There's a SUPERVOLCANO erupting on Discovery Channel

[Gloria]

right now....in Yellowstone

it's sort of scary, fake documentary format....I know this was a topic a few days ago

[smirkymonkey]

1. Do they say what would actually happen if it really did erupt?

I know people around the area would be completely obliterated, but what would the fallout be beyond the immediate territory?

[Huckebein the Raven]

2. A good portion of the country if it's a massive eruption

[smirkymonkey]

16. Would it be worse than Toba?

It seems like they have had a lot more seismic activity in that region lately.

[LeftCoast]

17. The largest Yellowstone eruption

was still smaller than Toba. That's the big one. No eruption has topped it yet.

[Gloria]

4. The scientist named "Rick Lieberman" showed the under sec. of FEMA

on the computer the 5 zones. By the time you get to zone 5 reaching all the way to the East Coast, with 1 cm of ash, you're still "drowning in cement" as ash gets into the lungs and mixes with the moisture in them.

Funny, I just saw a bit about Pompeii last night. All those bodies preserved under the ash....EE GADS!!

[smirkymonkey]

14. It sounds horrible! I think I would rather be fried right away than

"drown in cement." Although I do have leftover face masks from 9/11.

[derby378]

9. +++ SPOILER ALERT +++

Visualize one giant sheet of ice that extends from Canada all the way down to at least the southern tip of Baja California. Fasten your seat belts - it's gonna be a bumpy century.

[The Revolution]

10. It could mean extinction

When this erupts, it will be a global catastrophe. Your looking at a good portion of North America being buried in ash, which won't be good for the crops that millions depend on for food every year. Plus the ash in the atmosphere could effect crops all over the world. The world economic and political systems may not be able to survive such a disaster.

I've heard about this and other super volcanos before. There's a theory that the last time one erupted, it nearly drove the human race to extinction. The main evidence for this is that when comparing any two human beings' DNA, the difference between the two people is not as great as it should be considering how long humans have been around. This could mean that at some point in the past, the human population on the planet was reduced to a very small number, perhaps only a few thousand (a bottleneck of sorts in the human population). Some scientists believe that the date of this bottleneck roughly coincides with the last time a super volcano errupted (the one in Indonesia, I believe). Although the theory is somewhat disputed, as far as I know.

But it is a pretty scary thing to think about. It would probably be a disaster on the scale of a large meteor impact.

[Huckebein the Raven]

11. The Toba eruption

[smirkymonkey]

15. Interesting - do you have any idea what the time frame would

be for all these things to come about?

I think as long as I had enough time to get good and drunk before it hit, I'd be ok with it.

[Zynx]

23. Likely time frame (some from movie, some from own thoughts):

Eruption: One or more vents equal to something like Mt. St. Helens open in the Yellowstone caldera, spewing gasified lava into the atmosphere.

Eruption + 2 hours: Skies above Wyoming are already dark regardless of time of day due to ash cloud. Toxic gas release, large loadings of ash and pyroclastic flows most likely have killed anyone in Yellowstone itself by this point. Mass panic is probably breaking out at least through the mountain states.

Eruption + 12 hours: Cloud of ash has expanded significantly in a manner driven by winds at the time - most likely some form of east/southeast. Additional vents may have opened or be in the process of opening in Yellowstone. Ash loadings effectively cut air travel across the middle of the country and have begun to kill people inside a hundred mile radius of the caldera through inhalation and building collapse. Panic is probably now nationwide.

Eruption + 24 hours: More of the same. Ash loads have begun to spread to the east. Most buildings around Yellowstone are going to be collapsed fairly soon due to ash on the roof. Panic still ongoing.

Eruption + 48 hours: More vents may have opened up by this time, drastically increasing the amount of ash blasted into the lower and upper atmosphere. National air travel is pretty much dead and heavy fallout has reached the Midwest - this is not really dangerous enough to kill at this point. Most of the people in Wyoming or bordering regions of other states are in serious danger or may already be dead.

Eruption + 1 week: Eruption could still well be ongoing at this point with multiple vents, or it may have stopped. Either way, the majority of the continental US has received some ash, with amounts in the Plains States and west to Yellowstone being serious. Casualties at this point are easily going to be over half a million dead, and may well be a good deal higher than that. Most communities in any way close to Yellowstone have been depopulated by evacuation or gone the way of Pompeii. Wyoming is gone at this point.

Eruption + 1 month: Eruption over, clean up and rescue operations in the US still ongoing. Chicago-Milwaukee is probably the furthest west area that is still habitable north of Texas and likely has significant ash damage at that. Massive disruptions in US society have taken hold - anarchy is pretty damn likely. Casualties at this point may well be into the millions, mostly from starvation, dehydration and related causes. Global cooling has begun.

Eruption + 6 months: World is plunging towards a short-term Ige Age due to massive atmospheric dust loading. Mass starvation is occuring worldwide due to low temperatures killing plants and the loss of the US breadbasket.

~~~

Fun, huh?

[smirkymonkey]

24. Very frightening !

Now what if Toba blew? I think that would be even worse, but would the immediate effects reach the US & Europe?

Lots of Seismic activity in the Pacific Basin - I get earthquake reports daily and most of these are unreported by MSM. Magnitude of 5 to 7 mostly offshore.

[mtnsnake]

3. It probably has something to do with Bush drilling oil underneath the

park by doing it sideways from an angle starting outside the park boundary with that new crooked law he got passed a few months ago.

[ashmanonar]

5. burns slant drilling company?

anyone who gets this ref gets a cookie.

[Huckebein the Raven]

7. From the "Who shot Mr Burns" episode

[ashmanonar]

12. yepyepyep.

doesn't burns remind you more and more of bush? i mean, were they a lampoon of bush or does bush just fit the caricature so perfectly?

[Huckebein the Raven]

13. Cheney is more of a Mr. Burns imho

[earthside]

6. Pretty Good Show

I thought this was a pretty good show for a disaster movie.

The facts and science behind it are accurate. Take a look at my web site for some good links and more information: Earthside.com

I have followed this story for awhile and it is interesting. Note that at the end of the Discovery Channel movie, the Tom Brokaw segment validates the idea that this could, will happen ... someday.

[Bridget Burke]

25. No gratuitous romance....

I enjoy a good romance story, but it doesn't need to be inserted into every movie. Yeah, the "hero" had a pretty wife.

And the hero wasn't perfect. He let the impact of his warning be blunted by bureaucracy. But he made up for it later....

Not amazing cinema--but a decent, workmanlike presentation of something that WILL happen. We just don't know when.

[XanaDUer]

8. Yeah, and it has one of my favorite actors as the lead..

Michael Riley.

Think I'll watch it tonight.

[MrScorpio]

18. "May God be with you all."

Translation:

"You're all fucked."

[Huckebein the Raven]

20. That about sums it up.

[Seabiscuit]

19. There's a supervolcano erupting in my head.

I think I need a drink.

[Borgnine]

21. This is far too depressing to watch.

I think I'll pop in an MST3K DVD instead.

[NEDem]

22. I had to get away from it

Way too depressing. However I have to give DSC credit, it is done really well. I want to see what the real scientists say at the end. If this is possible, then THIS is what homeland security should be concentrating on, but I guess terror is politically more rewarding.