Yellowstone wobbles slightly

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spot
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by spot »

Just this last week, very shallow, enough to make the lake blur now and then.

Animation for Yellowstone Region

Click "start animation" for a fast-forward of the last five days.
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Rapunzel
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by Rapunzel »

There's a large build up of volcanic gas under Yellowstone. This area has been designated as a SuperVolcano. When the gas can no longer be contained, the area is expected to explode in the same manner as Mount St. Helens, only about 8,000 times more powerful.

The gas causes the land to bulge, imagine blowing up a balloon. The lake lies at the bottom of a depression, so as the land expands, the lake sinks further into the depression. Its volcanic, not seismic. At some point, this gas bubble 'balloon' will "pop". Such a massive explosion will affect us globally as the dust and gas in the atmosphere will prevent the sun getting through and will at the least cause worldwide weather changes and at worst plunge us into the next ice age.

The good news is that it's not expected to blow its stack for several thousand years yet. :-3
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spot
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by spot »

Rapunzel;1099994 wrote: The good news is that it's not expected to blow its stack for several thousand years yet. :-3


Where did you get that from? I'm not saying it isn't so, I'm just wondering what you base saying it on.
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by Oscar Namechange »

Rapunzel;1099994 wrote: There's a large build up of volcanic gas under Yellowstone. This area has been designated as a SuperVolcano. When the gas can no longer be contained, the area is expected to explode in the same manner as Mount St. Helens, only about 8,000 times more powerful.

The gas causes the land to bulge, imagine blowing up a balloon. The lake lies at the bottom of a depression, so as the land expands, the lake sinks further into the depression. Its volcanic, not seismic. At some point, this gas bubble 'balloon' will "pop". Such a massive explosion will affect us globally as the dust and gas in the atmosphere will prevent the sun getting through and will at the least cause worldwide weather changes and at worst plunge us into the next ice age.

The good news is that it's not expected to blow its stack for several thousand years yet. :-3


Similar to Krakatowa but I understood it as Yellowstone being increasingly more active over past years.
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by Rapunzel »

spot;1099996 wrote: Where did you get that from? I'm not saying it isn't so, I'm just wondering what you base saying it on.


Lol, Spotalicious. I like the fact that you don't allow people to spout information without backing up their facts. Quite right too. ;) I was very lame, I'm sorry to say, and based it on memory, having studied the Yellowstone Caldera a little, whilst studying for my geography degree a few years ago.

You have forced me to do a little research which has reminded me that the three supereruptions at Yellowstone occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 640,000 years ago. The gaps between these being 800,000 years and 660,000 years ago. Working on the (probably completely erroneous) assumption that superexplosions are roughly equi-distant, then another superexplosion wouldn't occur for roughly 20,000 years.

However, now that I'm more awake, I recall that a 50 year event or 100 year event may occur during the set 50 or 100 years or later than that or earlier. A 50 year event can occur anywhere within that 50 years, from the first day to the last, or even later as it's really only a calculated guesstimate based on what we already know.

You have to look at what we know. The centre of the earth is a solid iron core, surrounded by magma (molten lava), surrounded by the earths crust. The magma flows around the core but sometimes you get hotspots, where the magma boils more violently. This causes the area of crust above it to suffer smaller earthquakes and occasionally gas or lava (magma) escape. The diagram below shows the Hawaiian island chain. Over millions of years the Pacific Plate has moved over the Hawaiian hotspot, causing a trail of underwater mountains to be created that reach right across the Pacific.



However, the Yellowstone supervolcano is not on a plate edge and is not moving.

The magma chamber under Yellowstone is slowly filling up with magma, hot water and gas. As it fills the thin crust above it distends (stretches). If the whole area continued to fill and grow until it was at bursting point, then you would get a humungous supervolcanic explosion, which would, as I said, be several thousand years away, imho. However, if a smaller area distended as much as it was able, that smaller area could also erupt, in the way Mount St. Helens did.

At the moment there is much ground shifting and a rise in ground surface levels. There are smaller earthquakes as the earth fractures to allow for distension. However, some pressure is also relieved through Yellowstone's geysers and hot springs.

I think that the area is worth watching but I also think that a major explosion would be preceded by many more earthquakes and a greater escape of gas and hydrothermic pressure and also a much greater amount of uplift in the local lithospere (bedrock). Does that help?
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spot
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by spot »

Rapunzel;1100072 wrote: I think that the area is worth watching but I also think that a major explosion would be preceded by many more earthquakes and a greater escape of gas and hydrothermic pressure and also a much greater amount of uplift in the local lithospere (bedrock). Does that help?


It depends on what you think might be the trigger this time. The depression is water-filled on this occasion. The swarm of earthquakes happens to be immediately beneath Lake Mary and very close to the surface. The idea that the lake could empty through earthquake fractures directly onto the magma has something of a calamitous sound to it. To my untrained mind there would exist a possibility of explosively releasing the containment and starting a runaway volcanic flow fed by the frothing of the gases dissolved under pressure. Perhaps each of the minor earthquakes is just such a transformation of water to steam splitting yet more containment rock allowing yet more water to percolate through and that's why it's a swarm of them.
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Nomad
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by Nomad »

I was through the area a couple of years ago. Its no surprise theres wobbling going on. The park is alive, its a violent bubbling cauldron patiently waiting to explode.

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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by Smaug »

Looks like Yellowstone is waking up a bit. Plenty of seismic activity/pressure venting going on at the moment. Are we in for an eruption soon?

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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by Saint_ »

Stop scaring me. I have enough to worry about with Donald Trump running for President...
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by G#Gill »

@ Saint :yh_rotfl
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by LarsMac »

If you look at a relief map, you can see where that hot spot has moved, or where the crust has moved over it, over a long period of time.

Look just to the west and south of the current location, and follow the valley to the southwest and the back northwest to a little west of Boise Idaho.

I suspect it will eventually move on east-northeast into Montana. Hopefully not in the immediate future, though.
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by G#Gill »

Oh gawd, LarsMac, I'm sooooo glad I don't live in America ! Isn't a huge volcanic eruption at Yellowstone, millions of years ago, responsible for originally forming the North American land mass in a 'flood basalt' event ?
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Yellowstone wobbles slightly

Post by Smaug »

Saint_;1485495 wrote: Stop scaring me. I have enough to worry about with Donald Trump running for President...


When I first found the update, I thought it WAS Donald Trump; so much hot air....:wah:

I wouldn't like to live anywhere near Yellowstone at the moment! Hope you don't live too close, Saint.
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