Yet Another Worry to Add to Your List

There's been a whole lot 'a shaking going on in Yellowstone Park. It has people worried because this is a large caldera, site of a "super" volcano.

Here's a video to give you the shivers...



If you have a shadenfreude with end-of-the-world tales like bird flu, global warming, overpopulation, Club of Rome's "limits to growth", or "super" volcanos, then watch the video and monitor this site to keep updated on the shaking.

Here's an article that gives you some numbers to scare you:

The last supervolcano/VEI 8 eruption on our planet was 26,500 years ago at Lake Taupo, New Zealand. However, a much larger eruption occurred about 75,000 years ago at Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia which plunged the Earth into a volcanic winter, eradicating an estimated 60% of the human population.

Although the last Yellowstone eruption (640,000 years ago) was less than half the size of that at Toba, Yellowstone is capable of matching Toba, and did so 2.1 million years ago.

Apart from the recent quakes seen at Yellowstone, the caldera has been rising at a rate of approximately 3 inches every year since the middle of 2004, three times faster than any previous measurements. But does this mean we can expect an eruption?

Experts have pointed out that "the Yellowstone caldera has inflated and deflated about six to eight times without a volcanic eruption during the last 14,000 years" and that earthquakes are frequently recorded in the area.

Note the potential good news in the last paragraph... this event may just blow over. But banish that from your mind. Enjoy the thrill of contemplating catastrophe!