The most famous national
park in the United States hasn’t
erupted in 640,000 years, but
scientists and employees who
work at the park believe it
won’t be long before the park
erupts.
Citing a huge increase in
geyser activity, earthquakes,
land elevation, and animals
being poisoned from toxic
gases, the scientists and park
employees are getting more
concerned every day.
“I must admit that we do not
feel comfortable when our
tourists ask us if we feel that
the Yellowstone caldera will
blow its top off,” said park
employee Jason Harrison.
“The scientists here are the
cream of the crop, and their
findings make us worry and
also make us feel we are lying
when we try to assure our
guests that the world will be
safe from Yellowstone,”
Harrison added.
It seems that geysers like Old
Faithful and Beehive Geyser
are erupting more often, and
some geysers have gotten so
hot that they now erupt only
steam. In addition to geysers
changing what they let out,
they are also changing the way
the flora and fauna react to the
new air the geysers are making.
More animals and plants are
dying due to the geysers
releasing more toxic gases, and
now the park employees worry
about the safety of the tourists.
“Making money is one thing,
but when our guests get ill
because of our national park
poisoning them, it not only
lowers our income but makes
us feel really bad,” Harrison
said.
Mini-earthquakes so small
that people can’t feel always
happen at the park, but the park
geologists are noticing a 35
percent increase in the frequency
of these quakes, a rate
that has steadily been rising
since the start of 2010. It
might now only be a matter of
time before an earthquake of at
least 7.0 on the Richter scale
hits the park and detonates the
whole supervolcano.
As if an increase in earthquake
activity wasn’t enough,
the areas of the park known as
Mallard Lake Dome and the
Sour Creek Dome have been
rising. These two areas have
always been known to have
noticeable changes in the
movement of the ground, but
since the start of 2009 these
areas have risen 2 inches a
year.
This is a sudden turn of
events from the gradual
decrease in ground rising that
had been happening since
2007. An increase in ground
elevation usually means the
caldera, or the area of the
supervolcano under the ground
that holds the magma, is filling
with more and more magma.
This is obviously not a good
sign for those hoping the park
will not start the apocalypse.
The idea of the world going
into a global winter because of
Yellowstone National Park
erupting is not all that farfetched.
The park is a supervolcano,
which, as the name
suggests, is a volcano with an
eruption blast that lets out
enough debris to cover at least
240 cubic miles.
The Yellowstone supervolcano
usually erupts an average
of every 600,000 years, but
with the last one being 640,000
years ago, the park is clearly
overdue.
A volcano of this magnitude
has the power to shut down
food production in the breadbasket
of the United States,
which will in turn lead to not
only domestic famine, but
worldwide famine as well.
As any person who has
researched historical famines
knows, after famine comes
widespread disease and anarchy.
Not only would the volcanic
eruption cause a worldwide
food shortage, it would cause
long, harsh winters and very
cool summers due to the ash
from the eruption blocking out
the sun’s heat and light on
almost the entire planet Earth.
This would cause a huge
decrease in human population
and a noticeable decrease in
planet life in general.
Unfortunately, trying to save
the Earth from an eruption is
out of the question.
Any attempt to drill into the
caldera to drain the magma
could spell disaster. It could
very well make the volcano
blow its top at the second the
drill hits the caldera.
“You got a balloon that’s
ready to pop, the last thing you
want to do is prick it,” said
Lawrence Joseph, author of the
book “2012 Apocalypse,”
which was featured on a recent
Discovery Channel documentary
which, coincidentally, was
called “2012 Apocalypse.”
The whole idea of the world
ending on the winter solstice of
2012 has also drawn interest in
Yellowstone erupting. Roland
Emmerich’s recent movie
“2012” included an eruption of
Yellowstone that was due to
solar activity increases weakening
the ground all over the
Earth, which in turn caused the
Yellowstone eruption.
Now, with actual park scientists
having conducted
research, Emmerich’s idea may
not have been that far off.
Yellowstone scientist Karina
Popov weighed her extreme
concerns when she said:
“Movies are movies, but our
scientific work does not lie.
All this recent activity has led
my fellow scientists and me to
think that the park may erupt
any day. If Emmerich had it
right in his popular movie
when he showed the ground
getting weaker, I would have to
say that the idea of
Yellowstone erupting when
that happens will be 100 percent
guaranteed!”
Only time will tell if that
happens.