Ancient Supervolcano Eruptions Possibly Triggered Mass Extinctions

AFP:

A supervolcano on the ocean floor might have spewed massive amounts of lava in a rapid amount of time, new findings that could help reveal the mysterious origin of some of these ancient goliaths, which may have triggered mass extinctions through Earth's history.

Read the whole story: AFP

Comments

[Tulka2]

02:51 AM on 04/12/2010

Kudos to the author for learning a second language at all, but "spewed lava in a rapid amount of time"???

[LetsGoSteve]

10:44 PM on 04/11/2010

I wonder how many CO2's have been emmited by volcanic activity? Perhaps we should figure out how to charge a new tax.

[Bartel5]

10:58 PM on 04/11/2010

The alarmists never want to factor in volcanos or solar activity into the mix. Some of these undersea volcanos are 'alarmingly' close to Antarctica.

[etiennemacchias]

09:13 AM on 04/12/2010

So if you understand these naturally catastrophic factors, why would anyone condone exacerbating the situation by pumping man-made greenhouse gases in our atmosphere?

[Exusian]

10:59 AM on 04/12/2010

On the contrary, the FACT is volcanoes and solar activity are *always* factored into the mix.

And the FACT is each year the average amount of CO2 from world-wide volcanic activity, including sub-ocean, amounts to less than one percent as much as from the burning of fossil fuels, even in a year with a particularly large explosive eruption like Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

Source: USGS:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/2007/07_02_15.html

[LetsGoSteve]

03:26 PM on 04/12/2010

Common sence tells me that Volcanic activity has a warming impact on ice flow and earths atmospheric conditions. 1980 when Mt. St. Helens blew I remember my car being covered with ash 2k miles away in Minneapolis. And while visiting the Big Island a few years ago the air quality at times was the worst I have ever experienced. Don't try and tell me billions of yards of hot lava flowing beneath our ice shelves do not have an effect on the ice. The USGS very existance at stake. Of cource the USGS is going to maximise any data that supports man caused effects on climate, while minimizing anything that is beyond our control. It is the fool that accepts all this crap being fed to you by the politicle class trying to gain control of our lives.

[Exusian]

03:56 PM on 04/12/2010

Sounds like somebody must have a pretty big tinfoil hat to keep all that misinformation in their head from leaking out.

They can stick with "common sense" if they like.

Me, I'll stick with science.

It's the only thing that has been shown to work over the long haul.

[Please-Play-Fair]

10:02 PM on 04/11/2010

And if we had cars back then, the volcanoes would have been blamed on global warming. Guaranteed.

[GG NV]

08:00 PM on 04/11/2010

The two Super volcanoes that we have to worry about here in the US is Yellowstone and the Long Valley. Both will be catastrophic for both here and for the world. Its been about 600K years since Yellowstone and 720K years since the Long Valley has blown. It matter of time however it may not be in my lifetime.

[stargazer13]

07:19 PM on 04/11/2010

lets hope the three biggest keep there lid on tight for all our sakes !!

[LetsGoSteve]

10:51 PM on 04/11/2010

Perhaqps if we depleated all of the oil reserves the Volcano's would run out of fuel. Drill baby drill! We best harvest all the coal while we are at it, in case the volcanos develop an appetite for coal.. Starve the beasts. With all the oil and coal spent the only choice left would be alternative energy sources.

[realitytrumpsbull]

02:49 AM on 04/12/2010

Why not seek to take advantage of naturally occuring thermal changes in the earth itself, by engineering up some of the old geothermal? Nature gives you lemons, make lemonade. Volcanism is a natural process that even the best engineers will never be able to really extinguish, or otherwise control, but by finding ways to do things like generate energy, you're making the best of what otherwise might seem like a really bad situation.

[etiennemacchias]

09:16 AM on 04/12/2010

Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but your wishful thinking would only increase the chamber pressure and result in an even more devastating eruption.

[stargazer13]

11:04 AM on 04/12/2010

rut row :)

[blueskybigstar]

03:10 PM on 04/11/2010

The impact of the asteroid probably triggered super volcanoes all over the world.

[realitytrumpsbull]

02:51 AM on 04/12/2010

Well, if you stop to think that the vast majority of the Earth's mass is liquid, and that we kind of live on the hard outer candy shell, like a really high-temperature M&M, it kind of stands to reason that if you take a hard, rocky mass of some measurable and significant size, and slam it into the earth at some thousands of miles per hour, there's a good chance there's going to be some kind of reaction in response to that kind of action.

[blueskybigstar]

12:57 PM on 04/12/2010

Exactly. So many of these "authorities" in science are lacking in common sense.

[higherstrategy]

11:47 AM on 04/11/2010

no kidding, but Volcano's have nothing to do with the Man Made Pollution melting the Glaciers and Poles causing the Ocean to Rise.

[LetsGoSteve]

10:59 PM on 04/11/2010

Do you think Volcano's could actualy cause Glaciers to melt and oceans to rise? That is silly, only us humans can have an effect on the earths teprature. Didn’t you hear Al Gore tell us that the planet has a feavor, and it is the fault of mans activity. We must pass Cap and Trade now so we can add to Mr. Gores wealth.

[realitytrumpsbull]

02:55 AM on 04/12/2010

Let's see, volcanoes emit molten rock, and sulphur and other gases, and sometimes they even do it underwater(kind of like kinky tourists), and that's not going to have an effect?

But, how do you take all these natural processes, like naturally occuring sunlight, and make the kind of mega-changes to keep the climate in balance? Answer: You do nothing, because Nature does it already. As water heats up, it evaporates, rises, becomes cloud cover. Cloud cover blocks the sunlight, causing the area below the clouds to cool off, and the water then precipitates as it, too, cools off. Don't think of them as oceans, think of them as large radiators. Just watch out for boilovers, because unlike a car with antifreeze, there's no boilover protection...seawater can actually achieve temperatures below freezing, because of the salt content, but that's about all you get.

[Mogamboguru]

03:35 AM on 04/11/2010

I think that God has a very fine sense of irony, putting the largest supervolcano on Earth, which has actually ended it's quiet phase in a constantly repeating successions of calm and eruptions and is showing signs of growing activity for yet-another of it's disastrous eruptions every other 650,000 years, right in the middle of today's USA.

See: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/

I see poetic, if not godly justice at work.

[Please-Play-Fair]

10:04 PM on 04/11/2010

so, you have despise and disdain for the USA. Do you live here? if so, I think you should go somewhere else as you think we deserve this.

[rougebaisers]

03:10 AM on 04/11/2010

Just like the one under yosemite will one day?

[Mogamboguru]

03:30 AM on 04/11/2010

I beg your pardon for correcting you - but you surely mean Yellowstone.

See: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/ - quote:

"[This] site monitors the largest volcanic system in North America. Offers information about current activity, volcanic history and a photo gallery."

"The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) was created as a partnership among the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Yellowstone National Park, and University of Utah to strengthen the long-term monitoring of volcanic and earthquake unrest in the Yellowstone National Park region. Yellowstone is the site of the largest and most diverse collection of natural thermal features in the world and the first National Park. YVO is one of the five USGS Volcano Observatories that monitor volcanoes within the United States for science and public safety."

Never mind.

[BikeFreak]

01:14 PM on 04/11/2010

You are right.

It's Yellowstone Park.

[rougebaisers]

05:56 AM on 04/12/2010

yes it is yellowstone. sleep rouge...sleep.

[Bartel5]

10:09 PM on 04/10/2010

OK. But I am sure humans must have caused it. Somehow.

[puhlease]

12:09 PM on 04/12/2010

Yeah. With a time machine. A time machine powered by a coal-burning locomotive. That's the ticket. ; )