Talk:Yellowstone Caldera

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Contents 1 Holy Contradictory Statements Batman 2 Recent Vulcanic Activity 3 Discovered with satellite images? 4 Oldest Caldera 5 Lance it? 6 the volcanic triangle 7 A few comments from someone who knows about the Yellowstone caldera but not much about editing in Wikipedia.

[edit] Holy Contradictory Statements Batman

Notice the part where it says "none of these things are likely to have any effect and would likely cause an eruption." Well which one is it!?

I removed the offending line. Now the sense of the paragraph (I think) is to indicate that such things would have no effect; there is no real need for such things anyway. Cheers Geologyguy 13:57, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Recent Vulcanic Activity

The current article claims "Smaller explosive eruptions, similar to the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, occur every 20,000 years or so; an explosion 13,000 years ago left a 5 kilometer diameter crater at Mary Bay, on the edge of Yellowstone Lake (located in the center of the caldera)." This contradicts with the statement "The most recent volcanic activity consisted of rhyolitic lava flows that erupted approximately 70,000 years ago. The largest of these flows formed the Pitchstone Plateau in southwestern Yellowstone National Park." from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory FAQ. Does anybody know which version is correct? --Jochen 16:39, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The Mary Bay eruption was actually caused by steam, not direct volcanism. I have corrected this. Gwimpey 17:47, Mar 28, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Discovered with satellite images?

I noticed the article now states that the caldera was discovered using satellite imagery. I haven't heard that before; any references from anyone? Gwimpey 03:51, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

I saw confirmation of this fact on the BBC, on a documentary about a natural phenomena they called super-volcano. Revmachine21 13:29, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

According to the USGS Yellowstone VO it's an urban myth, see here

I reccomend editing the article Ralph 22Feb06

I took that part out; the linked information seems pretty clear on the matter. I do think that Bob Christiansen's work should be mentioned in this article (see the link above.)

[edit] Oldest Caldera

On 29 Jan 06 the user 68.49.15.215 added the text "The oldest identified caldera remnant is straddling the border near McDermitt, Nevada-Oregon" Does anyone know the source for this? I admit I am not current, but the last I read the chain stopped in the Blue Mountains area of eastern Oregon/Idaho. In fact, summer 05 the geologist at Craters of the Moon said the same thing. But then both of us could have been wrong. Ralph 16March06

NEVER MIND... See [1] Ralph

We all are going to die...

[edit] Lance it?

Why cannot this bubble of magma be lanced like a boil to let it all out slowly?--Light current 02:55, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

With a probable depth to magma of 8 to 10 km (26,000 to 32,000 ft), it is toward the limit of modern drilling technology, but not beyond it. But, most drill bits and steel drill strings would probably melt in the magma, and as the pressure was released volatiles (water, CO2, etc) would come out and the magma would freeze. Even if it could come up a drill hole, the volume would be soooooo tiny that even dozens of holes would have little effect - the "bubble" is huge. And actually, long before the "supervolcano" explosion, great volumes of magma must come out naturally, to create the void space into which the roof of the caldera collapses, releasing the pressure over a wide area catastrophically, and thereby setting off the supervolcano eruption. It will likely be a span of dozens, if not hundreds of years or more, of such small eruptions before the "big one" can happen. Of course, maybe sometime in the next 100,000 years, we will learn how to "de-fuse" such an event. I live 120 miles from it and I'm going to sleep very well tonight. Cheers Geologyguy 03:12, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Well as a geology guy, cant you think of any way to release this pressure?--Light current 03:16, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Sure - I would just let nature do it in her own good time. Cheers Geologyguy 03:18, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I guess the silver bullet would be a huge geothermal power plant on top of the bubble to transform the destructive power of this volcano into infinite amounts of usable energy. But I also guess that we will just have to hope that the volcano won't erupt until such a project is somehow feasible. --Mudd1 10:10, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] the volcanic triangle

If you draw points on a map for the 3 supervolcanoes in the US, and make a triangle, in the middle of the triangle seems to be a basin located in Utah. Also, around the triangle seems to be a rim of mountains, some over 3 km high, and in the middle and around it is mostly lower land. This sounds like the shape of a volcano, so is it possible that this whole area is a massive supervolcano? Should it be kept away from the article? How big is the largest supervolcano except for this hypopethical one? Thanks. AstroHurricane001^{(Talk+Contribs+Ubx)} 21:54, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by the three supervolcanoes in the US, but in any event and no matter what they are, no, it is not possible that the whole areas is a massive supervolcano. The geology, tectonics, history, and everything else about Utah or any other vast area like that makes it completely clear that this is not the case. Cheers Geologyguy 22:00, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, also, have any valuable minerals ever been discovered in this area (diamonds, gold, silver, oil, coal, gas, water)? The landscape of this area seemsideal for that. When I said the 3 volcanoes, that includes Yellowstone, Long Valley, and anotherone in New Mexico. Should any of this (minerals, etc.) be in the article? Or is it unverifiable due to WP:NOR? Thanks. AstroHurricane001^{(Talk+Contribs+Ubx)} 22:04, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes to the minerals question, all of the above except diamonds, plus huge amounts of copper and many other things. Many, many verifiable and reliable sources cite these dozens of mineral occurrences - I'm sure we have articles about them, see for example Bingham Canyon. It is the rich and diverse geologic history that enhances the occurrence of these useful commodities, but it has nothing really to do with the Yellowstone Caldera and certainly does not belong in this article, IMO. Cheers Geologyguy 22:44, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A few comments from someone who knows about the Yellowstone caldera but not much about editing in Wikipedia.

Smaller steam explosions occur every 20,000 years or so; an explosion 13,000 years ago left a 5 kilometer diameter crater at Mary Bay on the edge of Yellowstone Lake (located in the center of the caldera).

No. Volcanic eruptions occurred every 20,000 years from 640,000 years ago until 70,000 years ago. During the last 15,000 years, there have been no volcanic eruptions but lots of steam (hydrothermal) explosions, including the one at Mary Bay. Some may have occurred earlier, but evidence was largely wiped out by the glaciers.

A full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone caldera could result in millions of deaths locally and catastrophic climatic effects globally, but there is little indication that such an eruption is imminent.[citation needed] Best citation is probably that by two of the coordinating scientists of YVO. Lowenstern, J.B., Smith, R.B., and Hill, D.P., 2006, Monitoring Super-Volcanoes: Geophysical and Geochemical signals at Yellowstone and other caldera systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, v.264,no. 1845, p. 2055-2072.

It is available in pdf on the home page of the YVO website (link is there). Article is written for a general scientific to lay audience.

>Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which averages +/- 1.5 cm yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure.[citation needed]

The up and down movement is highly variable. An average is not very meaningful. The caldera has moved up about 7 cm each of the past two years. A good description is in the article above, or you can simply link to the GPS data on the website. There is also another USGS Fact Sheet (Brantley et al., 2004) on the YVO website that discusses uplift in some detail.

>Occasionally proposals are suggested for ways to safely relieve the buildup of dissolved gas in the Yellowstone magma chamber, usually involving drilling holes or using explosives to release small amounts of pressure in a controlled manner.[citation needed]

You won't find any citations because there aren't any credible plans. This is not technically feasible, as is pointed out here on the comment page.

69.144.201.130 14:13, 19 March 2007 (UTC)