Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Thar she blows: Mt. St. Helens erupts

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Source: NBC

Keep your eye on the Mt. St. Helens webcam tomorrow morning.

King5 will have the best coverage.

Here is what it looked like just prior to the eruption.

As if they couldn't foster any more paranoia, MSNBC just had to release this article entitled Super volcanoes will chill the world someday

The Brits have even gotten into the action too.

"Some scientists believe that the Toba eruption, which caused global climatic disturbances, may have even caused a genetic "bottleneck" in human genetic diversity following a dramatic decline in the global population. If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to erupt in a similar fashion the ash that it would spew out would cover three-quarters of North America in a layer deep enough to kill crops and other plants.

Few people would survive in the zone immediately around the eruption as the volcanic gases and choking sulphur dioxide would burn the lungs of anyone caught in the open air. Those sheltering in their homes would not be safe because layers of heavy volcanic ash would eventually cause their roofs to collapse."


As for Yellowstone, so far things have been very quiet. Here is a good explanation as to how supervolcanoes work. It seems that the risk of a caldera eruption is very low, but I find recent seismic activity in Wyoming to be an intersting topic.