting time for vulcanologist’s at the moment…. It’s not everyday that the site of ancient super volcano becomes peculiarly active…. And of course, after the 2004 tsunami, I don’t really count the probability of possibilities out anymore… as long as they are scientifically feasible that is. Catastrophic AGW is bizarre.. No science nor observation to back it up… But a super volcano… We’ve had ’em before, we can have ’em again.
It’d just be that we’d be the unluckiest generation around if it happened now, ’tis all.
“It’s not everyday that the site of ancient super volcano becomes peculiarly active”
We have one in California that becomes active from time to time. We had a swarm of quakes there in the late 90’s. Long Valley caldera near Mammoth Lakes. There are a lot of hot springs in that area, too, and even an area where camping is not allowed because so much CO2 leaks out of the ground that it might kill anyone who decided to sleep on the ground in any kind of a depression. The CO2 level is so high in the soil that it has killed the trees in the area. I believe I read that the last time Long Valley erupted, it spread a layer of ash as far as Nebraska. It has erupted since with the Mono Craters, I think, being the latest eruption some 600 years ago.
We might be due for some fireworks there, too:
VG (01:26:04) :
looks like NCEP has suddenly lost interest in comparing past snow cover LOL
http://moe.met.fsu.edu/snow/ anyone know why?
While touring: http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/
I ended up at:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090107/oddities/france_weather_snow_offbeat
Europe seems to be getting walloped! And TWC is saying midwest to N.E. USA to get noze froze Real Soon Now…
Is there a canonical record of these ‘odd’ events anywhere? And has anyone bothered to notice the frequent ~20-30 year ago pattern in when last seen? Almost like it was a 30 year weather cycle…
E.M. Smith – …”And TWC is saying midwest to N.E. USA to get noze froze Real Soon Now…” Any chance it will hold until 20 January and cause a major freeze at the inauguration? Frostbite for the true believers would be an interesting diversion and perhaps lead to some realistic policies.
Crosspatch:
Mammoth Lakes Caldera is 6 miles in diameter while the Yellowstone Caldera is 45 miles across. Not at all in the same class.
“Almost like it was a 30 year weather cycle”
PDO
According to this German news report, in Spain it’s the coldest winter in 35 years.
http://klimakatastrophe.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/kaltester-winter-in-spanien-seit-35-jahren/
Just looked at the sun, and we have 4 or 5 modest spots in one group, and a real tight splortch on the magnetogram.
Fox News story on NASA report –
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,478024,00.html
” … Obviously, the sun is Earth’s life blood,” said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics division at NASA. “… it is vital that we better understand extreme space weather events caused by the sun’s activity.”
“Space weather can produce solar storm … extreme currents … disrupting … blackouts … [end of world, etc, etc],” the report states. “Severe space weather also produces solar energetic particles and the dislocation of the Earth’s radiation belts, which can damage satellites … ”
The race is on for better forecasting abilities, as the next peak in solar activity is expected to come around 2012.
While the sun is in a lull now, activity can flare up at any moment, and severe space weather — how severe, nobody knows — will ramp up a year or two before the peak. Some scientists expect the next peak to bring more severe events than other recent peaks.
Sorry, I can’t dwell on Jellystone; I have to worry about the sun, like, you know, 2012 is like tomorrow, just later.
“A fake website bearing the USGS logo claims that an evacuation order has been issued for the park and surrounding area due to concern over the supervolcano erupting…” From here: Website Hoax
Sorry if I’m just one of these evil sceptics that tries to calm down …serious things, but in an American lifetime the possibility that this will happen shold be 1/6000 if it happens every 600 000 years… Or? If it’s much more likely that this happens now, because it has not happen in a long time, let’s say 1 in 1000 during an Americans lifetime. But all Americans will not die from a super volcano. (The risk of dying may be 1 in 100 000.)
At the same time the risk to die in a car accident for a man/woman in the Western world should be approximately 1 in 500 (in Sweden) and probably 1 in 200 in Greece (although this isn’t destroy nature and force ppl from their homes).
Ah! Evil me (if the 1 in 1000 occurs).
Somehow, this will all be blamed on Bush 😀
MA:
Furthermore, your chance of dying from any cause within the next 70 years is approximately 1 in 1.
Doesn’t worry me in the slightest.
Stephen Schneider:
Then again, perhaps it will have the opposite effect.
The Earth’s crust is considerably thinner below the oceans than below land, so any extra weight of water in the oceans may depress the crust more than the equivalent weight of ice over land, and so lead to a drop in sea levels.
UAH jan 2009 for now seems to find jan 2008 level. Its not that likely (?) that this would hold the rest of the month as it would be the biggest fall in UAH global temperatures in one month for several years. But still, interesting to follow.
Graphic:
http://www.klimadebat.dk/forum/attachments/janfirst.gif
Source: http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/
And of course, after the 2004 tsunami, I don’t really count the probability of possibilities out anymore…
Just as a point of information, not trying to make any claims, but this event also occured at a time when the moon was full at the same time perigee occurred.
Dec 27 19:16 406487km Full+1d 4h
Let’s try a reverse form of psychology, to see if it helps our alarmist friends;
TEST:
Q) Why are polar bears endangered?
A) Because their population is increasing???
—————
Q) Why is CO2 a toxic pollutant?
A) Because it’s essential to life???
—————
Q) Why are glaciers retreating?
A) Because of 10,000 years of global warming???
—————
Q) Why will Florida soon be under water?
A) Because of 1-2 mm rise in sea level???
—————
Q) Why is warmth bad?
A) Because it sustains life???
(Note: Look inside an actual GREENhouse.)
—————
FAILURE.
Whenever you alarmists want to SNAP out of whatever trance you are in, please feel free to join the rest of us in reality.
CONCLUSION.
There is no impending climatic dooms day. You are sheep being tended to by deceptive and delusional shepherds. Man is {prophecizing} through the use of computers. Got that?
Instead of wasting hundreds of billions of $dollars in climate research, why don’t we spend the money on realtime pestilence… cancer and disease.
And the lunacy continues…
I’ve done a lot of Snowpack surveys in that area as a Pilot, then fought several fires in
Yellowstone (after ’88 -I missed the big circus) also as a Tanker Pilot. Has anyone noted anything unusual around and in the lake like ah, a rise in temperature?Melting
snow and ice?…
WUWT and Climate Audit currently have about half the votes. Pharyngula, about half of what’s left. Real Climate is declining…
Don’t forget to vote…
I hope Hansen doesn’t get ahold of thos numbers.
Does anyone have any news about the glacier on Mt St. Helens?
Frank Lansner
WE know the reasons that Hansen wants to bolster the GISS figures, but how is he explaining ‘scientifically’ why his graphs are going in completely the opposite direction to everyone elses?
tonyB
Aviator (22:43:28) :
It’s time to start the Inaugural Weather Watch. The GFS model for Jan 20 1200UTC (7 AM) at http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/namer/gfs/12/images/gfs_ten_240m.gif shows temps near freezing and a coastal storm forming to the SW.
I don’t have time to dig deeper at the moment, but interested geeks can go to http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/namer/gfs/12/model_m.shtml and click on the leftmost column on the 240 hour row.
Forecasts 10 days out are mostly fiction, so there will be lots to speculate over and argue about. 🙂
I went on a Chevy Chase family vacation to Yellowstone in 2005. I had last been there in 1965 with my parents. After 40 years, what surprised me the most (outside of a lackluster morning glory pool and dry mudpots) was the absolute devastation of Mammoth Hot Springs by the large numbers of unrestrained elk invading the Springs. They were there as we toured and approached within ten feet of us. I asked the available Park Ranger why they didn’t do something about them. He said regulations prohibited them from interfering with the wildlife (shortened abridged version). Yellowstone National Park is in greater of being destroyed by environmental wackos with fuzzy notions of Yogi and Bubba than by vulcanism.