Magma Pressure Could Cause End Of The World

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There is no technology on earth that can cope with a sixty square mile magma pool. The deepest hole ever drilled is about 15 km. Not nearly deep enough.

This is a force of Nature that we cannot deal with. At this juncture the only thing to do is have a few humans sheltered deep enough and breathing air well filtered enough and with enough provisions to last long enough for the particulate matter to settle out.

ruveyn

I don't think I will ever understand the need for panic felt by so many people.

There is NO indication at all that Yellowstone will ever again erupt with a supervolcano.

We cannot legitimately argue that it must erupt again because it did in the past, but if we are going to consider the past as an indication of future eruptions, then it would appear that a supervolcano is unlikely.

Of the three supervolcano eruptions at Yellowstone, the first one at 2.1 million years ago was the largest. The second largest was the third eruption at 640,000 years ago. The eruption between the two was much smaller.

That eruption of 640,000 years ago was not the last eruption, though. The last eruption was 174,000 years ago, but it was smaller than what would be termed a supervolcano. Also, 70,000 years ago, there was a major lava flow with no little or no explosive eruption.

If you are going to argue based on past history, then it would seem far more logical to argue that eruptions are decreasing in size and that the next eruption will probably not cause any significant loss of life.

While there will probably be more volcanic activity at Yellowstone in the future, there is little or no basis to assume that it is going to be large enough to be classified as a supervolcano.

And should it happen, it would have to be far larger than the largest supervolcano eruption at Yellowstone that was 2.1 million years ago. That eruption did not even cover the entire United States with any appreciable amount of volcanic ash. In fact, there was very little east of the Mississippi.

How many more orders of magnitude would a new supervolcano eruption at Yellowstone have to be to cover the entire world in ash to the point that survival would depend on being "sheltered deep enough and breathing air well filtered enough and with enough provisions to last long enough for the particulate matter to settle out"? Three orders of magnitude? Four orders of magnitude? Five orders of magnitude?

My guess would be that it would have to be at least three orders of magnitude, i.e. 1,000 times, larger, but that's just a wild guess. After all, in any eruption, the amount of volcanic ash is going to fall off quickly the further you are from the volcano.