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Climate change caused by volcanic eruptions has been linked to the downfall of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC:
A series of volcanic eruptions may have helped bring about the downfall of the last Egyptian dynasty 2,000 years ago.
By suppressing the monsoons that swelled the Nile River each summer, triggering flooding that supported the region's agriculture, the eruptions probably helped usher in an era of periodic revolts [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00957-y] [DX], researchers report online October 17 in Nature Communications. That upheaval ultimately doomed the dynasty that ruled Egypt's Ptolemaic Kingdom for nearly 300 years until the death of Cleopatra.
[...] Manning and colleagues pored over historical texts from Ptolemaic Egypt, comparing periods of unrest with the volcanic record in the ice cores. Eruptions coincided with the onset of many recorded revolts. Political instability, famine and drought may have come to a head around 44 B.C., when Italy's Mount Etna erupted explosively. The Ptolemaic dynasty soon came to a close in 30 B.C. with Cleopatra's suicide.
Also at Live Science and The Washington Post (archive).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:07AM (21 children)
Asking for a friend.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:10AM
You should be asking as an interested bystander. If Yellowstone goes there will probably be severe crop failures all over the world (at least the Northern hemisphere, and probably further) for a decade or so.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:13AM (3 children)
A Surprise From the Supervolcano Under Yellowstone [nytimes.com]
Yellowstone's Supervolcano Eruption Prediction [kcwy13.com]
Federal government to keep $20K after Yellowstone weed bust [thecannabist.co]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:43AM (2 children)
Civil asset forfeiture strikes again.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:58AM (1 child)
No other profession can get away with as much theft, rape, domestic abuse, and murder.
Not that it matters. The American Empire could be coming to an end soon.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @03:11AM
"The American Empire could be coming to an end soon."
There's even a conveniently timed climate change future historians can (rightfully or not) blame it on :D
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:40AM (13 children)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:53AM (3 children)
Are geologists and vulcanologists still in agreement that a constant pitter patter of small and large eruptions forestall the big blowouts?
Or has that theory been revised and discredited?
“It’s one thing to think about this slow gradual buildup — it’s another thing to think about how you mobilize 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma in a decade,” she said. [nytimes.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:59AM (1 child)
NASA Report Proposes to Stop a Supervolcanic Eruption by Siphoning Heat From It [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:44PM
Here's the part of that I liked especially:
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday October 21 2017, @01:23AM
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 21 2017, @01:56AM (8 children)
10 inches of surface uplift:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110119-yellowstone-park-supervolcano-eruption-magma-science/ [nationalgeographic.com]
pretty much every year, lately:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFMOxE99_Os [youtube.com]
The three most recent eruptions occurred 2 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago. Cyclic volcanic eruptions like this over "hot spots" are what has formed the Hawaiian island chain, the Galapagos, and many other similar formation around the globe. They can run for many millions of years, and they can eventually stop. Maybe Yellowstone has stopped. Maybe. "Experts" like the following really have zero track record when it comes to predictions of events like Yellowstone eruptions:
https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=130898 [nsf.gov]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday October 21 2017, @03:51AM (7 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:56AM (6 children)
~300 feet of uplift in the last ~13K years, just under 1 foot of uplift per year, lately.
So, it oscillates, with an overall upward trend, that has turned sharply upwards since late 2004:
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/yellowstone_monitoring_51.html [usgs.gov]
Nothing to worry about, like an asteroid strike - what could people possibly accomplish by worrying?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 22 2017, @04:03AM (5 children)
1 centimeter per year.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:46PM (4 children)
Articles quoted a couple of layers above were saying 10 inches per year.
Anyway, my limited understanding of large-scale vulcanology would suggest that as long as the ground above Yellowstone appears pliable, moving up and down in response to changes below, that's probably a good sign for continued life as we know it. If the hotspot drifts under a "solid" slab of crust that can hold fast against bigger pressure changes (presumably such a crust would deform less...) then the movement could be much more dramatic when it does happen.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:31PM (3 children)
Eh, not the USGS one. That one showed a 12.5 cm of uplift centered on a roughly 5 km radius area top of a 20 km radius truncated cone, over a five year period (1996-2000). If instead over that period, it had been 25 cm per year (a full ten times higher rate of uplift), it'd be a full 1.25 meters higher in five years. The volume of that is roughly 0.7 cubic km, meaning it would only take about 7,000 years (rather than 70,000 years) like that to equal the volume of the first, largest caldera eruption.
There are a lot of changes that can be seen over the course of a human lifespan due to the ongoing caldera uplift. But a factor of ten higher rate of uplift over centuries, would be very noticeable.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday October 23 2017, @12:59AM (2 children)
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=yellowstone+rises+10+inches [lmgtfy.com]
10 inches, in places. Other articles mention it year over year sustaining 10 inches, again - in places I'm sure. If you're talking about the whole basin, it's much more sedate.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday October 23 2017, @01:50AM (1 child)
Between 2004 and 2011. 25/8 is a little over 3 cm a year.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday October 23 2017, @03:13AM
You're right, I was misled by this crap summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFMOxE99_Os [youtube.com]
"Breaking News: Land is rising in Yellowstone every year of at least 10 inches due to the under ground magma pushing up to the surface."
coupled with a non-critical reading of the National Geographic article that _seemed_ to say the same thing when skimmed quickly - National Geographic being associated with the information bumped up its reliability factor in my head, even though I was reading Nat Geo wrong.
Thanks for keeping after me.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:48AM
Yogi Bear? Is that you?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday October 21 2017, @09:37AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves