Fascinating Geological History

[zorkan]

Forget alien invasion and climate change, the biggest threat we could face are from volcanic eruptions.

1500 years ago.
https://www.science.org/content/article/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

74,000 years ago.
https://geographical.co.uk/science-environment/explainer-the-toba-supervolcano-and-the-biggest-eruption-in-human-history

We can do something about climate and pandemics, but volcanoes never.

[zorkan]

Last year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cged3jd8llyo

Can't do anything about landslides of this magnitude, either.

[billy rubin]

We can do something about climate and pandemics, but volcanoes never.

im not sure we can do anything about climate change. i believe its baked in. it will take a major disaster before anything happens.

but with volcanoes, you can move away from the initial sources of danger. i lived on top of the san andreas fault in western america for 17 years, and the earthquakes were things you eventually took mostly for granted. with some major exceptions.

but the climactic impacts of major eruptions look to be similar to meterorite impacts, with cooling and light reduction.

with asteroids, we get big ones periodically, and theres debate about what can be done about them.

[Icarus]

If Yellowstone ever blows, it's adios Muchacha.

[zorkan]

with asteroids, we get big ones periodically, and theres debate about what can be done about them.

If Tunguska was an asteroid or comet hit we couldn't have done anything, but now we could send up a rocket with a warhead to divert it.
Well, couldn't we?

I'm impressed by continental drift.
Had that not happened then humans would have found it easier to kill each other.

If something like Yellowstone blows the skies will darken, sunlight will be cut off, photosynthesis will cease, humans will be reduced to cannibalism.
Mass panic and total mayhem.
If humans have not terraformed Mars by then the whole race could become extinct.

[billy rubin]

is that a problem in some way?

[The Magic Pudding..]

with asteroids, we get big ones periodically, and theres debate about what can be done about them.

If Tunguska was an asteroid or comet hit we couldn't have done anything, but now we could send up a rocket with a warhead to divert it.
Well, couldn't we?

No I don't think so, Bruce Willis has dementia now, we're doomed.

[zorkan]

If not Willis, surely Trump will save the world.
https://www.astronomy.com/science/nuclear-bombs-really-could-deflect-asteroids-lab-tests-suggest/

On the subject of impact craters Mars has the largest yet discovered.
"The largest crater on Mars (and, arguably the largest so far discovered in the solar system) is the Hellas basin measuring 1600 x 2000 km, roughly twice the size of Alaska. "
Earth's are small by comparison.
https://www.astronomy.com/science/these-5-impact-craters-highlight-earths-wild-history/

Maybe life on Mars was obliterated by an asteroid.