Ian Gurney
"A monster that could destroy life on earth."
Sat Oct 11 20:17:57 2003
64.140.158.151

September 2003 Yellowstone Seismicity Summary

During the month of September 2003, 80 earthquakes were
located in the Yellowstone region. The largest shock to
occur during this report period was a magnitude 3.3
earthquake on September 10th at 10:20 UTC, located about
22.4 miles south southeast of West Thumb, Wyoming, and
near the southern park border. This earthquake is part
of an aftershock sequence that began with a mainshock that
occurred on August 21, 2003, with a magnitude 4.4 has
continued to produce smaller aftershocks.

Earthquake activity in the Yellowstone region is at
background levels.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/activity.html

A Monster Awakens?
By Ian Gurney - info@caspro.com
9-10-3


"In the heart of America lies a monster that could destroy life on earth."

Part of America's Yellowstone National Park was closed to visitors
on July 23rd. this year and remains closed today due to high ground
temperatures and increased thermal activity in the park. National
Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said that "A portion of the Norris
Geyser Basin on the west side of the park has been closed."

On August 7th. the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported
that scientists were planning to set up a temporary network of
seismographs, Global Positioning System receivers and thermometers
to monitor increasing hydrothermal activity in the Norris Geyser
Basin and gauge the risk of a hydrothermal explosion.

On August 10th. the Denver Post reported that Liz Morgan, a U.S.
Geological Survey research geologist had discovered a huge bulge
underneath Yellowstone Lake that had risen 100 feet from the lake
floor. The bulge is two thousand feet long and has the potential to
explode at any time. Morgan was quoted as saying that "The inflated
plain is a potential and serious hazard and possible precursor to a
large hydrothermal explosion event."

Then, on August 24th. The University of Utah Seismograph Station
reported that a magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurred just 9 miles
southeast of the southern entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
USGS scientists agreed that the earthquake was "uncommon" in that it
was a very shallow earthquake, occuring just 0.3 miles below the
surface.

Jacob Lowenstern, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey and
scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory
said: "Our goal is to understand what's driving this volcanic
system, and are there indications it could be moving into a period
of unrest?"

This worrying situation was confirmed on September 8th. by Dr. Bruce
Cornet, a geologist and paleobotanist with the USGS, who
explained: "Steam pressure is apparently building again in
Yellowstone, and hydrothermal fluids and steam are working their way
up through fractures and vents. If more steam vents appear, that
means a continuous pathway for pressure release has been established
to the magma chamber. If that happens, the pressure in the magma
chamber will continue to drop until it reaches a critical stage when
the superheated water within the magma explodes. Unfortunately, as
the steam venting subsides, there will be a false sense of security.
People will think it was just another cyclical event, and the danger
is over. But that will be the farthest from the truth. It will be
the quiet before the storm."

Initially this should be of little or no consequence to anyone apart
from those planning to visit Yellowstone.....................
except for one thing. Lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park is
one of the most destructive natural phenomena in the world - a
massive supervolcano.

Only a handful exist in the world but when one erupts the explosion
will be heard around the globe. The sky will darken, black acid rain
will fall, and the Earth will be plunged into the equivalent of a
nuclear winter. It could push humanity to the brink of extinction.

Volcanoes have always been a threat to humanity. The Tambora
eruption in Indonesia in 1815 killed more than 90,000 people, while
the Krakatau eruption in 1883, also in Indonesia, killed 36,000. The
last supervolcano to erupt was Toba in Sumatra 74,000 years ago. It
created a global catastrophe that dramatically affected life on
Earth. Toba blasted so much ash and sulphur dioxide into the
stratosphere that it blocked out the sun, causing the Earth's
temperature to plummet, and possibly reducing the population on
Earth to just a few thousand people. For a long time scientists have
known that volcanic ash can affect the global climate. The fine ash
and sulphur dioxide blasted into the stratosphere reflects solar
radiation back into space and stops sunlight reaching the planet.
Temperatures drop dramatically and nothing grows, causing mass
starvation.

Bill McGuire, professor of geohazards at the Benfield Greig Hazard
Research Centre at University College London, says that America's
Yellowstone Park is one of the largest and most dangerous
supervolcanoes in the world. "The Yellowstone volcano can be likened
to a sleeping dragon," says Professor McGuire, "whose slow breathing
brings repeated swelling and sinking of the Earth's crust in
northern Wyoming and southern Montana."

Professor McGuire went on to explain that: "Many supervolcanoes are
not typical hill-shaped structures but huge, collapsed craters
called "calderas" that are filled with hot magma and are harder to
detect. The Yellowstone supervolcano was detected in the Sixties
when infra-red satellite photographs revealed a magma-filled caldera
85km long and 45km wide. It has been on a regular eruption cycle of
600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago, so the next
is long overdue."

Volcanologists have been tracking the movement of magma under the
park and have calculated that in parts of Yellowstone the ground has
risen over seventy centimetres, almost two and a half feet, since
1923, indicating a massive swelling underneath the park.

"The impact of a Yellowstone eruption is terrifying to comprehend."
says Professor McGuire. "Magma would be flung 50 kilometres into the
atmosphere. Within a thousand kilometres virtually all life would be
killed by falling ash, lava flows and the sheer explosive force of
the eruption. One thousand cubic kilometres of lava would pour out
of the volcano, enough to coat the whole of the USA with a layer 5
inches thick. The explosion would be the loudest noise heard by man
for 75,000 years."

The long-term effects would be even more devastating. The thousands
of cubic kilometres of ash that would shoot into the atmosphere
would block out light from the sun, making global temperatures
collapse. This is called a nuclear winter. A large percentage of the
world's plant life would be killed by the ash and the drop in
temperature. The resulting change in the world's climate would
devastate the planet, and scientists know that another eruption is
due - they just don't know when.

Michael Rampino, a geologist at New York University, quoted in a BBC
Horizon documentary on Supervolcanoes three years ago
explained: "It's difficult to conceive of an eruption this big. It's
really not a question of if it'll go off, it's a question of when,
because sooner or later one of these large super eruptions will
happen."

Professor McGuire says "There's nowhere to hide from the effects of
a supervolcano. One day - perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in fifty years,
perhaps in 10,000 - it will erupt; once again wreaking devastation
across the North American continent and bringing the bitter cold of
Volcanic Winter to Planet Earth. Mankind may become extinct."

So the rumblings currently going on underneath Yellowstone should be
a warning not just to those who plan to visit the National Park, but
to the whole world. If the increased thermal activity is the
precursor to an eruption event, we may well be on the brink of the
biggest catastrophe the modern world has ever witnessed.

Published in the Daily Express. 10th. September 2003.

Research Links:
Frequently asked questions about recent findings at Yellowstone Lake
http://www.nps.gov/yell/press/0362.htm

http://www.nps.gov/yell/press/0373.htm

**http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/new.html#bulge

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E1561852,00.html

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/monitoring.html

http://story.news.yahoo.com/newstmpl=story&u=/ap/20030904/ap_on_sc/geyser_guessing

http://www.earthchangestv.com/breaking/2003/september_2003/08yellowstone.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/1999/supervolcanoes_script.shtml


Map of Past Eruptions:

http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/images/volano_lg.jpg

More information on Yellowstone Volcano:

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/new.html

Maps and Photos:

http://www.nps.gov/yell/tours/norris/index.htm

© Copyright: Ian Gurney. June 2003.

Ian Gurney is a journalist, broadcaster and author of the
bestseller "The Cassandra Prophecy" ( www.caspro.com ) published by
International Global Press. ISBN 0953581314. He can be contacted
at : info@caspro.com