Yellowstone National Park in Montana is a mega-eruption waiting to happen. When it last blew, two million years ago, it created enough ash to bury New York state to a depth of 20 metres. Forget nations, our entire species might not survive such a cataclasmic giga-event — which for our planet is but a twitch of its skin. Such stupendous forces beyond conception can inspire only awe. And ultimate humility in the face of a mysterious creation which, to make itself complete, must inevitably contain the seeds of its own eventual dissolution.
29 డిసెంబర్, 2004
Earthquake-inspired thoughts
The recent earthquake has led to articles reviewing the other calamities the earth might one day unleash upon us. I was particularly struck by this passage in an editorial in the Times of India titled "Violent Planet":
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1 కామెంట్:
2 million years ago was not the most recent (super) eruption of the Yellowstone megavolcano.
Considering recent geologic history, the 3rd most recent (Island Park caldera) occurred 2.08 million years ago; 2nd most recent (Henry's Fork caldera), 1.3 million years ago; and the last, most recent (Yellowstone caldera), 626.5 thousand years ago—leaving gaps of 780 thousand and 674 thousand years in each preceding case—the last preceding gap (between #2 and #1) being almost 50,000 years longer ago than the time since the last such mega-eruption to date.
Beyond that, note that in between Yellowstone's super-eruption outbursts, there there have been hundreds of lesser, more conventional volcanic eruptions—which is by far the likeliest outcome if Yellowstone does show signs of erupting one of these days, months, or centuries in the future.
… Speaking as a person whose whole family nearly died during the 1959 magnitude 7.x Yellowstone earthquake.
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