[Rockhounds] Something going on in Yellowstone

Fri Jan 2 09:58:45 PST 2009

When what happened, Tim?

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
tiggernut24 at yahoo.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Fisher" <nospam at orerockon.com>
To: "'Dora Smith'" <tiggernut24 at yahoo.com>; "'Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A 
mailing list for rock and gem collectors'" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 11:40 AM
Subject: RE: [Rockhounds] Something going on in Yellowstone

>I did look at it. You said "I've no idea when such a thing happened in 
>North
> America". It did happen, at McDermitt, NV/OR, which is where current
> thinking has as the origination of the Yellowstone "hotspot". There was no
> mention of the McDermitt caldera on the page.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
> [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Dora Smith
> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 9:22 AM
> To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Something going on in Yellowstone
>
> OK, folks.  I keep posting the link, and people keep posting all sorts of
> thigns that indicate they didn't look at it.
>
> At http://www.tiggernut24.com/catastrophes.html, you will find that link 
> and
>
> may others.   Some of them recent and technical.
>
> Yours,
> Dora Smith
> Austin, TX
> tiggernut24 at yahoo.com
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kreigh Tomaszewski" <Kreigh at tomaszewski.net>
> To: <nospam at orerockon.com>; "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for 
> rock
>
> and gem collectors" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 5:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Something going on in Yellowstone
>
>
>> Or take a look at the Wiki article at
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_supervolcano
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, Jan 1, 2009, at 12:31 America/Detroit, Tim Fisher wrote:
>>
>>> It has happened many times with the same hotspot. Google McDermitt
>>> caldera.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
>>> [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Dora Smith
>>> Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 6:28 AM
>>> To: J Bryan Kramer; Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and
>>> gem
>>> collectors
>>> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Something going on in Yellowstone
>>>
>>> I'm the original not expert.  I learn something totally new about it
>>> every
>>> five minutes.   I did learn in teh course of reading through some of 
>>> that
>>> stuff that apparently the basalt flows predate the hot spot eruptions,
>>> some
>>> ancient - shield volcano?
>>>
>>> I've no idea when such a thing happened in North America.    And to be
>>> more
>>> confusing I got the impression that there were more ordinary eruptions
>>> before that happened.   Not Earth didn't have an entire history before
>>> teh
>>> end-Permian extinction, and there was a smaller flood basalt eruption in
>>> India at the end of the Cretaceous, but I keep thinking that a flood
>>> basalt
>>> eruption in North America must coincide with the development of the 
>>> crust
>>> itself if I never heard of it before.
>>>
>>> But it sounds like you're not familiar with the Yellowstone caldera at
>>> all.
>>> This is a very different type of volcano, and they only came to
>>> understand
>>> it since I graduated from college 30 years ago.    VERY recent.  Hah,
>>> hah,
>>> hah.    Santorini, the volcano that may be associated with the Exodus
>>> phonemena, was of this sort, and so was the eruption of Toba in the
>>> Phillippines 75,000 years ago that brought the human race to the brink 
>>> of
>>> extinction.   Not a flood basalt, but the next biggest monster.
>>> Sometimes
>>> very thick magma builds up in a huge, abscess-like crater underground
>>> under
>>> such conditions that it can't easily erupt to the surface.    When it
>>> does
>>> that's a problem enough - you get pyroclastic flows and ash clouds that
>>> travel some little distance.   Like in Pompeii, and Mt. St. Helen's.
>>> But large caldera volcanoes erupt rarely and alter Earth's history when
>>> they
>>> happen.    If Yellowstone blew it would kill all life on half the North
>>> American continent and the climate changes would  starve nearly everyone
>>> else on the planet.    Problem is it's due to blow and pressure is
>>> building
>>> up, and noone knows how much pressure has to build up or what it all
>>> means.
>>> The cycle of that volcano is in hundreds of thousands of years - not our
>>> time scale.    Confusing the issue is that the volcano is caused by a
>>> hole
>>> in the Earth's crust that moves over time, relative to I think the North
>>> American plate.  Unfortunately it hasn't at this time moved out from
>>> under
>>> the last caldera, but it does appear to have moved in a direction
>>> consistent
>>> with its previous movement.   If the volcano significantly changed its
>>> geology it could conceivably begin to erupt less violently.  Though part
>>> of
>>> the violence is due to the nature of the magma rather than the hard cap
>>> formed by the previous eruption.
>>>
>>> Several years ago I got interested and put together a web page.
>>> http://www.tiggernut24.com/catastrophes.html   There's an associated 
>>> page
>
>>> on
>>> teh geology of Sumatra and subduction faults that isn't relevant to much
>>> that goes on in North America (except in teh Cascades).
>>> http://www.tiggernut24.com/earthquake.html   I begin with a link to the
>>> web
>>> pages of a PBS special a few years ago.   And the Wikipedia article, and
>>> some general geology of hot spots and caldera volcanos.
>>>
>>> One thing that complicates the issue is that between the monster
>>> eruptions
>>> every 600,000 to 700,000 years, Yellowstone does have smaller and more
>>> normal eruptions, and these have left more routine lava flows in the
>>> area.
>>> I'm not yet up on what kinds of volcano flows leave what kinds of lava
>>> deposits, and it's very relevant to understanding Yellowstone.   I
>>> thought
>>> people here would know that.   On my web site I also have links to some
>>> new
>>> technical papers that ought to include that information.
>>>
>>> Yours,
>>> Dora Smith
>>> Austin, TX
>>> tiggernut24 at yahoo.com
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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