The dystopian outlook that seems to dominate science fiction these days, particularly the apocalyptic kind, foresees an eruption of the dormant but volatile Yellowstone volcano in Wyoming as civilization shattering, especially in North America.
So does the U.S. Geologic Survey: “If another large caldera-forming eruption were to occur at Yellowstone, its effects would be worldwide. Thick ash deposits would bury vast areas of the United States, and injection of huge volumes of volcanic gases into the atmosphere could drastically affect global climate.”
Comes contrarian meteorologist Joe Bastardi at WeatherBell to say that such an eruption would likely, counter-intuitively, be a ho-hummer in most places downwind.
“Remember Mt. St. Helens. There was very little notable disruption to the climate from that. Great sunsets yes and of course the utter devastation around it, but the volcanoes that are of prime concern are in the tropics, and in the Arctic. Volcanoes in the westerlies have their ash distributed quickly, and so I don’t think this would have any real affect on the climate, or put it this way, it would be in the category of Mt St Helen[s] which was minimal…”
Lots of apocalyptic scifi authors who, along with their readers, seem to delight in imagining human misery, are going to look awfully foolish if the thing does blow and Joe is right. And things just might get a little crazy if he isn’t. But I’ll place my bets with him.
UPDATE: OTOH, as Bastardi’s colleague Joe D’Aleo notes, Jellystone has the potential to be 2,000 times the size of the Mt. St. Helens eruption.
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