Don't count on it. It would have to excavate cubic miles of rock to do it, but once the cork is off, it will fizz up. That is what the supervolcano eruption is, when the pressure that is holding the magma down is released.
Well, I thought it might keep this thread alive. I find it interesting that 150 quakes in a month is no cause for alarm, and is considered to be background level for this area.
It's just the sheer size of the thing. The masses of magma and solid rock involved are so large that when they shift as the magma moves around, it generates millions of quakes over the years without causing a lot of damage.
The magma plume remains relatively stationary while the tectonic North America Plate moves over it at about 2.5 cm. per year west-southwest (242 degrees). Meanwhile, the Pacific Plate is sliding northwest parallel to the coast of North America 5-6 cm per year, and produced the Cascade Range, with the old Farallon Plate in between. The Farallon Plate produced the Rockies and the slip-strike fault (that hardly anyone seems to know about) that produced the huge mountain mountain range above what is now the Inner Gorge of the Grand Canyon. The small plate between the Pacific and North American Plates is the Gorda Plate. I would assume, that since the Farallon Plate caused the nearby rise of the Colorado Plateau, that it had - or may still have! - some influeence on the magma plume that now lies underneath the Yellowstone Caldera. Maybe someone can google a search using "Farallon Plate" and Yellowstone or Yellowstone caldera or Snake River Plain and see what they come up with. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/platetec/kula.htm
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/platetec/kula.htm
I know that at USGS, it always is at background level, this supervolcano, is overdue for an eruption, there his mouvement under yelloswstone caldera. I saw that, way in the past, about 1 year 1/2, at Radio Canada, in a documentary, this tv channel, is the counterpart of CBC. CBC is the english channel, and RD the french channel. In Canada. This is my opinion, opinion formed after seing this show. Ch.K.
There can be big natural catastrophy everywhere, if something happened, as for the cascadia, fault line, Both Canada, and Us would be tuch, first with a big earthquake, and second a tsunamie. It would be bad for Seatle, Washington state,USA but it would be really bad for Vancouver, Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada. and more. Anyway a supervolcano could wiped out everything on earth, if the eruption isi is big enough, So everybody would be in danger, altho, i know that the peoples close to Yellowstone park would be more affected at the moment of the eruption, than us, but with time....Ch.K.
I'm impressed that you know about the Cascadia fault line, but that lies to the west of Yellowstone and has no relation to it. Although, an earthquake there might affect the caldera, and likewise an eruption in Yellowstone could possibly trigger an earthquake along the fault line. I don't think anyone can predict the relation.
"The Cascadia fault line last generated an estimated 9.0 - 9.5 magnitude earthquake, followed by a tsunami on Jan. 26, 1700." http://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/west/2005/01/24/features/51378.htm Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I know that Yellowstone caldera as nothing to do with the Cascadia fault line, it does'nt have any relation to the Cascade volcanos either, i was responding, to you, when you said, that as a Canadian, I was trying to scare you in the south,hihi. I just wanted to say that there is not only the yellowstone Caldera that was dangerous, but that we in Canada can have catastrophy to, as for the Cascadia fault line for exemple, that would tuch also Washington state too, but there is danger everywhere, on earth, anyway. Winter kills a lot of peoples on the road, so imagine all over the world all the danger there is only by nature, it is enough to go crasy hihi.see you later Krakatoa.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Just wanted to add, that i am passionate, about volcanos, earthquakes, twisters, hurricanes, etc etc, since i was 11 years old, So this is why i knew about the Cascadia Fault line. I dont like what it does to peoples and nature, but we can't not that much against them, so i try to stay informed on this. Krakatoa.
Activity discovered at Yellowstone supervolcano Caldera bulged and deflated significantly during study period http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17629668/
Yeah, but when they "about due", sometimes they mean "In the next 2 million years or so". In the grand scheme of things, this is "about due", but it doesn't mean that all of these events will overlap.
When a geologist says 'soon' they mean in the next million years or so. If a geologist says 'now', then you've still got up to a couple of millenia. Only if they say nothing because they are gathering up equpment and running towards the site of highest danger do you know something's really imminent Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
In the big scheme of things, does it really matter if it goes now or later? Not much you can do about it anyway, except just try to survive. Just plan on a finding a new summer home somewhere else, that's all.
The thing is, if we know it's going to take out a continent at 2 pm on February 17, 2009, then we can prepare for it and either move people out of harm's way or provide places where they can hunker down and wait it out. Even land that may soon be covered with ash by a volcano or flooded out is land that people can live on most of the time. Agriculture in Egypt depended on the Nile flooding, and in some places agriculture depends on regular doses of volcanic ash.
Can't they pinpop this zit and artificially relieve the pressure buildup? Yea it might be a dumb question , this stuff is way over my head.
When it comes to a supervolcano there is no such thing as a 'zit'. One only needs to look at the size of the world's largest supervolcano TOBA to realize that a big Yellowstone eruption as big as it could be, would be smaller than what TOBA's super eruption was back in Circa: 72,000 B.C. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
