HI, Sorri if this is in the wrong place. today in college i was speakin to one of my teachers and he said that theres a theory tht dinosaurs were wiped out with a megavolcano so many years ago and that the next eruption is due.

however he mentioned that scientists were looking for the rim of this volcano inside yellowstone park and later discovered that infact yellowstone park itself was inside the actualy volcano rim!! he said it was around 40 (give or take a few)miles wide(length or in diameter). he also mentioned that there is a lake inside the rim of the volcano and that on one side of the lake the water is higher than it is at the other side. but water cant slope can it ? he said that infact it was the magma under the earth pushin up through the crust and resultin in all the water moving down.

i was interested by this theory and was wonder if theres any evidence out there to back it up

once again sorri if this is in the wrong place just move it please

a ggod place to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera

in any case you should not 100% rely on wiki information as there are some people insistent in reducing wiki content to imbecility, but it gives you pointers to serious sites and information.

I believe your teacher may have got Yellowstone confused with the Deccan Traps which some scientists do think may have had a role in the extinction of the dinosaurs.

I've never heard of the idea that the Yellowstone megavolcano might be responsible for the K-T extinction event.

I doubt this very much.
I don't think the dates match closely enough.

But it's been known for decades that Yellowstone is a caldera. When it blows again, it's liable to deposit 6 to 12 feet of ash as far east as western Arkansas - which is what it's done before.

Not really enough to cause a global extinction event.


Harte

I think it would be rather hard for Yellowstone to be inside of a volcano, considering it is around 3,500 square miles.

Extinctions are rarely easy, normally numerous factors contribute to mass extinctions.

Here is the map. it is not all of the park, but most of it:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0...aldera_map2.jpg
(way to big to post here)

I've seen a couple of specials about this on Discovery Channel & The Science Channel. The Yellowstone Mega-volcano or Caldera volcano covers most of the area inside what is designated as Yellowstone park. Over the past several years, siesmological and sattelite data have shown that the overall land mass over the caldera has raised roughly 5 inches, showing that pressure is building up under the caldera. However, we have never seen a volcano of this type erupt in recorded history, so there is no way to predict when it will. The current estimates put the eruption at any time within the next 10,000 years, meaning it could be 10,000 years from now, it could be tomorrow, it could be going on right now. The estimates also show that the area surrounding the caldera will be covered w/ pyroclastic flow, making them uninhabitable & deadly within moments. Magma, gas, ash, and dust will be thrown from 20km to 50km into the air. All of the US east of the Mississippi will be covered in 6-12 inches of ash. East of the Mississippi to the Appalachains will get 3-9 inches of ash, and East of the Appalachians will get 1-3 inches. There are also likely to be longer term global environmental issues as gas and dust spread out and slowly disspiate and fall.

The only record we have of the impact of this type of eruption is the fossil record of the Toba eruption in Indonesia. Using geological records along w/ mitocondrial DNA testing, we have been able to determine that the worldwide human population at the time of the eruption went from a few hundred thousand to less than 10,000. However, this took place early in our prehistory, so there is no written record, and, thus, it is arguable as to wether the eruption itself was responsible.

I watched a documentary on it on The Discovery Channel. If you want, you should go to their website and try to order the video, it's well worth watching.

Actually we have: Thera!



Again, we do! Look at Thera!



Don't scare me!



A bit dramatic.

I wasn't trying to be scary honestly, just trying to convey the idea that was put across by the show, in that it was a major disaster that could occur at any time. I did some research on Thera, and while it looks like the same type of eruption, I'm not sure it's exactly in the same class. From what I gather, an eruption of the Thera magnitude occurs every few hundred to every few thousand years, while one of the Yellowstone/Toba magnitude occur once every hundred thousand years or so.

Thera's a much smaller volcano, as I understood it. This is one of the biggest volcanoes out there. I hope it takes its time to explode.

It might never again, though the probability for that is not good. It might in a much smaller scale than 640.000 years ago and it might take a million years from now to blow its top.

There are things that just are not predictable, and that is good so... keeps people speculating.

Well, recent investigation does seem to suggest it's getting ready to blow again. Of course it could just be nothing, but like you said the probability for that is not good.

The Thera eruption was the largest since the advent of human civilisation. The last supervolcano eruption was Toba in Indonesia around 70,000 years ago - data from the ice cores indicate the coldest spell of the last ice age occurred soon after, and the fallout of ash covered large parts of India and Asia. There is also a human genetic bottleneck that occurred around the same time, strongly suggesting that the entire human population fell to perhaps just a few thousand people ..... probably as a result of sudden climatic changes brought on by the eruption.

The eruptions that took place around the time the dinosaurs became extinct were, however, in a completely different league - massive flood basalt eruption thousands of feet thick covering thousands of square miles and lasting for thousands of years. Even a super volcano eruption - like Yellowstone - would affect the climate for only a few decades; it'd be a difficult time, but humans would survive. The Deccan Traps flood basalt eruptions would have affected the climate for hundreds of thousands of years and were a similar event to occur now I think we'd have to completely change our ways of living forever.

o sure... just as California is sinking into the sea, predicted about twice a year. It may happen and it may not. The possibility of the former is just slightly higher.

omg yes! my physics professor mentioned this and i forgot how stupid of me! It's true man.... it supposedly is due... my professor said it could wipe the entire north america continent...dammit! it prolly is true....oh well...