Overzealous convection, nothing to see here.

Drill in, use the heat to power a large geothermal energy plant, power North America carbon-free

Oh no, an eruption there could kill millions, EVERYONE PANIC!

But so could any of the other supervolcanos.
Or a global pandemic
Or an asteroid strike
Or a grey goo scenario, can't forget that.
And aliens, aliens could invade.
And the North Koreans / Iranians / Al Quada could slip a nuke into New York harbor
and and and..

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PANIC ABOUT! EVERYONE PANIC!

There should be a law passed that requires any doomsdayer who predicts the end of the world is required to register their prediction, name, picture and contact information on a public website. Once their prediction(s) fail, others can officially laugh at them, harrass them, call them fkucwads, etc. The website shall keep a summary of whose predictions fail the most, and a running number of failed doomsday predictions over specified periods of time. This goes for doomsdayers, rapture retards, WW3'ers, etc.

stratagos: Oh no, an eruption there could kill millions, EVERYONE PANIC!

But so could any of the other supervolcanos.
Or a global pandemic
Or an asteroid strike
Or a grey goo scenario, can't forget that.
And aliens, aliens could invade.
And the North Koreans / Iranians / Al Quada could slip a nuke into New York harbor
and and and..

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PANIC ABOUT! EVERYONE PANIC!

My bets are on the aliens.

poe_zlaw: There should be a law passed that requires any doomsdayer who predicts the end of the world is required to register their prediction, name, picture and contact information on a public website. Once their prediction(s) fail, others can officially laugh at them, harrass them, call them fkucwads, etc. The website shall keep a summary of whose predictions fail the most, and a running number of failed doomsday predictions over specified periods of time. This goes for doomsdayers, rapture retards, WW3'ers, etc.

This

If I understand the article correctly, nothing has gone on with the Yellowstone super volcano for 600,000 years, nothing is going on right now, and some people with varying degrees of intellectual respectability and scientific accuracy on occasion have speculated baselessly about an eruption. Glad I read that.

Saborlas: FFS, can we stop with the Doomsday crap for one freaking day?

collectively no, but we can choose not to participate in such conversations.
an option you apparently decided against

Tat'dGreaser: I wish it would just erupt so we could stop talking about it

There won't be much talking after if it does erupt. Anybody close enough to actually see it erupt would be dead minutes later. Feet of ash covering the states that supply the USA and world with wheat and meat.

We'd be farked. For a very long time.

Pop goes the volcano.

ChildOfBhaal: If I understand the article correctly, nothing has gone on with the Yellowstone super volcano for 600,000 years, nothing is going on right now, and some people with varying degrees of intellectual respectability and scientific accuracy on occasion have speculated baselessly about an eruption. Glad I read that.

Except that's not entirely true. The last major spread-ash-over-most-of-the-country eruption was a little more than 600,000 years ago. However, it has had lava flows as recent as 70,000 years ago.

A supervolcano isn't just a big-ass volcano. It's a massive caldera that will have several big-ass volcanoes, all around the rim.

The Toba supervolcano almost wiped out all the humans, 65,000 years ago.

ChildOfBhaal: If I understand the article correctly, nothing has gone on with the Yellowstone super volcano for 600,000 years, nothing is going on right now, and some people with varying degrees of intellectual respectability and scientific accuracy on occasion have speculated baselessly about an eruption. Glad I read that.

i wouldnt call it speculating baselessly... granted, the when part may be 5 years or 500,000-1,000,000 years from now, but its still a matter of when not if.

Or better yet, we invite them all to a Doomsdayer Prediction Failure Convention. Get them all in a big room and bomb it.

the destruction of the Earth will be more subtle.

It went boom 2 million, 1.3 million, and 0.6 million years ago. So we have approx. 0.1 million years till it goes boom again. Why every 0.7 million years? My theory would be that when the hotspot is under thinner crust, you have more frequent smaller eruptions and the pressure is kept lower. Since the plate is moving above the hotspot, every 0.7 million years the hotspot is under a thicker section of crust and the pressure is able to build up to cataclysmic levels and it goes boom, erasing whole mountain ranges when it happens.

queezyweezel: Kit Fister: Drill in, use the heat to power a large geothermal energy plant, power North America carbon-free

Yeah, and when the drilling rig breaks, we have the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but with billions of gallons of lava spraying across the state.  NO THANK YOU.

Uhm, you know how I know you:

- Don't understand the actual depth that the lava is at
- DOn't understand our current capacity to drill
- Don't understand the idea of what pumping cold water into the hole does in terms of heat transference and how that affects the cooling and solidifying of Lava rock
- Don't understand that pumping water through a sealed pipe is different than pumping lava out...

So, let's review: The idea of geothermal energy in the case of volcanic activity is not to use lava pumped out of the ground to heat water. It's to drill in, run several loops of pipe similar to a radiator, deep enough that the temperature can boil water (but not so deep as to actually hit the lava flow), and then pump the water down through a closed circuit such that cold water goes in, gets heated and turned into steam, and then builds up pressure that is used to run turbines to generate power.

You COULD, I suppose, open up the magma cap and pump out magma in order to process it for the rare minerals that it contains, such as nickle, iron, and other trace elements as a secondary source of income, but in no way are you planning to use the magma itself outside of the earth to do anything.

queezyweezel: Kit Fister: queezyweezel: Kit Fister: Drill in, use the heat to power a large geothermal energy plant, power North America carbon-free

Yeah, and when the drilling rig breaks, we have the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but with billions of gallons of lava spraying across the state.  NO THANK YOU.

Uhm, you know how I know you:

- Don't understand the actual depth that the lava is at
- DOn't understand our current capacity to drill
- Don't understand the idea of what pumping cold water into the hole does in terms of heat transference and how that affects the cooling and solidifying of Lava rock
- Don't understand that pumping water through a sealed pipe is different than pumping lava out...

So, let's review: The idea of geothermal energy in the case of volcanic activity is not to use lava pumped out of the ground to heat water. It's to drill in, run several loops of pipe similar to a radiator, deep enough that the temperature can boil water (but not so deep as to actually hit the lava flow), and then pump the water down through a closed circuit such that cold water goes in, gets heated and turned into steam, and then builds up pressure that is used to run turbines to generate power.

You COULD, I suppose, open up the magma cap and pump out magma in order to process it for the rare minerals that it contains, such as nickle, iron, and other trace elements as a secondary source of income, but in no way are you planning to use the magma itself outside of the earth to do anything.

Oh sure.  Then you end up pissing this guy off because you ruined his home.  NO THANK YOU

[www.zbrushcentral.com image 577x769]

Don't worry, we have the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch just in case.

StrikitRich: It's just another marketing campaign, right?

That's a very weird title.

queezyweezel: Kit Fister: Drill in, use the heat to power a large geothermal energy plant, power North America carbon-free

Yeah, and when the drilling rig breaks, we have the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but with billions of gallons of lava spraying across the state.  NO THANK YOU.

It's just Wyoming. And its Cheney's home state. What could be more appropriate for our own prince of darkness?

Stupid people always need something to be afraid of. It's really sad.

Saborlas: FFS, can we stop with the Doomsday crap for one freaking day?

If I were you, I'd be more concerned about the person forcing you read and reply in Doomsday threads against your will.

chuckufarlie: Stupid people always need something to be afraid of. It's really sad.

If it's not Yellowstone, it's the NRA.

There were a bunch of guys on /b/ planning to troll the world on the 21st saying that Yellowstone had erupted. I searched and never found anything.

Poor planning on the part of the Yellowstone supervolcano does not constitute an emergency on my part.

//worse than a clingy girlfriend, I swear!

Kit Fister: chuckufarlie: Stupid people always need something to be afraid of. It's really sad.

If it's not Yellowstone, it's the NRA.


Good things those park rangers are armed to, you know, protect themselves in case of a nuclear-f*ck holocaust.

I survived the Mayan Apocalypse and I didn't even get a crappy T-Shirt.

Dull Cow Eyes: Kit Fister: chuckufarlie: Stupid people always need something to be afraid of. It's really sad.

If it's not Yellowstone, it's the NRA.


Good things those park rangers are armed to, you know, protect themselves in case of a nuclear-f*ck holocaust.

Arm yourself appropriately for the threats you face. In the park? Bears, wolves, and other animals that can attack, prudent to carry a weapon capable of handling that. Around here? A weapon capable of dropping a mugger or dope dealer pissed I happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, especially when I'm working in locations in bad neighborhoods.

I've been to some places where I prefer to throw a shotgun in the truck, too.

AngryDesertDweller: [i1244.photobucket.com image 500x400]

Ten (at least) fire trucks, and two helicopters? Sheesh.

stratagos: Oh no, an eruption there could kill millions, EVERYONE PANIC!

But so could any of the other supervolcanos.
Or a global pandemic
Or an asteroid strike
Or a grey goo scenario, can't forget that.
And aliens, aliens could invade.
And the North Koreans / Iranians / Al Quada could slip a nuke into New York harbor
and and and..

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PANIC ABOUT! EVERYONE PANIC!

Just panic, get it over with, then you'll be done and panic-free when everyone else starts.

poe_zlaw: There should be a law passed that requires any doomsdayer who predicts the end of the world is required to register their prediction, name, picture and contact information on a public website. Once their prediction(s) fail, others can officially laugh at them, harrass them, call them fkucwads, etc. The website shall keep a summary of whose predictions fail the most, and a running number of failed doomsday predictions over specified periods of time. This goes for doomsdayers, rapture retards, WW3'ers, etc.

Are you kidding? The entire IPCC would disintegrate overnight.

/think of a way that lets environmentalists off the hook for their "population bomb" predictions, then maybe it will gain popular support

ChildOfBhaal: If I understand the article correctly, nothing has gone on with the Yellowstone super volcano for 600,000 years, nothing is going on right now, and some people with varying degrees of intellectual respectability and scientific accuracy on occasion have speculated baselessly about an eruption. Glad I read that.

I read one geologist that said he thinks the hot spot under Yellowstone has produced all the magma that it can at that spot, thus nothing is going to happen for another 2-3 million years, The previous caldera's to the west each had three or four massive eruption events over a couple of million years, And Yellowstone has had three or something like that.

Kit Fister: Drill in, use the heat to power a large geothermal energy plant, power North America carbon-free

Just don't tap into it too long.

stratagos: Oh no, an eruption there could kill millions, EVERYONE PANIC!

But so could any of the other supervolcanos.
Or a global pandemic
Or an asteroid strike
Or a grey goo scenario, can't forget that.
And aliens, aliens could invade.
And the North Koreans / Iranians / Al Quada could slip a nuke into New York harbor
and and and..

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PANIC ABOUT! EVERYONE PANIC!

Hey hey whoah there, the entire species must dedicate itself to protecting itself from asteroid strikes! Why, the spinoffs alone would be worth it.

"Meh."

cryinoutloud: [lh6.googleusercontent.com image 392x512]

"Meh."

I don't have the 'shop skillz, but that picture is just BEGGING for McKayla Maroney to be 'shopped in.

Apart from lava, volcanoes spew out a deadly brew of toxic chemicals. There are sulphurous gases that turn all rainfall into a blistering downpour of pure sulphuric acid for years to come. There are all kinds of chlorine-bearing compounds, that break down enough of the ozone layer to turn the Sun into a real killer. There's carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that not only nibbles at the ozone layer, but also causes long-term global warming. And last but not least, there's soot. A super eruption will darken the Sun, and gradually push the Earth into nuclear winter. For many years, or even centuries, we will have to survive in darkness and cold.