We're DOOMED!

I watched some cool shows on Discovery about how we are all DOOMED!!

One was about Mega-Tsunamis.
The synopsis was: Discover a geologic force capable of generating skyscraper-sized waves. Huge landslides create these walls of water. The next one might send a monster wave across the Atlantic and straight for the East Coast of the United States.

They were talking about a volcanic island in the Canary Islands called, La Palma. They stated that the tsunami would take about 8 hours from time of creation to reach the east coast. That believe that the wave would reach inland as far as 11-12 miles. Umm...Bye bye Miami, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Bahamas, etc. It'd be a mess.

Oddly enough while looking for more information I found these kooks. Hey if you aren't paranoid enough about the ned of the world, read this site for a bit. They'll fix ya!

One dude thought terrorists would use the La Palma Volcano as a weapon. Dropping a bomb into it, to help things along. But this is an ACTIVE volcano. The bomb would have to be stratigically placed deep within the volcano itself to do anything, if it would be strong enough at all. By what the Discovery show stated, the sliding of the western half of the summet (which would cause the tsunami), would be because of the warming of the trapped rainwater in the surrounding rock. Think of a potato in the microwave. If you don't poke the skin and the internal pressures get too much it's going to crack and break open. Now imagine a mountain doing that. A terrorist bomb would not be able to "start" this reaction.

Another guy suggested making an opposing tsunami on the East Coast. Two problems with this. One, where are you going to find the equivilant 1-trillion tons of rock to slide into the ocean right on the coastline! Two, the contenental shelves are shaped differently and our wave would not have the same intensity. Three, We have 8 HOURS to match the size, get the tragectories correct and then fine 1 trillion tons of rock! Four, umm...what about our neighbors on the otherside of the pond who would have to deal with OUR wave? Like Ireland, Portugal, the whole West Coast of Africa maybe even parts of France and England.

Anyway, enough about that one. The other show was on Super Volcanos. It's synopsis: One of the world's largest supervolcanoes, much more powerful than Mt. St. Helens, lies under Yellowstone National Park. The last eruption in Sumatra 70,000 years ago pushed mankind to the edge of extinction; scientists think the next is overdue.

Ok, 70,000 years ago we were rock swinging savages. Not much has changed, but we do have the technology to save most of us. BTW, I don't think your Sharper Image air filter will really be able to keep up with the ash. (I still want one though!) The show talked about ash 2 meters thick (nearly as deep as I am tall!) Yellowstone would become, quite literally, Jellystone. Some estimates suggested that anyone and anything within about 1000 Kilometers would be wasted. The heat would melt surrounding snow capped mountains. Imagine the floods, avalanches, rock and mud slides! Forests would be flattened, the mid-western crops would be destroyed. Etc etc etc. Pretty much hell on earth for ground zero and the areas within that 1000 KM circle. The rest of us would have to deal with ash falling from the sky for month if not years, toxic fumes, food shortages as the midwest provides food not only for the US but for must of the world. The gobal temperature could drop 5 degrees or more, stuck in a volcanic winter. Think its cold in the winter now SugarMama? Even the South would get thick blankets of snow. Something usually reserved for the more Northern states.

This is far more scary than the tsunami. This would effect the entire human race. Those countries and people whos lives are soley dependent on their agriculture would fine their crops stunted by the colder temperatures and poor sunlight. Many animals, crops and people would die from lack of food. More modern nations would survive, but economic and social structures would fail. Especially here in the US where nearly a 1/3 of the country would be damaged by the eruption. We can feel some what fortunate that those states are sparcely populated, but needless to say, they'd be empty for quite some time.

It would take decades for the world to get back to normal. More or less this is what we would have had to put up with after a nuclear war, without the radiation. It's a pretty chilling thought.

Luckly, this isn't likely to happen any time soon, but we ARE due for an eruption. So...who's up for building on the moon now? LOL