Volcanology/Geology questions

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

3 minutes ago, Marrow said:

No not that, it's a appearently a faint whispering/humming that can be heard sometimes near the lake; kinda like an Erie song

I'm going to Yellowstone for the first time this summer, to observe Yellowstone and work at a lodge. I'm mostly there for the Geological features and Lodging. I'm going to talk to the scientist in charge there to see if I can work on campus  too. I'm going to see if what people say is true about that.

[Marrow]

Just now, Shieldmaiden WinterDragon said:

I'm going to Yellowstone for the first time this summer, to observe Yellowstone and work at a lodge. I'm mostly there for the Geological features and Lodging. I'm going to talk to the scientist in charge there to see if I can work on campus  too. I'm going to see if what people say is true about that.

Oh! Keep me posted please

[ChillaKilla]

The whispering of Yellowstone reminds me of this hella trippy video where someone recorded the sounds of Pu'u O'o and sped it up like 500 times to be audible to humans. Sounds alien! I'm trying to find it but it's from an old PBS documentary and it's hard to locate.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

1 minute ago, Marrow said:

Oh! Keep me posted please

I have a thread started on my Yellowstone Adventure started already, I'll post updates there.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

5 minutes ago, ChillaKilla said:

The whispering of Yellowstone reminds me of this hella trippy video where someone recorded the sounds of Pu'u O'o and sped it up like 500 times to be audible to humans. Sounds alien! I'm trying to find it but it's from an old PBS documentary and it's hard to locate.

I heard of the whispering and look forward to hearing it.

[ChillaKilla]

I found it!! Holy crap, that was hard! I must've searched every combination of "weird Kilauea sound" related keywords on the web  It starts at 2:30 

 

[Pramana]

I've heard about the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption, and the resulting 1816 Year Without a Summer climate effects. Can you tell if there are any active volcanos today which would be likely to have that kind of impact if they erupt, or is that an unpredictable occurrence?

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

With monitoring and watching such active volcanoes which are known to have such eruptions, we can never tell if the next one will be as powerful as the one recorded  and documented. In fact we can never tell what the next eruption will be like. A volcano may become active and we can never tell when and how big the eruption will be. Or how long the eruption may last. 

[SorryNotSorry]

How old are petroleum deposits, really?

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

16 minutes ago, Woodworker1968 said:

How old are petroleum deposits, really?

Petroleum (also known as crude oil or simply oil) is a fossil fuel that was formed from the remains of ancient marine organisms. 
Millions of years ago, algae and plants lived in shallow seas. After dying and sinking to the seafloor, the organic material mixed with other sediments and was buried. Over millions of years under high pressure and high temperature, the remains of these organisms transformed into what we know today as fossil fuels. Coal, natural gas, and petroleum are all fossil fuels that formed under similar conditions.  pretty but to the closest is 2500 million  years during the Proterozoic age to before. 
 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Hot Spots.

Mantle plumes are areas of hot, upwelling mantle. A hot spot develops above the plume. Magma generated by the hot spot rises through the rigid plates of the lithosphere and produces active volcanoes at the Earth's surface. As oceanic volcanoes move away from the hot spot, they cool and subside, producing older islands, atolls, and seamounts. As continental volcanoes move away from the hot spot, they cool, subside, and become extinct.

 

Hot spots are places within the mantle where rocks melt to generate magma. The presence of a hot spot is inferred by anomalous volcanism (i.e. not at a plate boundary), such as the Hawaiian volcanoes within the Pacific Plate. The Hawaiian hot spot has been active at least 70 million years, producing a volcanic chain that extends 6,000 km (3,750 miles) across the northwest Pacific Ocean. Hot spots also develop beneath continents. The Yellowstone hot spot has been active at least 15 million years, producing a chain of calderas and volcanic features along the Snake River Plain that extends 650 km (400 miles) westward from northwest Wyoming to the Idaho-Oregon border.

 

However, keep in mind these are just theories.  Nobody really knows the answer.   The honest answer is that lots of scientists are working on it but haven't come up with the answer yet.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

The Minoan eruption.

The Minoan eruption (around 1613 BC) was one of the largest plinian eruptions on earth in the past 10,000 years. These findings suggest that the eruption could be larger than originally thought, ranking in fact as VEI 7, which would make it perhaps the second largest explosive eruption in historic time on the planet (after Tambora 1815).The so-far established size estimations were largely based on field data from Santorini, neighboring islands, from the sea bed, and western Turkey, where the deposit can still be found in lake deposits. 

 

Santorini eruption much larger than originally believed

An international team of scientists has found that the second largest volcanic eruption in human history, the massive Bronze Age eruption of Thera in Greece, was much larger and more widespread than previously believed. Being one of the second largest eruption known in history, during research expeditions in April and June, the scientists from the University of Rhode Island and the Hellenic Center for Marine Research found deposits of volcanic pumice and ash 10 to 80 meters thick extending out 20 to 30 kilometers in all directions from the Greek island of Santorini. While studying it it lead to the volcano Thera which destroyed the island in the massive eruption. This eruption is what caused the waters in the neighboring areas to look like blood, and sickness that spread after it.

 

[Skycaptain]

There is a belief that the biblical tale about the parting of the Red Sea to allow Isrealites to flee Judea is based upon the tsunami resultant from the Thera eruption. 

 

Incidentally did you know that Thucidedes, in their account of the Peloponnesian wars hypothesised a correlation between earthquakes and tsunamis around 475bc

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

8 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

There is a belief that the biblical tale about the parting of the Red Sea to allow Isrealites to flee Judea is based upon the tsunami resultant from the Thera eruption. 

 

Incidentally did you know that Thucidedes, in their account of the Peloponnesian wars hypothesised a correlation between earthquakes and tsunamis around 475bc

Back then people were intrigued by such phenomenons , even then science was used but not widely until much later. Vesuvius was the first documented huge eruption and that was before many began such observations. It's interesting how far back observations can go and be told.

[Marrow]

22 hours ago, Shieldmaiden WinterDragon said:

I have a thread started on my Yellowstone Adventure started already, I'll post updates there.

Geheheh oh I hope people know about it

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

21 minutes ago, Marrow said:

Geheheh oh I hope people know about it

Some do

[RunBarryRun]

You watched an eruption up close?!!! 

Sounds awesome. 

do you guys put on anything like special protective suit when investigating volcano??

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

44 minutes ago, RunBarryRun said:

You watched an eruption up close?!!! 

Sounds awesome. 

do you guys put on anything like special protective suit when investigating volcano??

8 years ago, I did. It was more of a vacation rather  than USGS stuff. Now for going up to the summit, yes special suits are worn to protect against the lava's heat and also facial masks to protect against the gases if the volcano is active.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Monitoring data help forecast the course of an eruption once unrest is detected.

When a volcano begins showing new or unusual signs of activity, monitoring data help answer critical questions necessary for assessing and then communicating timely information about volcanic hazards. For example, prior to the 2004 eruption at Mount St. Helens monitoring equipment recorded a large increase in earthquake activity. Scientists quickly examined other monitoring data including gas, ground deformation, and satellite imagery to assess if magma or fluid was moving towards the surface. Based on the history of the volcano and the analysis of the monitoring data scientists were able to determine the types of magma could be moving towards the surface. This type of knowledge helps scientists figure out the possible types of volcanic activity and the associated hazards to people. Knowing the hazards helps officials determine which real-time warnings are needed to prevent loss of life and property. It take's a weeks maybe months for a volcano to erupt after seismic activity increases.The ground will swell and gas readings to pick up along with Carbon in the ground killing trees and other plant life.

 

[coyote55]

On ‎3‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 7:00 AM, RunBarryRun said:

You watched an eruption up close?!!! 

Sounds awesome. 

do you guys put on anything like special protective suit when investigating volcano??

Special suits help... as long as the volcano is happy to greet you with nothing more than some heat and gases. If it tends toward explosive eruptions, it's a tricky business as suits won't help against flying, superheated clouds of ash and rock. In those cases, field crews work light and fast (no suits other than perhaps Nomex), and are always ready to bail out quickly via helicopter if monitoring shows anything immediately ominous brewing in the volcano. 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

2 minutes ago, coyote55 said:

Special suits help... as long as the volcano is happy to greet you with nothing more than some heat and gases. If it tends toward explosive eruptions, it's a tricky business as suits won't help against flying, superheated clouds of ash and rock. In those cases, field crews work light and fast (no suits other than perhaps Nomex), and are always ready to bail out quickly via helicopter if monitoring shows anything immediately ominous brewing in the volcano. 

It really depends we do not go up if it's a volcano known for explosive eruptions that go off from time to time when it's active. If it's calm during low activity then we brave it before checking for any signs of any activity. How ever yes the suits are light but you can get really cozy with them on. 

[coyote55]

Nasty episode at Etna today, several people injured by a small surficial explosion, apparently caused by lava overrunning snow and ice. Glad no one was killed.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

1 minute ago, coyote55 said:

Nasty episode at Etna today, several people injured by a small surficial explosion, apparently caused by lava overrunning snow and ice. Glad no one was killed.

Depending on how it erupted it can go far. It's advised to never go too close and people do even with Kilauea...... they may seem gentle but their eruptions can change instantly. How close were the people to Etna?

[coyote55]

BBC news reporter said she was about 30 feet away from the explosion site, along with a number of tourists.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Yeah...... They should have been a lot further away. At most 40 miles, I was 20 miles from Kilauea 8 years ago when it was erupting.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

I was almost 1 when Redoubt erupted back in the early 90's and almost 5 when Spurr erupted. By 3d grade I knew what I wanted to do for a career and been chasing it ever since and now all I am doing is waiting for a call from the HR lady  with AVO. This summer I'm heading to Yellowstone and will be volunteering with the observatory there if I can. Alaska has the most active volcanoes, they are not erupting but they're seismic and still code green. We monitor the seismic activity closely and raise the code to yellow if we see that it's needed. Alaska has 100 earthquakes a day and all are under 0.9 to 2.7, Alaska is over due for a large quake. In January 2016 on the 24th we had a nice shaker which I was awake for and waiting on. We had an increase in quakes the following year in 2015 and by the 23 we had 6 that Saturday. It is common for Alaska to have many quakes there are always 1 right after the other. The 2 quakes were a 6.8 and a 7.1, aftershocks will last a long time with a magnitude like this, after we had the quake I noticed Russia had a 7.1 quake. 

Yellowstone has had 15 known eruptions through generations 3 being on the scale of VEI8, there is a rumor going around that Yellowstone will erupt soon. If it was, there would be more seismic activity, increase in the geothermal activity with the geysers, more trees will be dying, ground swelling and animals finding a way out. Yellowstone has 25 quakes a week. The ground will be rising much faster than it does now, and that s only 6 cm a year and it's slow. It is now believed the magma comes from the north and goes to the magma chamber since the seismic activity seems to have a magmatic feature about it. 

Tectonic quakes are deep underground while magmatic ones are shallow and small.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

I was asked "Is it possible to preserve geothermal energy from Yellowstone?"

It most like can if the power plant is build well away from the weakened lad areas and channeled to it, Iceland does it already and I believe other nations might begin doing the same.

 

[coyote55]

Geothermal energy can be a great resource, and there is great potential for expanding its role of generating electrical power. Until relatively recently, however, successful development for power generation required a large local reservoir of superheated water or steam at shallow depths - which is a pretty rare occurrence. To widen its use, the goal is to develop ways of "mining" heat out of hot dry rock - and the challenge with that is, rock conducts heat quite slowly. If you remove heat too rapidly from your underground thermal reservoir, you basically kill it because you chill it faster than ambient heat can "flow" back in to refresh it. One way to avoid this is to use a working fluid with a lower boiling temperature than water, which can be still flashed into "steam" for power generation without taking so much heat from the reservoir. Another is to induce mechanical fracturing in the dry rock to multiply the surface area available for heating working fluids, or the groundwater that already exists in the reservoir. This technique is being tested on a modest scale by a geothermal company at a site on the flanks of the Newberry volcano in Oregon, USA.

 

One drawback of extracting superheated steam is.... you can kill off local tourist attractions, like geysers. This happened when a modest-sized geothermal plant opened up near Casa Diablo Hot Springs in eastern California. It killed off a small surface thermal area with a bunch of boiling mud pots and a small geyser. I don't know if that would happen if someone opened up a conventional geothermal plant near Yellowstone.... the steam reservoir there is probably gigantic. Still, it would be a tricky business.

 

 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

5 minutes ago, coyote55 said:

Geothermal energy can be a great resource, and there is great potential for expanding its role of generating electrical power. Until relatively recently, however, successful development for power generation required a large local reservoir of superheated water or steam at shallow depths - which is a pretty rare occurrence. To widen its use, the goal is to develop ways of "mining" heat out of hot dry rock - and the challenge with that is, rock conducts heat quite slowly. If you remove heat too rapidly from your underground thermal reservoir, you basically kill it because you chill it faster than ambient heat can "flow" back in to refresh it. One way to avoid this is to use a working fluid with a lower boiling temperature than water, which can be still flashed into "steam" for power generation without taking so much heat from the reservoir. Another is to induce mechanical fracturing in the dry rock to multiply the surface area available for heating working fluids, or the groundwater that already exists in the reservoir. This technique is being tested on a modest scale by a geothermal company at a site on the flanks of the Newberry volcano in Oregon, USA.

 

One drawback of extracting superheated steam is.... you can kill off local tourist attractions, like geysers. This happened when a modest-sized geothermal plant opened up near Casa Diablo Hot Springs in eastern California. It killed off a small surface thermal area with a bunch of boiling mud pots and a small geyser. I don't know if that would happen if someone opened up a conventional geothermal plant near Yellowstone.... the steam reservoir there is probably gigantic. Still, it would be a tricky business.

 

 

Indeed, it will have to be far enough from the source.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) provides long-term monitoring of volcanic and earthquake activity 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.