THE CATASTROPHE THAT THREATENS EARTH: What if Yellowstone Supervolcano Awakes?

Source: www.express.co.uk

The end of the world. So far there have been numerous predictions on how the world is going to end, but none of them came true. However, scientists are aware that the Yellowstone volcano is one of the most dangerous threats to the world we know and if it awakes it could cause significant consequences. More than 2,500 earthquakes have been rumbling beneath the surface of Yellowstone, which is a time-ticking bomb that can blow up any day.

Since June 12, this volcano has had about 2,750 tremors which could mean that the volcano will burst to life. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), 115 tremors have been recorded in September this year, some of which were 2.3-magnitude quakes.

A statement from the earthquake trackers read: “Including the events from the prior three monthly reports beginning on June 12, total swarm seismicity includes one earthquake of magnitude 4.4, 12 in the magnitude 3 range, and 185 earthquakes in the magnitude two range.”

Source: www.express.co.uk

One of the USGS scientists, Mike Poland, claimed that these swarms shouldn’t worry us, but they are going to speed up the research about the supervolcano and provide useful data. He told Newsweek: “This is the sort of work that will happen in the months to come, as we gather up all of the available data and start crunching numbers. What we can say now is that through the end of September, the University of Utah has located 2,475 earthquakes in the swarm.”

“This puts the 2017 swarm on par with that of 1985, which lasted three months and had over 3,000 located events. [This is] certainly a fascinating event and one that we hope to learn more about through some post-swarm analysis,” added Poland.

Source: www.express.co.uk

It was 70,000 years ago when the Yellowstone Caldera supervolcano erupted, but the seismic activity around the national park has increased, and it is a cause for alarm. What would happen if Yellowstone volcano erupted? The consequences would be devastating – it would kill about 87,000 people immediately, whereas more than 60% of the United States would be uninhabitable. But that would be just the beginning. The spew of ash would be enormous, creating a “nuclear winter” by blocking the sun rays from reaching Earth’s surface.

The atmosphere would be filled with massive amounts of sulfur-dioxide which would probably form a sulfur aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight.