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Yellowstone Magma Reservoir


KariW

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Very interesting article regarding the magma reservoir underneath Yellowstone National Park! Enjoy!

A team of scientists led by Dr Hsin-Hua Huang of California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of Utah has discovered a reservoir of partly molten rock 19-45 km (12-28 miles) beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano. This magma body has a volume of 46,000 cubic km, approximately 4.5 times larger than the previously known upper-crustal magma reservoir.

http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/geophysics/science-magma-reservoir-yellowstone-supervolcano-02729.html

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Please tell me I'm not the only one that reads the word 'Magma' in Dr. Evil's voice every time I see it. :yes:

37106628.jpg

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Great Article She-ra! Thanks so much for sharing that with us! I have to admit, that I have been worried about Yellowstone for some time, but as Merc14 pointed out, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it! If it blows, it blows!

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This is not bad news. A larger reservoir means less chance of an eruption. Not that the chance was very high to begin with.

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Thats a colossal amount! That must be verging on the equivalent of all the great lakes combined!

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If I would ever travel to usa a visit to Yellowstone would be nr one on my list for places to see

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That's a lot of lava, this will destroy the world for sure

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That's a lot of lava, this will destroy the world for sure

Dont be too optimistic coolguy

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That's a lot of lava, this will destroy the world for sure

i'm pretty sure the world will be fine, no matter what the yellowstone caldera does.

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This is not bad news. A larger reservoir means less chance of an eruption. Not that the chance was very high to begin with.

Now somehow I missed that. Intuitively one would think the more lava the more chance of an eruption and the worse it will be. From what I've read the discovery doesn't seem to have any effect on estimates of the chance, positive or negative.

One thing I did note is that this is not "lava" as we normally think but hot porous rock permeated with liquid rock. Somehow that sounds a bit safer.

I'm glad to see knowledge like this increasing.

Edited by Frank Merton
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Guest Br Cornelius

i'm pretty sure the world will be fine, no matter what the yellowstone caldera does.

That would be a very foolish assumption since it would send us into a nuclear winter scenario for at least 4years if it blows. Billions would die.

Br Cornelius

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My wife and I are always making plans to go to Yellowstone for vacation some year. With my luck, it will probably blow before we can get there.

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Awesome picture! Looks like some kind of weird alien surface..:D

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My wife and I are always making plans to go to Yellowstone for vacation some year. With my luck, it will probably blow before we can get there.

make plans before you do.....just in case
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make plans before you do.....just in case

Aside from someone taking care of our pets, there isn't much else to plan for. A volcanic eruption on that scale, at ground zero will do us in pretty much as having a terrible car accident on the way to the place.

Are you planning on throwing your wife in? :P

Who me? Not at all. She has to do the driving because of my ear thing. If I threw her in, I'd be stuck there. Besides, I can't cook very well, either.

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That would be a very foolish assumption since it would send us into a nuclear winter scenario for at least 4years if it blows. Billions would die.

Br Cornelius

erg, sorry. i was making a flippant little joke on the idea that the world itself will be fine. you know, the actual physical earth that's gone through such eruptions before. yeah, for the rest of us living things, it would not be good. apologies.

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I was thinking about this the other day, how land raises out of the water and make an island. They are generally volcano's.

Thats what the U.S. is. A volcano. scary stuff D:

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Guest Br Cornelius

I was thinking about this the other day, how land raises out of the water and make an island. They are generally volcano's.

Thats what the U.S. is. A volcano. scary stuff D:

Not really, the USA is a plate floating on magma. It gets pushed up where it meets other plates and the low point where plates pull apart tend to fill with water making the oceans. Volcanoes are generally located where the two plates meet and the friction melts the plate at the edge.

Br Cornelius

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Yellowstone is a hotspot...one of dozens around the world. They can underlie cratonic material (e.g. Yellowstone) or oceanic material (e.g. Hawaii).

(Also worth noting, arc volcanism at plate boundaries has a hella lot more to do with volatile-induced melting than friction melting.)

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That would be a very foolish assumption since it would send us into a nuclear winter scenario for at least 4years if it blows. Billions would die.

Br Cornelius

The world is not just we animals corny. I think what she was saying is the planet itself will be fine but we humans maybe not so much. The blue marble has seen a few of these and worse and keeps on spinning around its star just fine.

Edited by Merc14
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The world is not just we animals corny. I think what she was saying is the planet itself will be fine but we humans maybe not so much. The blue marble has seen a few of these and worse and keeps on spinning around its star just fine.

Agree, but I also think that humans will be fine as well. We're not all grunting cave-dwelling fire-fearing hunter-gatherers anymore. I tend to not underestimate modern human's staying power in this day and age.

Edited by Thorvir Hrothgaard
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Agree, but I also think that humans will be fine as well. We're not all grunting cave-dwelling fire-fearing hunter-gatherers anymore. I tend to not underestimate modern human's staying power in this day and age.

I agree but some of the countries on the edge would probably slip over it resulting in famine in those places.

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