Damn Americans

[kedo1981]

Damn Americans

One day the Yellowstone caldaria explodes, as it does every 700,000 years or so.
The initial eruption killed 25 million people.
Red hot projectiles of magma were blasted high into the atmosphere, to rain down on cities as faraway as Las Vegas, St Lous, Los Angeles and San Francisco are left in smoking ruins. The Great Plains are on fire.
The 500 degree piroclastic flow swept out like the tendrils of a giant octopus, engulfing most of the western cities in an oven of deadly ash and lava bombs, 200 million dead.
Within 72 hours the Great Lakes are choked with ash and debris, and are poisoned for life for the next 1500 years.
The ash column spreads across North America dumping a 12 foot layer of pumice on cities in the eastern US, many of which had been set on fire not by the Volcano but by the chaos that grew out of the panic.
The seismic pulse from the Yellowstone Super volcano triggered an unprecedented number of volcanic eruptions across the globe; the Cascade Range was the first, followed by eruptions all around the Pacific “ring of fire”.
The pulse triggered an eruption in the Canaries Islands causing an entire mountain to collapse into the Atlantic, which inturn generated a massive wall of water that swept across the remaining cities of North America.
The few remaining citizens of the US, trying to huddle out of the reach of the poison ash and the bitter cold, die of starvation within 60 days.
After years of struggling to survive, the last human (though he does not know it) a 40 ish year old man living in what had been Russia is breathing his last breath, he saw his wife and daughters raped and murdered by the warlords or die of ash sickness (as was he), then the warlords died also, going for sometimes days without water of food it finally took it’s toll, he was dieing. His last thought was of the brutal struggles of the past few years and how all the Americans died so quickly, and he thought to him self ”Damn Americans, they got the best of everything”.

I’m thinking of turning it into a children’s book

[Thunder]

um...this would also cause most humans on Earth to die.

[applecorped]

I blame Bush.

[Gagglegnash]

Hi

I don't think that the Yellowstone volcano system is a planet-killer. It would certainly be a planet-changer, though.

The ash bed on the last eruption was pretty much limited to west of the Mississippi, wasn't it?

[GreyICE]

This wouldn't have happened if we voted in Gore.

Just sayin'

[ParrotPirate]

Did anybody see the big paranoia hype show on History about this a few years ago?

[fuelair]

Damn Americans

One day the Yellowstone caldaria explodes, as it does every 700,000 years or so.
The initial eruption killed 25 million people.
Red hot projectiles of magma were blasted high into the atmosphere, to rain down on cities as faraway as Las Vegas, St Lous, Los Angeles and San Francisco are left in smoking ruins. The Great Plains are on fire.
The 500 degree piroclastic flow swept out like the tendrils of a giant octopus, engulfing most of the western cities in an oven of deadly ash and lava bombs, 200 million dead.
Within 72 hours the Great Lakes are choked with ash and debris, and are poisoned for life for the next 1500 years.
The ash column spreads across North America dumping a 12 foot layer of pumice on cities in the eastern US, many of which had been set on fire not by the Volcano but by the chaos that grew out of the panic.
The seismic pulse from the Yellowstone Super volcano triggered an unprecedented number of volcanic eruptions across the globe; the Cascade Range was the first, followed by eruptions all around the Pacific “ring of fire”.
The pulse triggered an eruption in the Canaries Islands causing an entire mountain to collapse into the Atlantic, which inturn generated a massive wall of water that swept across the remaining cities of North America.
The few remaining citizens of the US, trying to huddle out of the reach of the poison ash and the bitter cold, die of starvation within 60 days.
After years of struggling to survive, the last human (though he does not know it) a 40 ish year old man living in what had been Russia is breathing his last breath, he saw his wife and daughters raped and murdered by the warlords or die of ash sickness (as was he), then the warlords died also, going for sometimes days without water of food it finally took it’s toll, he was dieing. His last thought was of the brutal struggles of the past few years and how all the Americans died so quickly, and he thought to him self ”Damn Americans, they got the best of everything”.

I’m thinking of turning it into a children’s bookA) this was a movie four or five years ago. B) according to the experts, the Canary Islands mountain splashdown will tak out only the first 10 miles or so in along the coast. Orlando will become the new seafront area (very east Orange County to be more accurate. C) Not really all that likely.

[kedo1981]

Repeat after me "kedo's just makin it up"
Besides I just said people all die not the planet

[MG1962]

A) this was a movie four or five years ago. B) according to the experts, the Canary Islands mountain splashdown will tak out only the first 10 miles or so in along the coast. Orlando will become the new seafront area (very east Orange County to be more accurate. C) Not really all that likely.

Well think of the good news. The Tsunami will put out the fires ;)

[Grizzly Bear]

Hi

I don't think that the Yellowstone volcano system is a planet-killer. It would certainly be a planet-changer, though.

The ash bed on the last eruption was pretty much limited to west of the Mississippi, wasn't it?

Well, Mount Pinatubo's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pinatubo) effects were felt word wide. If the Yellowstone eruptions were big enough it could have more of an impact. Some of the historical lava flows I've heard about from Yellowstone's previous major eruptions have also been observed to be quite significant


A) this was a movie four or five years ago. B) according to the experts, the Canary Islands mountain splashdown will tak out only the first 10 miles or so in along the coast. Orlando will become the new seafront area (very east Orange County to be more accurate. C) Not really all that likely.
Looks like if that happens... I'll have to take a stroll down to either Mohogany Hammock or Flamingo while my area floods... because Miami will get a lovely remodeling of it's beachscape

[technoextreme]

Did anybody see the big paranoia hype show on History about this a few years ago?
It was on the Discovery Channel and a paranoia hype show it was not. They said that there is a distinct possibility nothing will happen if the caldera moves under the mountains.

[shadron]

It was on the Discovery Channel and a paranoia hype show it was not. They said that there is a distinct possibility nothing will happen if the caldera moves under the mountains.

Heh. Do yourself a favor. Load maps.google.com; by default it loads an image. Focus in on Yellowstone (northwest Wyoming, there's a nice, black lake there), and then click the little button that turns off labels. Do you see that "smooth" looking "U" shaped area from Oregon across Idaho that ends at Yellowstone? That's the Snake River Valley, and the difference in topography you see there, it's uniformity and "smoothness", is caused by the fact that it is the path that the Yellowstone hotspot cut through the mountains on all sides of it in it's journey to where it is now.

It is funny to talk about a hospot moving "under the mountains"; rather, it chews them up (from he bottom up) and pulverizes them, drops them into a hole and paves them over with lava. As stated above there have been three caldera evens in Yellowstone, the latest 700,000 years ago. Between 50,000 and 1265,000 years ago non-explosive erupions filled the last caldera (2800 meters deep, 80x50 km in extent) up with a yellowish rock magma called rhyolite, hence the famous yellow canyon and the park's name. The mantle plume hotspot moves along at 3.5cm/year, and will cut right across Montana to the Canadian border in 20 million years; it'll be Saskatchewan's park then. Inside the 80km swath, the ground level has subsided an average of 6km between fault lines (read: lots of big, big earthquakes). USGS refers to it as a continental rototiller (http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Yellowstone/description_yellowstone.html).

I'll be like a policeman's job: hours and hours of pure boredom - geysers and cute, bubbly paintpots - occasionally punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

[MG1962]

Heh. Do yourself a favor. Load maps.google.com; by default it loads an image. Focus in on Yellowstone (northwest Wyoming, there's a nice, black lake there), and then click the little button that turns off labels. Do you see that "smooth" looking "U" shaped area from Oregon across Idaho that ends at Yellowstone? That's the Snake River Valley, and the difference in topography you see there, it's uniformity and "smoothness", is caused by the fact that it is the path that the Yellowstone hotspot cut through the mountains on all sides of it in it's journey to where it is now.

It is funny to talk about a hospot moving "under the mountains"; rather, it chews them up (from he bottom up) and pulverizes them, drops them into a hole and paves them over with lava. As stated above there have been three caldera evens in Yellowstone, the latest 700,000 years ago. Between 50,000 and 1265,000 years ago non-explosive erupions filled the last caldera (2800 meters deep, 80x50 km in extent) up with a yellowish rock magma called rhyolite, hence the famous yellow canyon and the park's name. The mantle plume hotspot moves along at 3.5cm/year, and will cut right across Montana to the Canadian border in 20 million years; it'll be Saskatchewan's park then. Inside the 80km swath, the ground level has subsided an average of 6km between fault lines (read: lots of big, big earthquakes). USGS refers to it as a continental rototiller (http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Yellowstone/description_yellowstone.html).

I'll be like a policeman's job: hours and hours of pure boredom - geysers and cute, bubbly paintpots - occasionally punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

And let me guess you write greeting cards for a living lol

[shadron]

"Roses are red, violets are purple.
Sugar's sweet, and so's maple surple."

Plagiarism is about my best lit'rary talent. :)

[Vorticity]

I blame Bush.

I, for one, blame the Jews.

[gumboot]

The Taupo eruption 26,000 years ago and the Whakamaru eruption 250,000 years ago were both substantially bigger than the Yellowstone Caldera eruption, and both occured well after New Zealand separated from Australia (about 65 million years ago). Yet, as evident from the abundance of native life in New Zealand, these massive eruptions failed to wipe out life on our tiny islands, let alone across the globe. I think you'll be okay. :)

[plumjam]

Buy 50 pairs of oven gloves, and sew the padded bits together into a caldera-proof suit. Integrate a snorkel in order to avoid the effects of ash and dust.
Wear.
Sing the Stars and Stripes.

[kedo1981]

By the by I’m paraphrasing a Soviet era joke I heard yarns ago.

A store in Moscow announced new rolls of toilet paper just in from Cuba.
Throngs of people lined up and after waiting many hours the commissar announced
“we have les toilet paper than expected so all Jews must leave the line” about a fourth of the people leave.
3 hours latter the commissar makes the announcement “Comrades, due to having less toilet paper only members of party can remain in line” about three quarters of the people leave.
By 6 in the evening comes another announcement from the commissar “ I’m sorry comrades but it has been decided that only those fought in the war against Hitler should stay in line” most of the remaining leave with a gumble.
After standing all day in the cold the few reaming hear the announcement “Dear comrades will all those who did not fight in the great socialist revolution please leave”
All that is left are three old men
Three hours latter the commissar makes an announcement “ the rumor that we had toilet paper has turned out to be false please go home.
One old man says to another, “damn Jews get the best of everything”

[Damien Evans]

The Taupo eruption 26,000 years ago and the Whakamaru eruption 250,000 years ago were both substantially bigger than the Yellowstone Caldera eruption, and both occured well after New Zealand separated from Australia (about 65 million years ago). Yet, as evident from the abundance of native life in New Zealand, these massive eruptions failed to wipe out life on our tiny islands, let alone across the globe. I think you'll be okay. :)

They would have made some nice sunsets though...

[Oliver]

The Taupo eruption 26,000 years ago and the Whakamaru eruption 250,000 years ago were both substantially bigger than the Yellowstone Caldera eruption, and both occured well after New Zealand separated from Australia (about 65 million years ago).


Mhmmmm ... That's when the dinosaurs disappeared. :boxedin::p

[shadron]

The Taupo eruption 26,000 years ago and the Whakamaru eruption 250,000 years ago were both substantially bigger than the Yellowstone Caldera eruption, and both occured well after New Zealand separated from Australia (about 65 million years ago). Yet, as evident from the abundance of native life in New Zealand, these massive eruptions failed to wipe out life on our tiny islands, let alone across the globe. I think you'll be okay. :)

Ummmmm, beg to differ, on the grounds of extreme geographic chauvinism. Here is a list of level (VEI) 8 known volcanoes in wikipedia; note that the amount of emitted debris is the usual measure of a volcano's size:


Lake Taupo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Taupo), North Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Island), New Zealand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand) - Oruanui eruption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oruanui_eruption) ~26,500 years ago (~1,170 km3)
Lake Toba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba), Sumatra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra), Indonesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia) - ~75,000 years ago (~2,800 km3)
Whakamaru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whakamaru), North Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Island), New Zealand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand) - Whakamaru Ignimbrite/Mount Curl Tephra ~254,000 years ago (1,200-2,000 km3)[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano#cite_note-4)
Yellowstone Caldera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera), Wyoming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming), United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) - 640,000 years ago (1,000 km3)
Island Park Caldera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Park_Caldera), Idaho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho)/Wyoming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming), United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) - 2.1 million years ago(2,500 km3)
Kilgore Tuff (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kilgore_Tuff&action=edit&redlink=1), Idaho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho), United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) - 4.5 million years ago (1,800 km3)
Black Tail Creek (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_Tail_Creek&action=edit&redlink=1), Idaho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho), United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) - 6.6 million years ago (1,500 km3)
La Garita Caldera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Garita_Caldera), Colorado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado), United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) - Source of the truly enormous eruption of the Fish Canyon Tuff ~27.8 million years ago (~5,000 km3)

The obviously largest events ever, though not necessarily the most violent, were the creation of the Deccan (512,000 cu km) and Siberian (1 to 4 million cu km) traps in the Cretaceous and Permian periods, respectively. They also lasted, more or less continuously, for a millions of years each. Before that, the collision with Theia...


It is noted elsewhere that the Toba erupion is held responsible for the wiping out of 90% of Homo Sapiens existing on Earth at the time, leaving as few as 10,000 individuals in Africa. It is also noted that animal, and even some early Hominin life quite close to Toba (like Flores), survived the blast.


The worst feature about the blasts are not their violence or lava flows per se, but their influence on climate. The Deccan traps warmer up the Earth by an estimated 8 degrees C, putting most Cretaceous fauna on it's last legs even before the meteor. Tambora (VEI 7, 1815) caused two years of crop failures globally.

[Beerina]

um...this would also cause most humans on Earth to die.

Very true -- just losing the farmland of North America (Canada and Mexico, too, keep in mind) will threaten a billion or more around the world, thanks to exports.

I also don't know that the Great Lakes will be "dead for 1500 years" -- perhaps a fish killoff may take that long to work its way back in from the sea via evolution and whatever, but after a couple of years it should be clear enough restocking could start. Most will settle fast or be washed out to sea.

Could the US airlift much of its population somewhere else, like South America? Would it even need to?

[kedo1981]

would we be welcome???????????????

[quixotecoyote]

would we be welcome???????????????

We'd dual-purpose the now unusable harvesters and send them in front of the settlers to make sure there's enough population-space.