Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

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XDrFirefly

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Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

I have 2 point to bring to light. First being, just think about all the strange weather and earthquakes something changing. Next, when we start to make Movies, shows or TV about events its to prepare the aveage person for the event. Don't believe it. Go look up why they made Deep Impact, and Armageddon. Movie were used in the 30's-50's to brainwash people in thinking the US Military was so great. Tons of Examples out there just look.

Dr FF

This is cool too
Super Volcano
LAKE TOBA, SUMATRA, INDONESIA


The 1,080-square-mile Toba caldera is the only supervolcano in existence that can be described as Yellowstone's "big" sister. About 74,000 years ago, Toba erupted and ejected almost three times as much volcanic ash as the most recent major Yellowstone eruption (Lava Creek, 630,000 years ago) and about 12 percent more than Yellowstone's largest eruption (Huckleberry Ridge, 1.8 million years ago). That comes to several thousand times more material than erupted from Mount St. Helens in 1980. Some researchers suspect that Toba's super eruption and the global cold spell it triggered might explain a mystery in the human genome. Our genes suggest we all come from a few thousand people just tens of thousands of years ago, instead of from a much older, bigger lineage ? as the fossil evidence testifies. Both could be true if only a few small groups of humans survived the cold years following the Toba eruption.
 
Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

Hey Dr. Firefly,

Yeah, Grayson posted an interview of some scientists talking about the "bottleneck" in the human DNA which concluded that there was a major "die off" in human population. This "die off" correlated in time with the Toba explosion. Sounds like you're on the right track, but don't quote me. I read a little of this stuff, and I'm no expert.

The movies Armageddon and Deep Impact were made after it was discovered that a big meteor had missed the earth by about 500,000 miles (I think that's accurate), which is relation to the size of the universe is a near miss. The near miss was discovered after the event was over. But like in Armageddon, Billy Bob Thornton's character quips, "Well, it's a big ass sky, sir." explaining to the president why NASA hadn't seen the meteor headed for earth.

Cary
 

Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

More like 12 people. There has also been a show where a expert has been all over the world interviewing and testing DNA of various people / races. From Africa all the way to the very farthest reaches of Siberia. WE ARE ALL RELATED. Forget the color of your skin, where you were born and the language you speak, you have cousins in every single part of the world.

And they make jokes about Rabbits, Imagine that.
 

Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

StarLord,

I've seen a documentary on that. We all have DNA that has been traced back to a black woman in Africa. It was interesting how over tens or hundreds of years, skin color, hair texture, etc. changed to match the environment. Guess we're all brothers after all.

Found this article today, which I would have maybe passed by without Dr. Firefly's post. Thank bud.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-...1516780,00.html



Eruption that could wipe out millions
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?By Mark Henderson
? ? ? ? An exploding supervolcano would be a calamity to dwarf an asteroid strike or the Asian tsunami
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? A VOLCANIC super-eruption that would threaten the future of modern civilisation is up to ten times more likely than a catastrophic asteroid impact, yet it has been ignored by the world?s governments, scientists said yesterday. Vast volcanic blasts that cause global devastation occur on average every 50,000 years ? and, as the last one struck 74,000 years ago, at Toba, Indonesia, another may be overdue.


? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
The scale of such a cataclysm would dwarf that of the recent Asian tsunami: the eruption could kill millions and the final death toll could reach a billion as dust thrown into the atmosphere triggers a natural ?nuclear winter?.

Among natural disasters, only the impact of an asteroid a kilometre (0.6 miles) or more across would be comparable, a new report from the Geological Society has found. Asteroids big enough to cause global effects strike at intervals of 400,000 to 500,000 years. Super-eruptions happen about ten times more frequently.

The new report, presented to the Government?s Natural Hazard Working Group, was published as the BBC prepares to screen Supervolcano, a two-part factual drama that charts the effects of a super-eruption at Yellowstone National Park in the United States. ?

Yellowstone has produced three super-eruptions in the past ? 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 640,000 years ago ? the first being the second-largest known to science. A similar event today would lay waste to most of the continental US.

In the BBC film, which strictly follows scenarios presented by expert scientific advisers, the eruption causes more than 25 million deaths in the first week alone. Eighty per cent of the US is covered in volcanic ash and 20 per cent, including most of the rich agricultural lands of the Great Plains, becomes uninhabitable.

Emissions of ash and sulphur dioxide bring global temperatures down by between 5C and 15C (9F and 27F), leading to the failure of the Asian monsoon and millions more deaths from famine.

Steve Sparks, of the University of Bristol, a lead author of the report and an adviser to the BBC film-makers, said that governments needed to make contingency plans. ?This is not just a scientific curiosity,? he said. ?These events are rare on a human timescale, but in geological time they are common. The issues involved are similar to preparing for a nuclear war. Countries will have to make plans for food, shelters and evacuation. These sorts of events are extremely rare, and would require enormous investment of resources if we are to have any hope of coping.?

The dangers from a super-eruption are also greater than those from asteroids as there is no conceivable method of preventing the event.

?Humankind might develop the capability to deflect an asteroid, but we will never develop a way of averting a super-volcano,? Stephen Self, of the Open University, another of the report?s authors, said. ?Damage-limitation is the only way forward.?

Super-eruptions are different in scale from ordinary eruptions: the first Yellowstone event ejected 2,500 times more gas and molten rock into the atmosphere than the Mount St Helens eruption of 1980.

None has taken place during recorded human history, though the Toba eruption may have come close to driving early Homo sapiens to extinction. The human population is thought to have dwindled to a few thousand soon after Toba, and some scientists think that climate change provoked by the volcano was responsible.

About 40 supervolcano sites are known, but most are extinct. Yellowstone is the site with the greatest lethal potential because of its position on a heavily populated continent.

? ?
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Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

Something like that would create a Tabula Rasa that's for sure, AND a new Ice Age.
 
Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

I watched it and I thought it was great. They really did a good job presenting the scope of what kind of damage this thing can do.

See its funny. Since it was on The Discovery Channel its taken serious. If it were on NBC or something it would be laughed at as pure nonsense.
 
Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

Phantomlord,

True! But I think this has to do with the increased use of "edjutainment" on this particular channel (Discovery, that is). Scientific- and wildlife/outdoor tv-shows used to be far more objective say 5-10 years ago, but today a "scientific" show often contains action-scenes indistinguishable from those you'd see in high-budget catastrophy/sci-fi/action movies.
This change has become possible due to the fast development of computer-animation techniques, and it has quickly become economically desirable to use this technique in order to attract viewers.

The problem is that this sort of visual candy distracts the viewer's attention away from the actual matter - that being the scientific content of the show.
Now, having still not seen the actual super-volcanoe show, it is my general opinion that especially the shows on the Discovery-channel tend to be still more focused on visual/special effect and still less on a substantial content of educational value.

Of course the average vaguely scientifically-interested viewer would interpret this as the channel having gone through a successful development from beeing "sorta' boring" into beeing "pretty cewl!"

But you know...

H.H.
 
Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

I thought it was good too. But, I like most of the shows Discover Channel put out, Remember Walking with Dinosaurs.

Anyway, I think they played how the scientist, Fema, and the government would react. I'd like to hear more about the global changes. I also wonder why now. Why did they tell us this story. It must be on the minds of some of the major scientist at the USGS.

Another side note, It's just tyipcal of FEMA to say plan for 3 days, and don't leave you're home there are only 25 Millions of you, for "US" Fema to save. We'll get to you...

Dr FF
 
Re: Super Volcano on Discover Channel.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"XDrFirefly\")</div>
I thought it was good too. But, I like most of the shows Discover Channel put out, Remember Walking with Dinosaurs.
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I rest my case...

Thank you Dr FF, you've made my day! :dry:

Come ON, people! What substantial KNOWLEDGE is there in any of the Discovery-channel programs? The channel presents itself as a scientific forum - a place to learn new stuff. But most of it is just pretty levelled entertainment with a scientific plot...

"Hey man, let's go an' blow the hell out of a toilet!"

"Man, let's go and look for Nessie and the Jabberwocky!"


Catching my drift...?


Now by the way... Here in Denmark there's a Discovery-channel commercial going on:

"75% of your brain consists of water - don't waste it!"

Gives me the chuckles every time I see it! :lol:

Bet it's true for the people working there. Not for me, though!

(the correct sentence would of course have been: Your brain consists of 75% water - which is an entirely different matter!!!)

John Titor, wheigh in here PLEASE! Your wisdom is needed!


H.H.
 

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