Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the buy-guns-and-tons-of-MREs dept.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1110887/nasa-news-yellowstone-volcano-Caldera-eruption-supervolcano-asteroid-end-of-the-world

A NASA thought experiment called, Defending Human Civilisation From Supervolcanic Eruptions, stated that a supervolcano eruption was more likely to happen in the future than an asteroid hitting the earth, according to the Daily Star. It said: “Supervolcanic eruptions occur more frequently than a large asteroid or comet impacts that would have a similarly catastrophic effect to human civilization.” Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers found that collisions from asteroids which are more than 2km in diameter occurred “half as often as supervolcanic eruptions”.

[...]Yellowstone Caldera[*] is classed as a supervolcano which erupted 60,000 years ago and again 60,000 years before that.

Although there is no guarantee, if the volcano follows the same pattern then it is now due for another eruption.

Researchers have found that if a supervolcano like Yellowstone did erupt, then a “volcanic winter” would ensue which could surpass the “amount of stored food worldwide”.

People living on another continent would not be spared from the aftermath of a supervolcanic eruption.

[*] Wikipedia entry on the Yellowstone Caldera (aka Supervolcano).

The referenced NASA document — Defending Human Civilization From Supervolcanic Eruptions (pdf) — is less sensational; here is the abstract from the paper:

Large volcanic eruptions greater or equal to a magnitude 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (i.e., supervolcanic eruptions) eject >10 15 kg of ash and sulfate aerosols, sufficient to blanket sizeable fractions of continents and create a regional or global "volcanic winter." Such events could seriously reduce worldwide agricultural production for multiple years, causing mass famine. Supervolcanic eruptions occur more frequently than large asteroid or comet impacts that would have a similarly catastrophic effect to human civilization, especially now that many asteroid orbits have been mapped. We assess whether future supervolcanic eruptions could be dampened, delayed, or prevented by engineering solutions.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:02PM (4 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:02PM (#826956) Journal

    Not unless climate change somehow disburses the darkness causing the volcanic winter.

    OTOH, the volcanic ash does not stop the artificially increased CO2 from trapping the sun's heat in our atmosphere.

    So it could get both too dark and too warm.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:17PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:17PM (#826971)

    But then you wouldn't call it "winter".

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:46PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:46PM (#827036) Journal

      It might be like winter on Venus.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:18PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:18PM (#827106)

        Venus has a high heat capacity atmosphere so the climate is pretty much the same year round everywhere. That is even though a day is nearly a year long too.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday April 10 2019, @08:36PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday April 10 2019, @08:36PM (#827610)

      Depends - when you say "winter", are you talking about temperature, or sunlight? Doesn't matter how warm it gets if there's not enough sunlight for plants to grow.

      In practice though, a serious volcanic winter would completely overwhelm global warming until it dissipated. Global warming involves single and (in the worst-likely-case) low-double digit increase in thermal retention, whereas a major volcanic event can block the majority of sunlight from ever reaching the surface for years. The upper atmosphere might heat up, but that's of no help to people living at ground level.