Apocalyptic Supervolcanoes

We have mentioned Yellowstone before, but for those who aren't aware, almost all of Yellowstone Park sits in the caldera of an ancient volcano.  It is such a huge volcano that one can't quite get your mind around how that works.

Please remember that Yellowstone has had thousands of small quakes over the past few years and also that the lava dome has raised the entire park by some inches in recent years...meaning that someday (maybe any day?) it WILL blow...and when it does our IPhones, IPads, Vikings Stadium talk, and all the other mundane activities that ARE OUR lives...will forever be changed.

So I saw this headline and anytime you see the word "APOCALYPTIC"...you know it has to be blog-worthy.

Apocalyptic supervolcanoes can suddenly explode ‘with no outside cause’

Scientists have discovered what causes cataclysm-inducing supervolcanoes to erupt, and the answer offers little reassurance. Their eruptions are caused by magma buoyancy, which makes them less predictable and more frequent than previously thought.

A team of geologists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) modeled a supervolcano – such as Yellowstone in Wyoming – using synthetic magma heated up with a high-energy X-ray to see what could create a powerful discharge. A separate international team, led by Luca Caricchi of the University of Geneva, conducted more than 1.2 million computer simulations of eruptions.

Both groups have arrived at similar conclusions, with two studies simultaneously published in Nature Geoscience magazine.

"We knew the clock was ticking but we didn't know how fast: what would it take to trigger a super-eruption?” said Wim Malfait, the lead author of the ETH study.

"Now we know you don't need any extra factor - a supervolcano can erupt due to its enormous size alone.”

It was previously thought that supervolcanoes – which spew out hundreds more times of lava and ash than ordinary ruptures – could be triggered by earthquakes or other outside tectonic phenomena.
It was also clear that these volcanoes do not operate like ordinary eruptions, which rely on magma filling their chambers, and spurting through an opening, once the pressure gets to a certain point, since the chambers of supervolcanoes are too large to be over pressurized to the same degree.

“The effect is like the extra buoyancy of a football when it is filled with air underwater, which forces it to the surface because of the denser water around it. If the volume of magma is big enough, it should come to the surface and explode like a champagne bottle being uncorked.”

The researchers believe that the pressure force of the molten magma pools can be strong enough to crack 10 km thick layers of rock, before spewing out a maximum of between 3,500 and 7,000 cubic kilometers of lava. In comparison, the notorious Krakatoa explosion in 1883 likely ejected less than 30 cubic kilometers of debris into the atmosphere.

The effects on Earth are likely to be fundamental, with previous studies suggesting that such a supervolcano could decrease the temperature on Earth by 10 C for a decade, as the ash would prevent sunlight from reaching the ground.

The last supervolcano eruption in Lake Toba took place more than 70,000 years ago. According to one highly-contested theory it may have wiped out more than half of the planet’s population; in any case the effect on the world would be dramatic.

Here;  http://rt.com/news/supervolcano-buoyancy-yellowstone-eruption-237/

Yes!!  That would have a dramatic effect on the world!!!  It would certainly silence all the GLOBAL WARMING pundits.

We remember what Jesus said about the terrible days that ARE STILL TO COME...."

For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now--and never to be equaled again.  If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."  Jesus said this in Matthew 24:21

It makes one wonder if the sun could be darkened by an enormous ash cloud that keeps the day light hours as dark as night??  That would be terrifying...and men could faint by what they will observe.