Yellowstone supervolcano?

Question

The supervolcano at Yellowstone poses a great risk to the future of the United States, yet few are greatly worried or even interested. It is long overdue for its next eruption. Why aren't people concerned, what will happen once it blows up?

Answer 1

To make it a semi short answer.

One that Volcano is underground and its a World killer not just United States. When it blows it will touch everyone on the globe one way or another.

We are we not concerned? Good question maybe because there is not anything that can be done about it, another is People as individuals are smart but the more you get together the less they think. Would go along the lines if they knew it was going to Blow inside of 1 month would they tell anyone? Probably not due to the chance of MASS I mean Global MASS riots.
What would you or anyone do if you and everyone you know or ever seen was going to die in a month.
What can they do to stop something like that Arrest you? Not likely since in 30 days wont matter. People would murder , Rape Pillage it would be nuts. Individuals are smart but masses are stupid hence riots and such. (Just a add) think of some countries, would they just launch missiles at whom ever since there would be no real repercussions.

But they are watching and monitoring the volcano, and it has shifted some from last reports I read awhile back.

Answer 2

I'm sure people are concerned if they think about it but the scale of the eruption that Yellowstone is capable of would mean that any precaution short of permanently evacuating most of the USA would be meaningless.

It's one of those things that will probably happen one day but "due" in this instance is a geological term which means "any time in the next few thousand years". Unless you're proposing that the USA is simply emptied of its entire population on the chance that this thing might blow then there's little anyone can do except monitor it and watch the scarey documentaries.

Answer 3

First, I'm not all that sure it is "long overdue" for its next eruption. We know of 3 big ones, 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago, which gives a 660,000 to 800,000 year window (that means we have 20,000 more years to go to fit in this window). And 3 events do not provide statistical significance. I think people are not concerned for the same reason that people aren't too worried about being hit by a meteor - it is just such a rare event that the probability that it will happen in our lifetime is incredibly remote. Also, Yellowstone is being monitored, and if something were getting ready to happen, I think the geologists would let us know - they were able to warn us about Mt. St. Helen's. When and if it blows, it will have MAJOR consequences for all of the United States. At this point, though, I think I would be more worried about Global Warming.....

Answer 4

I was a little concerned when I first saw the show, but after looking up information from the USGS, it doesn't appear to be overdue and the alert level is normal. Also, they think that any eruption in the near future is likely to be steam eruptions, rather than volcanic. Is it true that the next caldera-forming eruption of Yellowstone is overdue? No. First of all, one cannot present recurrence intervals based on only two values. It would be statistically meaningless. But for those who insist... let's do the arithmetic. The three eruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 0.64 million years ago. The two intervals are thus 0.8 and 0.66 million years, averaging to a 0.73 million-year interval. Again, the last eruption was 0.64 million years ago, implying that we are still about 90,000 years away from the time when we might consider calling Yellowstone overdue for another caldera-forming eruption. Nevertheless, we cannot discount the possibility of another such eruption occurring some time in the future, given Yellowstone's volcanic history and the continued presence of magma beneath the Yellowstone caldera. The most likely type of eruption would not be volcanic but, rather, hydrothermal. This type of small, but still explosive eruption can occur from shallow reservoirs of steam or hot water rather than molten rock. These reservoirs are the sources of Yellowstone's famous geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles. Such explosions could blast out shallow craters more than a kilometer wide; as has occurred in the northern Yellowstone Lake Basin, including Mary Bay and nearby Turbid Lake and Indian Pond, and in western Yellowstone National Park north of Old Faithful. Each of these craters was produced by steam blasts within the past few thousand years. The most likely type of volcanic eruption at Yellowstone would produce lava flows of either rhyolite or basalt; rhyolitic lava eruptions could also include explosive phases that might produce significant volumes of volcanic ash and pumice. Such eruptions could range in size from smaller than the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens through much larger than the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption. The least likely but worst-case volcanic eruption at Yellowstone would be another explosive caldera-forming eruption such as those that occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago. However, the probability of such an eruption in any given century or millennium is exceedingly low- much lower than the smaller eruptions mentioned above. Tuesday, June 3, 2008 11:45 MDT Volcano Alert Level: NORMAL Aviation Color Code: GREEN

Answer 5

People are worried and interested. Geologists work day in and day out monitoring Volcanoes, so that civilians can be safe. Yellowstone has not erupted in hundreds of thousands of years. They are keeping track of it, but the scientists are more worried about the frequent-erupting ones like in costa rica and hawaii

Answer 6

United States Geological survive is keeping an eye on the area and it is monitored twenty four hours a day they know what is going on, but they don't wish to alarm the people in the surrounding area they do want to cause a panic.

Yes it is over due to erupted but volcanism is not an enactze science, so who know it could happen tomorrow.

Answer 7

Volcanoes aren't "due". There is no real and good way to predict when one will erupt, even active ones. People are concerned but when you are dealing with something like this there is nothing that can be done. We can't stop it from erupting. The best we can do is watch it and evacuate the best we can if things look iffy. When/if it does erupt we are going to be looking at severe local and global effects.

Answer 8

volcanoes are every where. why worry about something that you know it would happen. in costa rica there are about 112 volcanoes, there are like 15 that is active. in this small country with all those volcanoes, they erupt at the same time... there would be no costa rica any more, thats why we have earthquakes too. imagine if people would worry or be concerned about it and not enjoying this land...

Answer 9

I live right next to Yellowstone and No one is concerned because that volcano won't blow up anytime soon..But if it did..I would proubly die instanly