Yellowstone
Supervolcano Alert: The Most Dangerous Volcano In America Is Roaring
To Life
Michael
Snyder
3
October, 2013
Right
now, the ground underneath Yellowstone National Park is rising at a
record rate. In fact, it is rising at the rate of about three
inches per year.
The reason why this is such a concern is
because underneath the park sits the Yellowstone supervolcano – the
largest volcano in North America. Scientists tell us that it is
inevitable that it will erupt again one day, and when it does the
devastation will be almost unimaginable.
A full-blown eruption
of the Yellowstone supervolcano would dump a 10 foot deep layer of
volcanic ash up to 1,000 miles away, and it would render much of the
United States uninhabitable.
When most Americans think of
Yellowstone, they tend to conjure up images of Yogi Bear and “Old
Faithful”, but the truth is that sleeping underneath Yellowstone is
a volcanic beast that could destroy our nation in a single day and
now that beast is starting to wake up.
The
Yellowstone supervolcano is so vast that it is hard to put it into
words. According to the
Daily Mail,
the magma “hotspot” underneath Yellowstone is approximately 300
miles wide…
The
Yellowstone Caldera is one of nature’s most awesome creations and
sits atop North America’s largest volcanic field.
Its
name means ‘cooking pot’ or ‘cauldron’ and it is formed when
land collapses following a volcanic explosion.
In
Yellowstone, some 400 miles beneath the Earth’s surface is a magma
‘hotspot’ which rises to 30 miles underground before spreading
out over an area of 300 miles across.
Atop
this, but still beneath the surface, sits the slumbering volcano.
When
most Americans think of volcanic eruptions in the United States, they
remember the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens back in 1980.
But that eruption would not even be worth comparing to a full-blown
eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano.
And
now the area around Yellowstone is becoming increasingly seismically
active. In fact, Professor Bob Smith says that he has never
seen anything like this in
the 53 years that he has been watching Yellowstone…
Until
recently, Bob Smith had never witnessed two simultaneous earthquake
swarms in his 53 years of monitoring seismic activity in and around
the Yellowstone Caldera.
Now,
Smith, a University of Utah geophysics professor, has seen three
swarms at once.
In
September, 130 earthquakes hit Yellowstone over the course of a
single week. This has got many Yellowstone observers extremely
concerned…
Yellowstone’s
recent earthquake swarms started on Sept. 10 and were shaking until
about 11:30 a.m. Sept. 16.
“A
total of 130 earthquakes of magnitude 0.6 to 3.6 have occurred in
these three areas, however, most have occurred in the Lower Geyser
Basin,” a University of Utah statement said. “Notably much of
seismicity in Yellowstone occurs as swarms.”
So
what is the worst case scenario?
Well,
according to the
Daily Mail,
a full-blown eruption of Yellowstone could leave two-thirds of the
United States completely uninhabitable…
It
would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the
Mount St Helens eruption in 1980.
Spewing
lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and
dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.
Two-thirds
of the U.S. could become uninhabitable as toxic air sweeps through
it, grounding thousands of flights and forcing millions to leave
their homes.
Can
you think of another potential disaster that could accomplish the
same thing?
That
is why what is going on at Yellowstone right now is so important, and
the American people deserve the truth. The following are some
more facts about Yellowstone that I compiled that I included in
a previous article…
#1 A
full-scale eruption of Yellowstone could be up
to 1,000 time more powerful than
the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
#3 The
next eruption of Yellowstone seems to be getting closer with each
passing year. Since 2004, some areas of Yellowstone National
Park have
risen by as much as 10 inches.
#5 In
the event of a full-scale eruption of Yellowstone, virtually the
entire northwest United States will be completely destroyed.
#6 A
massive eruption of Yellowstone would mean that just about everything
within a 100 mile radius of Yellowstone would be immediately killed.
#7 A
full-scale eruption of Yellowstone could also potentially dump a
layer of volcanic ash that is at least 10 feet deep up
to 1,000 miles away.
#8 A
full-scale eruption of Yellowstone would cover virtually the entire
midwest United States with volcanic ash. Food production in
America would be almost totally wiped out.
#9 The
“volcanic winter” that a massive Yellowstone eruption would cause
would radically cool the planet. Some scientists believe that
global temperatures would decline by up to 20 degrees.
#10 America
would never be the same again after a massive Yellowstone eruption.
Some scientists believe that a full eruption by Yellowstone would
render two-thirds of the United States completely uninhabitable.
#11 Scientists
tell us that it is not a matter of “if” Yellowstone will erupt
but rather “when” the next inevitable eruption will take place.
What
makes all of this even more alarming is that a number of other very
prominent volcanoes around the world are starting to roar back to
life right now as well.
For
example, an
Inquisitr article from
back in July described how “the most dangerous volcano in Mexico”
is starting to become extremely active…
Popocatepetl
Volcano is at it again. The active volcano near Mexico City erupted
again this morning, spewing ash up into the sky.
The
volcano is currently in the middle of an extremely active phase.
According to the International
Business Times,
the volcano has registered 39 exhalations in the last 24 hours.
The BBC notes
that officials raised the alert level yellow following Popocateptl’s
eruption on Saturday morning. Yellow is the third-highest caution
level on the city’s seven step scale.
And
an NBC
News article from
August noted that one of the most dangerous volcanoes in Japan has
erupted 500
times so
far this year…
Ash
wafted as high as 3 miles above the Sakurajima volcano in the
southern city of Kagoshima on Sunday afternoon, forming its highest
plume since the Japan Meteorological Agency started keeping records
in 2006. Lava flowed just over half a mile from the fissure, and
several huge volcanic rocks rolled down the mountainside.
Though
the eruption was more massive than usual, residents of the city of
about 600,000 are used to hearing from their 3,664-foot neighbor.
Kagoshima officials said in a statement that this was Sakurajima’s
500th eruption this year alone.
So
what does all of this mean?
Are
we now entering a time when volcanic eruptions will become much more
common all over the globe?
Could
we rapidly be approaching the day when an absolutely devastating
volcanic eruption will paralyze much of North America?
An eruption of Yellowstone's super volcano would make the current set of problems in the Fukushima prefecture of Japan look like a minor, trivial matter. My guess though, is that super eruptions give some sort of advance warning well beyond the rising of the land above the super volcano. There should be a few "minor" volcanic eruptions 1st, which by themselves might be huge and destructive.
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