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Posted: 6/14/2009 6:42:34 AM EDT
Scientists Say 'Super Volcano' May Be Brewing Beneath Mount St. Helens Sunday, June 14, 2009 A team of scientists say they have evidence that a "super volcano" may be brewing underneath Mount St. Helens, NewScientist.com reports. Researchers say indicators suggest Mount St. Helens and other northwest volcanoes are plugged into a huge subterranean pool of magma that could one day burst to the surface in a "super" eruption. If what they believe is true, the structure beneath the mountain would be comparable in size to the biggest magma chambers ever discovered, such as the one below Yellowstone National Park. Scientist Graham Hill led a team of researchers that set up magnetotelluric sensors around Mount St Helens. The measurements revealed a column of conductive material that extends downward from the volcano which they found to connect to a much bigger zone of conductive material. Not all scientists are convinced that Mount St. Helens may be capable of a giant eruption. Magnetotellurics specialist Gary Egbert of Oregon State University in Corvallis says he's cautious over the idea of that a super volcano sits under Mt. St. Helen. "It seems likely that there's some partial melt down there," given that it is a volcanic area, he told NewScientist.com. "But part of the conductivity is probably just water." |
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The super duper volcano starts at Mount St. Helens and ends at Yellowstone National Park
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227124.700-supervolcano-may-be-brewing-beneath-mount-st-helens.html
Supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St Helens
IS A supervolcano brewing beneath Mount St Helens? Peering under the volcano has revealed what may be an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which would be capable of feeding a giant eruption. Magma can be detected with a technique called magnetotellurics, which builds up a picture of what lies underground by measuring fluctuations in electric and magnetic fields at the surface. The fields fluctuate in response to electric currents travelling below the surface, induced by lightning storms and other phenomena. The currents are stronger when magma is present, since it is a better conductor than solid rock. Graham Hill of GNS Science, an earth and nuclear science institute in Wellington, New Zealand, led a team that set up magnetotelluric sensors around Mount St Helens in Washington state, which erupted with force in 1980. The measurements revealed a column of conductive material that extends downward from the volcano. About 15 kilometres below the surface, the relatively narrow column appears to connect to a much bigger zone of conductive material. The column below Mount St Helens appears to connect to a huge zone of conductive material This larger zone was first identified in the 1980s by another magnetotelluric survey, and was found to extend all the way to beneath Mount Rainier 70 kilometres to the north-east, and Mount Adams 50 kilometres to the east. It was thought to be a zone of wet sediment, water being a good electrical conductor. However, since the new measurements show an apparent conduit connecting this conductive zone to Mount St Helens - which was undergoing a minor eruption of semi-molten material at the time the measurements were made - Hill and his colleagues now think the conductive material is more likely to be a semi-molten mixture. Its conductivity is not high enough for it to be pure magma, Hill says, so it is more likely to be a mixture of solid and molten rock. Gary Egbert of Oregon State University in Corvallis, who is a magnetotellurics specialist but not a member of Hill's team, is cautious about the idea of a nascent supervolcano where Mount St Helens sits. "It seems likely that there's some partial melt down there," given that it is a volcanic area, he says. "But part of the conductivity is probably just water." If the structure beneath the three volcanoes is indeed a vast bubble of partially molten rock, it would be comparable in size to the biggest magma chambers ever discovered, such as the one below Yellowstone National Park. Every few hundred thousand years, such chambers can erupt as so-called supervolcanoes - the Yellowstone one did so about 640,000 years ago. These enormous eruptions can spew enough sunlight-blocking ash into the atmosphere to cool the climate by several degrees Celsius. Could Mount St Helens erupt like this? "A really big, big eruption is possible if it is one of those big systems like Yellowstone," Hill says. "I don't think it will be tomorrow, but I couldn't try to predict when it would happen." Further measurements probing the structure of the crust beneath the other volcanoes in the area could help determine if the zone connects to them all, Hill says. He presented his team's results on 27 May at the Joint Assembly geophysics meeting in Toronto, Canada. |
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The super duper volcano starts at Mount St. Helens and ends at Yellowstone National Park we die, turn page |
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That eruption could wipe mankind's efforts to limit green house gases for the next 100 years.
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Is it just me, or does the whole article have an erotic undertone?
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Is it just me, or does the whole article have an erotic undertone? I dont feel.. Wait.. Checking.. Checking.. Nope.. No woody.. |
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I posted this somewhere else the other day. I’ve discovered a new scientific formula that accurately predicts the functioning of the science media… A=D^2 where “A” is the airtime a story or prediction gets and “D” is how big of a disaster the scientist is predicting.
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Does anyone remember the yellowstone thread that popped up while yellowstone was going nuts? This could be worse than that
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[Obama]This is another problem my administration has inherited.[/Obama]
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That eruption could wipe mankind's efforts to limit green house gases for the next 100 years. Obama needs to enact a cap on the release of volcanic greenhouse gases. Or maybe tax the people of Washington state for their reckless release of these climate changing gases. |
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Still waiting for the activity at LaPalma before moving the toys.
As for the Big Island in Hawaii.. It will happen with out any real advance warning and then the Pacific coastlines will only have a few minutes to hours.. Not Days.. These disaster will be monumental threads.. |
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I ain't skeerd, them there so called scientists don't know nothing anyway, dumb ass's be sayin that the earth is all over 6000 years sold and shit. How the hell a volcano be eruptin 600,000 years ago when the bible is explicit in sayin the earth aint even that damn old in teh first place. Them stupid retards with their fancy pants "science degrees" and stuff thinking they are so smart and stuff.
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Think of all the cool movies they can make about this. Maybe the SciFi channel can make a movie with giant spiders and snakes during and earthquake, then the grand finally being a super volcano wiping out everything. Wheres the popcorn.. I'm ready.. |
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That eruption could wipe mankind's efforts to limit green house gases for the next 100 years. I wonder how much that'd cost in "carbon credits"? |
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That eruption could wipe mankind's efforts to limit green house gases for the next 100 years. I wonder how much that'd cost in "carbon credits"? They definitely need to start taxing them before things get out of control. |
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I ain't skeerd, them there so called scientists don't know nothing anyway, dumb ass's be sayin that the earth is all over 6000 years sold and shit. How the hell a volcano be eruptin 600,000 years ago when the bible is explicit in sayin the earth aint even that damn old in teh first place. Them stupid retards with their fancy pants "science degrees" and stuff thinking they are so smart and stuff. they see you trollin, they hatin' |
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That eruption could wipe mankind's efforts to limit green house gases for the next 100 years. I wonder how much that'd cost in "carbon credits"? Who would pay for the credits? State or residentabutting the volcano? |
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Good. Maybe it will join a tag team with Yellowstone and put us all out of our misery. Then in 25,000 years when an alien civilization sends archeologists to this planet they can see all these stupid fucking decroded cars with obama stickers and conclude this obama event that happened in earth year 2008 must have caused the mass extinction.
They could even use this new found term in their own language. Obama: verb, to extinguish all life forms. Ensign Gjigglor: Admiral, the star in Cygnus Zeta Beta 3 just went super nova!! Admiral Ackbar: All life in that system has been obama'd. |
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I doubt a mega volcano. A massive eruption? Certainly. But not a mega.
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That eruption could wipe mankind's efforts to limit green house gases for the next 100 years. Tax Mother Earth!! For the children! |
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Obviously the planet is racist because it opposes the One's global warming policy.
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Well that would suck... maybe I should move.
On the other fan I'd get to live the survivalist dream and live through SHTF. |
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The super duper volcano starts at Mount St. Helens and ends at Yellowstone National Park we die, turn page Don't forget about the New Madrid Seismic Zone up around Missouri. If that thing starts to shake then you can (probably) kiss Memphis, Tennessee (and maybe St. Louis, too) adios. |
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I thought we were worrying about the next New Madrid incident? Mt St Helen is so '80's.
n a report filed in November 2008, The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that a serious earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone could result in "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States," further predicting "widespread and catastrophic" damage across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and particularly Tennessee, where a 7.7 magnitude quake or greater would cause damage to tens of thousands of structures affecting water distribution, transportation systems, and other vital infrastructure.[16] The potential for the recurrence of large earthquakes and their impact today on densely populated cities in and around the seismic zone has generated much research devoted to understanding in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. By studying evidence of past quakes and closely monitoring ground motion and current earthquake activity, scientists attempt to understand their causes, recurrence intervals, ground motion and disaster mitigation. Compared to earthquake processes at plate boundaries, intraplate earthquakes, such as those that occur in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, are not well understood. One perplexing problem is the apparent lack of ground motion in the New Madrid zone. The week of March 13, 2009, a research group based out of Northwestern University and Purdue University, funded by the United States Geological Survey, reported in the journal Science the results of an eight-year high resolution GPS survey of ground deformation along the faults implicated in the New Madrid earthquakes. The team were unable to detect any motion along the fault system, down to a resolution of 0.2mm/year, and concluded that the faults are not moving. This raised the possibility that the New Madrid system may be "shutting down" and that tectonic strain may now be accumulating elsewhere. [17] [edit] Probability The probability of magnitude 6.0 or greater in the near future is considered significant; a 90% chance of such an earthquake by 2040 |
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Quoted: I posted this somewhere else the other day. I’ve discovered a new scientific formula that accurately predicts the functioning of the science media… A=D^2 where “A” is the airtime a story or prediction gets and “D” is how big of a disaster the scientist is predicting. Don't forget the grant money corollary to your theorem. |
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Quoted: WOW!!! I bet Al Gore would have a Coronary if this is true!!Scientists Say 'Super Volcano' May Be Brewing Beneath Mount St. Helens Sunday, June 14, 2009 A team of scientists say they have evidence that a "super volcano" may be brewing underneath Mount St. Helens, NewScientist.com reports. Researchers say indicators suggest Mount St. Helens and other northwest volcanoes are plugged into a huge subterranean pool of magma that could one day burst to the surface in a "super" eruption. If what they believe is true, the structure beneath the mountain would be comparable in size to the biggest magma chambers ever discovered, such as the one below Yellowstone National Park. Scientist Graham Hill led a team of researchers that set up magnetotelluric sensors around Mount St Helens. The measurements revealed a column of conductive material that extends downward from the volcano which they found to connect to a much bigger zone of conductive material. Not all scientists are convinced that Mount St. Helens may be capable of a giant eruption. Magnetotellurics specialist Gary Egbert of Oregon State University in Corvallis says he's cautious over the idea of that a super volcano sits under Mt. St. Helen. "It seems likely that there's some partial melt down there," given that it is a volcanic area, he told NewScientist.com. "But part of the conductivity is probably just water." |
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And so we wait... Give it to us straight Merrell. Through pictures, How bad will this be? |
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