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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park has once again become a point of focus for doomsdayers after scientists picked up some ominous earthquake activity this month.
Scientists from the University of Utah, responsible for monitoring the supervolcano in Wyoming, said a "swarm" of 464 earthquakes began on June 12 – the biggest being a 4.5 magnitude shudder on June 15.
"The epicenter of the shock was located in Yellowstone National Park, eight miles north-northeast of the town of West Yellowstone, Montana," UU scientists said in a statement. "The earthquake was reported felt in the towns of West Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana, in Yellowstone National Park, and elsewhere in the surrounding region."
The 4.5 magnitude quake is the largest to hit the supervolcano since a 4.8 quake struck in March 2014. Scientists noted that the "energetic sequence of earthquakes... included approximately 30 earthquakes of magnitude 2 and larger and four earthquakes of magnitude 3 and larger, including today's magnitude 4.5 event."
They added: "This is the highest number of earthquakes at Yellowstone within a single week in the past five years, but is fewer than weekly counts during similar earthquakes swarms in 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010."
Subbed because volcanoes are cool not because I'm askeert Yellowstone is going to blow any minute now.
Source: https://www.rt.com/viral/393331-yellowstone-swarm-earthquakes-supervolcano/
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:49AM (1 child)
If it goes off really big the fallout will be diluted in >1000km^3 of ash and there is a fair chance there won't be anyone around checking the space-based monitoring systems, or if there were there wouldn't be any global communication systems to get the message out. Everyone left, worldwide, would be concentrating on finding enough to eat for the next 20yrs at least, assuming they aren't concentrating on killing each other. Blaming it on god would get a hell of a lot more traction than terrorist conspiracy theories.
Of course the whole thing is so unpredictable that even if some terrorist wanted to do it the chances of success are remote and just nuking a bit of national park is the much much more likely result. No intelligent and sane terrorist would have this as a plan. Of course there is always the issue that assuming terrorists are intelligent and sane is a bit dubious....
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 27 2017, @12:09PM
So what? It'll still be detectable.
Supervolcanoes aren't instantaneous. It would take days for things to get to that point even in the worst of situations.
Well, how predictable is terrorism again in the first place? It's definitely not a steady career where you can punch in 9-5 hours for 40 years. The whole thing is populated solely with people willing to take chances.