What If An Asteroid Hit The Yellowstone Volcano?
Asteroids – a space rock that could hit planet earth and cause some serious damage.
A Volcano, a mountain with a passage to the earths crust which can spew lava, ash and
gas and cause serious damage.
While we can see Asteroids coming a little ways off and we receive some warning signs
about impending volcanic activity, little can be done to stop either… both of which
are separate natural disasters waiting to happen… but what if they weren’t so separate?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions.
I am your host, Rebecca Felgate and today we’re asking what if An Asteroid hit the
Yellowstone Volcano?
Blimey.
What drama.
Before we get into this why don’t you guys let me know if you have ever seen a shooting
star or been up close to a volcano?
I’ve been to Iceland, which is pretty volcanic!
While you are down there in the comments - why don’t you leave a thumbs up and subscribe
to LBQ if you haven’t already!
Okay.
Before we dig deep into this question let me talk to you a bit about the Yellowstone
Volcano and Asteroids likely to hit earth separately, before we marry them together.
Scientists are CONSTANTLY monitoring Yellowstone National Park for volcanic activity around
the Calderas.
Why?
Well it is one of the biggest active volcanoes in the world and one of the most feared eruptions.
Despite not erupting for 640,000 years ago, the eruption before that took place 1.3 million
years ago, and the one before that 2.1 million years ago which means we could be due a huge
blow soon… which would be devastating.
The last time the volcano blew there weren’t towns, cities, states or even humanity to
destroy.
These days the volcano erupting would obliterate everything within a 100 kilometer radius and
spread ash as far away as 800 kilometres from the epicenter, which has the potential to
kill millions and destroy the worlds eco system for a decade or more.
OKAY great greaaat.
Meanwhile, asteroids and life on earth have a chequred history.
We all know that a huge Asteroid triggered the events that killed off the dinosaurs;
the Chicxulub asteroid that was estimated to be between 11 and 81 kilometres wide…which
is a big swing.
That hit Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsular with the energy of between 21–921 billion Hiroshima
A-bombs…again a big swing, but a HUGE force.
Interestingly, it seems that this Asteroid sent ripples around the earths tectonic plates
that then triggered massive volcanic eruptions from underwater volcanos.
This likely sent all kinds of volcanic matter into the air, along with the dust from the
asteroid impact, which worked together to choke the dinosaurs and other wildlife and
block out the sun.
This was, make no mistake, a big boy asteroid and it didn’t hit a volcano, but still managed
to trigger some.
If an asteroid hit the Yellowstone volcano, the amount of damage would very much depend
on how big the rock is.
Leaving Asteroids out of it for a second – I can answer the question for you of what would
happen if we nuked Yellowstone, and the answer is not a lot – the most explosive weapon
the world house is the Tsar Bomba which is 50 Megatrons… that is comparable to a large
earthquake that happened in the region in the 70s that measured 7.3 in the Richter scale
and basically all that happened was a few popping hot springs and geysers.
Man can’t make explosions as big as nature can… and even then… asteroids anywhere
near big enough to mess with Yellowstone are extremely few and far between.
Need I remind you the Chicxulub asteroid arrived 66 million years ago…well since then there
hasn’t been a notable impact event of an object 10 kilometres wide or more.
In the past few hundred years our biggest threats have been meteors which are too small
to be considered Asteroids.
The last few Asteroids we had hit the earth, including the 2018 LA event that impacted
in Southern Africa, have been no more than 5 meters wide.
This is … well… like….paltry to say the least in terms of asteroid size.
It would need to be an asteroid the likes of which we haven’t seen in millions of
years.
And yes, if it did hit the yellow stone, then it would likely affect that volcano, likely
causing a lava eruption and it would be a nightmare, but like actually probably better
the massive meteor hit the volcano and keep the impact zone a singular zone of total and
utter possible life ending chaos rather than hit a few hundred kilometres away and trigger
an eruption creating two death zones.
To be honest, if an Asteroid of Dinosaur killing proportion hit the earth, it kind of becomes
somewhat irrelevant where it hits, but if it dig trigger the Yellowstone then we would
go from screwed to affirmatively screwed.
Death death, extinction death….
But again, don’t you worry….
An asteroid that size isn’t even so much on our radar, let alone on course to impact
the earth…so worry not.
At this point it is basically the stuff of fantasty.
So guys… that was that… don’t forget to let me know if you have ever seen a shooting
star or if you have been to a volcano up close….
Or perhaps you live near one?
Anyone live near Yellowstone?
I would love to hear from you.
Okay before I go I am just going to read some comments from one of my most recent LBQ videos…
I am going with What if Cupid was Real!
YEAH Beats rap instrumentals said I just love these kinds of videos.
Spongebob Squarepants said: Roses are red, violets are blue.
I am single and so are you.
How did you know?
Minecrat Silent Build said: Cupid has to be real or what’s with love or love at first
sight - lust caused by hormones and pheromones my friend.
WELL there we go….
Like …share etc I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I will catch
you in the next video but until then, stay curious stay alert and never ever stop questioning!