since all of yellowstone national park is one super volcano, if it erupts what would happen?

Question

keep in mind that it is a super volcano, what would a super eruption be like in reality, the movie was made not to scare you... what would a super eruption actually look like give good descriptions please and if you don't know please don't comment.

Answer 1

It would be huge & take out most of the US...eventually, it would put the planet into a nuclear winter that most would not survive.
This is on the Discovery channel every few months...pay attention next time, it will be easier to do your homework!

Answer 2

These are all pretty extreme, sensationalist guesses. Clearly the Discovery show on TV has hyped this thing up (a bit too much) - of course, that's how they get more TV viewers...
Sure, if Yellowstone erupted it would be big. The last few eruptions there deposited ash over much of the US (as far away as Florida), but not all over the world. Surely there would be climate effects as ash in the atmosphere would block out some sunlight for a while. It is pure speculation, however, to suggest that we would plunge into a global winter, or ice age. It is also, pure speculation to estimate what the effect on life would be - it is very difficult to say with any certainty what kinds of critters would go extinct, if any. I don't think humans would go extinct; we are clever enough to deal with it for a while. And while the ash would likely circumnavigate the globe, the Southern hemisphere would be minimally impacted.
Also, there was no mass extinction 74,000 years ago when Toba erupted, Yellowstone erupting would not “take out” the whole US, there would be no change in the lunar gravitational effects on our tides, and likely no change in Earth's rotation (these statements by other's are ridiculous).

Answer 3

From what I have seen on TV shows on the subject, it would be a gigantic disaster. The last time a super volcano erupted it was Toba, in Indonesia, about 74,000 years ago, and it produced a cloud cover that cut sunlight and chilled the planet enough that a mass extinction took place. A very large per-centage of the human race died. Presumably the same thing would happen again if Yellowstone erupted. Forecasts say such an eruption would last several weeks, it would eliminate the American Midwest as an agricultural zone and that alone would cause the starvation of billions of people. Beyond that, when plants can't live, the animals, including us, that eat plants can't live, either. Toba was a very interesting eruption, that eruption is worth googling to see how it effected human development. Good question!

Answer 4

Just like the tsunami of 2004 the earth would probably be knocked off it axis and rotation would be temporarily disrupted due to the magnitude of the compression. The majority of the earth would be blanketed in fallout of volcanic ash, restricting sunlight, effecting the gravitational pull of the moon, thus effecting the ocean tides. With the inability of the sun to penetrate the atmosphere, the earth's surface temperature will drop rapidly causing an instantaneously life threatening deep freeze, thus beginning the earth's next ice age. Effecting the entire northern hemisphere. Freezing all life forms, animal, plant and human, with the possible exception of microscopic life forms which may survive as they have in the past. With a slight possibility that some forms of life, organic, mammal and or oceanic may be able to sustain life below the equator. Solely depending on if they can survive massive tsunami's, earth quakes, volcanic eruptions and temperature changes within that region. The entire world and life as we know will be non-existent. The chances of survival almost zero percent.

How's that? The scariest part about writing this description is knowing that this super volcano has erupted in the past and seeing or hearing indications that point to it erupting again.

Answer 5

to give you an idea, the ENTIRE Yellowstone area is a giant caldera. This is the crater that remains of several extremely violent eruptions. The first eruption produced over 600 cubic miles of magma. This released over 5000 times the force as Mt St Helens. The second large eruption erased this feature and produced of 800 cubic miles of ash, with nearly 10,000 times the force of Mt St Helens. The caldera left from this is about 50 miles long by 30 miles wide.
The ash and steam released by this type of eruption is very destructive. This is not your teapot kind of steam, but hot enough to scorch a path with little left standing, either vaporized by the extreme force of the eruption or the heat.
This type of eruption tends to explode, rather than flow. The effects being rather localized (geographically) The ash does cause severe effects to the climate. After the last eruption, the climate entered a mini ice age that lasted for about 1000 years. All plant and animal life did not cease, but fossil and pollen evidence shows that cooler species took over quickly. This time period is also when the glaciers that we currently see in this area formed.
Since the entire batholith is rising, it might be something like this...
the ground would rapidly start rising over the entire area. The magma would start rapidly expanding as the weight and pressure are getting less.
The plug area would then burst when it got too thin. This violent explosion would be 10K times Mt St Helens. The rapidly expanding dense, superheated gas and ash would flow at around 800 MPH, vaporizing everything in it path, potentially for miles. The sound would be heard up to 100 miles away. As the caldera collapses, the ground would rapidly subside over an even greater area than before. The surrounding states would be covered with up to 10 feet deep in ash. Prevailing jet stream would carry the ash cloud to the east, blanketing Chicago 12 inches deep and continue to NYC., with a gray covering.
Airline traffic would immediately stop along this area, the ash would wreck a turbine in seconds.
Emergency Management would declare a disaster for the northern portion of the United States.
The sky would darken for a few days, ash would fall in some areas of Europe.
The ash would circle the globe in about a week. While the effect would be just a haze, this is a reflective haze. Temperatures would drop 10-20 degrees. If we are lucky, this will happen while it is raining, this would minimize the effects, bring more ash down quickly.
This may affect the climate for 10 or 100 years, but cooler species of plants would prevail.
Humans in developed areas would have little trouble, except for the cleanup of the ash. Farmlands would be affected, but the ash would act as a fertilizer in time.
Al Gore would blame the lack of global warming on divine intervention ;-)

Answer 6

The area of the United States that included Yellowstone Park sets on on an area that is know to be "geologically active". That is why the area is full of hot springs, and why Old Faithful works as it does. That being said, it IS possible that a volcano could erupt in that area at any time. Now, in 2012, or 20o years from now -- SOMEDAY it will erupt. Is the volcano "about" to erupt, like in the next weeks or month? no one can say. Humans simply do not have the ability at this time to predict exactly when a volcano wil erupt with any degree of certainty. The BEST we can say is, "It is going to erupt -- someday.".

Answer 7

If I remember correctly, the super volcano would kill anyone within a 200 mile radius upon eruption. The resulting ash plumes would cover the entire earth, blocking the sunlight. Most plant and animal life would perish. The Earth would experience an ice age lasting a few thousand years. All civilization would cease to exist.....It would be worse than a nuclear winter.

Man might be able to survive, but only limited pockets of the Earth could support life. It would take thousands of years for the ash to settle and the ecosystem to recover (10,000 - 20,000 years)

Answer 8

It would probably be a chain reaction of eruptions. If it were one huge eruption, however, I beleive that at least 1/4 of the country would be blown away. As for what it would look like, I think that there would be a deep rumbling, followed by either a cave in on the ground, or the ground would rise in a bubble type thing until it explodes.

Answer 9

What is a super volcano?
A super volcano is the most destructive force on this planet. Only a few exist in the world and when they erupt they do so with a force tens of thousands of times greater than other eruptions. They lie dormant for hundreds of thousands of years as a vast reservoir of magma builds up inside them before finally they unleash their apocalyptic force, capable of obliterating continents. They threaten the survival of mankind.

What happened during the last eruption of a super volcano?
The last eruption of a super volcano was in Toba, Sumatra, 75,000 years ago. It had 10,000 times the explosive force of Mount St. Helens and changed life on Earth forever. Thousands of cubic kilometres of ash was thrown into the atmosphere - so much that it blocked out light from the sun all over the world. 2,500 miles away 35 centimetres of ash coated the ground. Global temperatures plummeted by 21 degrees. The rain would have been so poisoned by the gasses that it would have turned black and strongly acidic. Man was pushed to the edge of extinction, the population forced down to just a couple of thousand. Three quarters of all plants in the northern hemisphere were killed.

What causes super volcanoes?
Super volcanoes differ from normal volcanoes in many ways. The stereotypical volcano is a towering cone, but super volcanoes form in depressions in the ground called calderas. When a normal volcano erupts lava gradually builds up in the mountain before releasing it. In super volcanoes when magma nears the surface it does not reach it, instead it begins to fill massive underground reservoirs. The magma melts the nearby rock to form more extremely thick magma. The magma is so viscous that volcanic gasses that normally trigger an eruption cannot pass, so a massive amount of pressure begins to build up. This continues for hundreds of thousands of years until an eruption occurs, which blasts away a huge amount of ground, forming a new caldera.

Where are there other super volcanoes?
Not all super volcanoes have been found, but one of the largest is in Yellowstone Park, USA. Scientists searching for the caldera in the park could not see it because it was so huge - only when satellite images were taken did the scale of the caldera become apparent - the whole park, 85km by 45km, is one massive reservoir of magma. The idyll landscape of Yellowstone (below) could soon explode with devastating consequences.

When will it next erupt?
Scientist have discovered that the ground in Yellowstone if 74cm higher than in was in 1923 - indicating a massive swelling underneath the park. The reservoir is filling with magma at an alarming rate. The volcano erupts with a near-clockwork cycle of every 600,000 years. The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago - we are overdue for annihilation.

What would be the effect of an eruption?
Immediately before the eruption, there would be large earthquakes in the Yellowstone region. The ground would swell further with most of Yellowstone being uplifted. One earthquake would finally break the layer of rock that holds the magma in - and all the pressure the Earth can build up in 640,000 years would be unleashed in a cataclysmic event.
Magma would be flung 50 kilometres into the atmosphere. Within a thousand kilometres virtually all life would be killed by falling ash, lava flows and the sheer explosive force of the eruption. Volcanic ash would coat places as far away as Iowa and the Gulf of Mexico. One thousand cubic kilometres of lava would pour out of the volcano, enough to coat the whole of the USA with a layer 5 inches thick. The explosion would have a force 2,500 times that of Mount St. Helens. It would be the loudest noise heard by man for 75,000 years, the time of the last super volcano eruption. Within minutes of the eruption tens of thousands would be dead.

The long-term effects would be even more devastating. The thousands of cubic kilometres of ash that would shoot into the atmosphere could block out light from the sun, making global temperatures plummet. This is called a nuclear winter. As during the Sumatra eruption a large percentage of the world's plant life would be killed by the ash and drop in temperature. Also, virtually the entire of the grain harvest of the Great Plains would disappear in hours, as it would be coated in ash. Similar effects around the world would cause massive food shortages. If the temperatures plummet by the 21 degrees they did after the Sumatra eruption the Yellowstone super volcano eruption could truly be an extinction level event.

Answer 10

According to the TV shows that i have seen, all of the United States would be buried under ash, and the entire world would go into a long winter because of all of the dust in the air. Probably the end of civilization as we know it.