Megavolcano at Yellowstone may be spent

According to a Wikipedia article, the Megavolcano at Yellowstone  that extends over the state lines of Idaho and Wyoming in the United States may be through with exploding. An excerpt from the extensive article says:

The appearance of light magmas indicates that the uppermost portion of the continental crust has been consumed, …. In this case Yellowstone could be expiring. It could be another 1-2 million years before a new supervolcano is born to the northeast, and the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field joins the ranks of its deceased ancestors in the Snake River Plain.

Yellowstone Hotspot

Now that my End of the World 2012 Movie is almost ready for distribution, I’m putting together a Kindle eBook version of the movie. In doing so, I looked up information about megavolcanoes and especially the megavolcano at Yellowstone.

In a previous post dated May 31, 2010, I had reported that Yellowstone usually erupts every 600,000 years. Since it’s been 640,000 years since it’s last eruption, it was due for another one at any time. However, the article quoted above is of the opinion that Yellowstone may be at the end of its megavolcanic activity. That sounds good to me.

I wanted to share this information with you, because you may have read, as I have, that, according to some sources, Yellowstone is overdue for a world-shaking megaexplosion. I like to find a balancing opinion. 

2012: Signs of Pole Reversal affecting navigation and migration for wildlife

The magnetic poles are moving at a rate of 40 miles per year, much faster than ever before in human history. Presently, the direction of north changes by one degree every five years. In the last decade, the rate of the movement of the poles has increased by a third, which is throwing off the direction of compasses.

Ever since the magnetic north pole was first discovered in 1831, the magnetic north pole has been at or near Canada’s Ellesmere Island. At the rate the magnetic north pole is shifting, it may soon be in northern Russia.

Could this have anything to do with the Mayan prophecy for December 21, 2012?

 A Mother Nature Network article says that:

The changes are beginning to cause major problems for aviation, navigation and migratory animals that use the Earth’s magnetic field to orient themselves. Some airports have had to change the names of their runways to better correspond to their current direction relative to magnetic north. 

Magnetic North shifting by 40 miles a year, might signal pole reversal

More good advice in the case of a power outage–carry cash

Some more good advice in the case of a power outage, especially if you’re without power for a number of days, as we were due to the recent mid-Atlantic storm that resulted in 1.5 million homes without power.

How did I get on this power-outage, blackout kick? I guess that working on the End of the World 2012 Movie, and going without power in 100 F heat for three days, has got me looking at end of the world as we know it scenarios.

Here’s more good suggestions for when the world stops as a result of not having electricity:

* According to FEMA’s ready.gov website, preparing for a blackout requires preparing an emergency kit and a plan for family communication and how family members should meet up if they are separated. When planning for a power outage, be sure to include extra flashlights and batteries in your emergency kit as well as a battery-operated or hand crank radio to listen for instructions. One important tip for planning ahead for a power outage is to always have cash on hand and a half tank of gas in your car. Gas pumps and ATMs require electricity. Most store cash registers are electricity- and computer-driven so the need for cash is especially necessary to procure goods during a blackout.

 

2012: Is a shift in the magnetic poles imminent?

Some scientists believe a magnetic pole shift may be imminent–give or take 1000 to 10,000 years. In their opinion, that’s how long it takes for the magnetic poles to shift.

The last time the poles shifted, it was 780,000 years ago. Normally, they shift every 300,000 to 400,000 years. We are well-overdue.

In preparing the End of the World 2012 Movie, I am researching magnetic pole shift. Since, here in the mid-Atlantic, we’re well into hurricane season and we just experienced the worst storm other than hurricanes a few weeks ago, I appreciate the following suggestions for being prepared for a disaster from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA):

 * Emergency preparation and disaster planning should be a regular part of daily life. Whether the magnetic poles reverse or not, there will continue to be earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. Being prepared with a plan, emergency supplies and the knowledge of how to handle whatever comes is the best practice. Check out fema.gov for tips on disaster planning. Even though FEMA doesn’t offer specific tips for pole shift preparation, emergency preparedness can be adapted for any disaster.

Magnetic Pole Reversal and Disaster Planning

2012: Preparing for a Blackout in the case of a natural disaster–unprepared for the power outage a few weeks ago

With the End of the World 2012 Mayan prophecy on my mind, I must admit that, although we have a make-shift emergency kit, as suggested in the following list posted by www.ready.gov/blackout, we haven’t yet made a family communication plan, which includes deciding on a meet up place if and when the electricity is out and you can’t recharge your cell phone.

I guess, it’s a good idea to have a car charger for your cell phone, that is, assuming there will still be gas available.

Apart from any 2012 end of the world Maya prophecy, the thought of a major blackout is pretty darn scary.

In our mid-Atlantic blackout a few weeks ago, a number of gas stations did have power. However, I was disappointed when I drove past the long lines at the gas stations with power to my favorite one–the one whose computer is familiar with my credit card–because it was without electricity. There were hand-printed signs stuck on the gas tanks with tape saying, “No Power.”

I wish I had filled the gas tank the day before, but the storm and subsequent power outage was a big surprise. The weather prediction had only been for 10 m.p.h. winds but we received gusts up to 80 m.p.h. It was the largest storm, other than a hurricane, in our area.

I ended up driving to another town where I knew the whole city had power. I knew because a family member lives there and I had contacted them by cell phone.

What if the whole area had been without power? Fortunately, I had a place to go to where there was air conditioning. Many people I knew, however, had to suffer through the 100+ F temperatures.

BEFORE A BLACKOUT

To prepare for a blackout you should do the following:

• To begin preparing, you should build an emergency kit and make a family communications plan.
• Follow energy conservation measures to keep the use of electricity as low as possible, which can help power companies avoid imposing rolling blackouts.
• Fill plastic containers with water and place them in the refrigerator and freezer if there’s room. Leave about an inch of space inside each one, because water expands as it freezes. This chilled or frozen water will help keep food cold during a temporary power outage, by displacing air that can warm up quickly with water or ice that keeps cold for several hours without additional refrigeration.
• Be aware that most medication that requires refrigeration can be kept in a closed refrigerator for several hours without a problem. If unsure, check with your physician or pharmacist.
• Keep your car tank at least half full because gas stations rely on electricity to power their pumps.
• Know where the manual release lever of your electric garage door opener is located and how to operate it. Garage doors can be heavy, so know that you may need help to lift it.
• Keep a key to your house with you if you regularly use the garage as the primary means of entering your home, in case the garage door will not open. 

BEFORE A BLACKOUT

Could Antarctica have been ice-free when the earth was much warmer 8000 years ago?

Holocene Temperature Variations from 12,000 years ago to the present (2004). This image is an original work created for Global Warming Art and is in the public domain. It was retrieved from Wikipedia Commons.

On the right, you’ll see a graph showing the temperature of the earth over the last 12,000 years. “BP” means “Before Present.” 

I went looking for this information as part of my research for the End of the World 2012 Movie, because I wanted to see if there was a time when the earth was much warmer than it is now.And it was–8,000 years ago. 

Could the earth been warm enough at that time to melt the miles-thick ice cap on Antarctica?

If so, could ancient sailors have mapped Antarctica at that time and could that map have been incorporated into the Piri Reis map? 

In the End of the World 2012 Movie, I am showing how there have been previous “end of the world” scenarios, or anyway, end of the world as we presently know it. Logically, the earth could go through another “end of the world” scenario if it has done so before.

2012 preview? Eyewitness accounts of the Tunguska comet/meteoroid impact in Siberia

The Southern swamp—the epicenter of the Tunguska explosion, in 2008. View from a helicopter. Photo by Vladimir Rubtsov, taken at June 30, 2008. Source: Rubtsov (2009), p. 2. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons and is in the public domain.

I am impressed with the devastation that still exists at the epicenter of the Tunguska Event in Siberia. At the right, please find a photograph taken in 2008 from a helicopter showing how the impact area is still devoid of trees.

On the other hand, it is a swamp. Maybe that’s why there aren’t any trees. In any case, this helicopter photograph is a good example of the effect of the largest comet/meteoroid explosion in recorded history  100 years later.

I’m looking at previous end of the world scenarios for inclusion in my End of the World 2012 Movie. And, I’m also just interested in what eyewitnesses had to say about the event. For example, in a Wikipedia article called Tunguska Event, S. Semenov says that:

The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn’t bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few metres.

Also, Chuchan of Shanyagir tribe said that: 

We had a hut by the river with my brother Chekaren. We were sleeping. Suddenly we both woke up at the same time. Somebody shoved us. We heard whistling and felt strong wind. Chekaren said, ‘Can you hear all those birds flying overhead?’ We were both in the hut, couldn’t see what was going on outside. Suddenly, I got shoved again, this time so hard I fell into the fire. I got scared. Chekaren got scared too. We started crying out for father, mother, brother, but no one answered.

Piri Reis Map could point to an ice-free Antarctica in antiquity

Map of the world by Ottoman admiral Piri Reis, drawn in 1513.Only half of the original map survives and is held at the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul.The map synthesizes information from twenty maps, including one drawn by Christopher Columbus of the New World. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. It is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

The oldest known map of the world was compiled by Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. He used 10 Arabian sources, 4 maps of India from the Portuguese, and a map of the New World made by Christopher Columbus to compile his map. The map is drawn on gazelle skin.

Only the Western third of the map has survived. It lay undisturbed in the Topkapi Sarayi Library until German theologian Gustav Adolf Deissman discovered it in 1929. According to an online Wikipedia article, Piri Reis Map: 

Amateur historian Gavin Menzies claims in his book 1421: The Year China Discovered America that the southern landmass is indeed the Antarctic coastline and was based on earlier Chinese maps. According to Menzies, Admiral Hong Bao charted the coast over 70 years before Columbus as part of a larger expedition under the famous Chinese explorer and admiral Zheng He to bring the world under China’s tribute system.

I became interested in the Piri Reis map while researching background information for my End of the World 2012 Movie. I thought that if the Piri Reis map showed the Antarctica coastline, it meant that one of the sources used in compiling the map had to have been made during the time Antarctica was free of the mile thickness of ice covering it now. If so, it would show evidence of the world undergoing previous cataclysmic events. Perhaps, a pole shift?

Tunguska comet impact in Siberia created a mini end of the world event

Fallen trees at Tunguska, 1927. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. This work is in the public domain in Russia.

 On June 30, 1908, a 330-foot comet or meteoroid exploded over the Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia. The 10 to 15 megatons of TNT explosion felled an estimated 80 million trees.

I’ve been researching historical “end of the world” scenarios for my End of the World 2012 Movie. The Tunguska event is the largest comet impact in recorded human history. The shock wave of the blast would likely have registered 5 on the Richter Scale.

If this explosion had occurred over a large metropolitan area, the city would have been destroyed.

Nonetheless, native tribespeople the Evensk, and Russian settlers, who lived in the area, reported seeing a column of light, almost as bright as the sun, moving across the sky accompanied by a sound similar to artillery fire. Eyewitnesses said that:

The sounds were accompanied by a shock wave that knocked people off their feet and broke windows hundreds of kilometres away. 

Tunguska Event

2012 end of the world in history: dinosaur extinction and Chicxulub Yucatan comet

Badlands near Drumheller, Alberta, where erosion has exposed the KT boundary. From Wikipedia Commons: This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Glenlarson at the english wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.

In editing the End of the World 2012 movie, I’m at the place where I’m looking at previous end of the world scenarios, specifically where I intereview physicist Dr. William Petrachenko on the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Dr. Petrachenko works in the field of geophysics.

It turns out that the dinosaur extinction is associated with a worldwide characteristic in rock strata called the Cretaceous Tertiary Layer or Boundary or K – T Boundary. (This has recently been amended to the K-Pg or Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary.) Coincidentally, the K-T Boundary occurs at about 65 million years ago.

As Dr. Petrachenko explains in the movie, at the K-T Layer, scientists have found a higher concentration than is usually found on earth of Iridium. Since comets and asteroids have high concentrations of iridium, the scientists theorized that a huge extraterrestrial object must have hit the earth about 65 million years ago and that the debris or ejecta from the impact would have been carried in the atmosphere all around the earth and fell to the surface creating the K-T Boundary.

Since the extinction of the dinosaurs and this comet/asteroid impact occurred at about the same time–65 million years ago–scientists hypothesized that the comet/asteroid impact led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

In the photo, above right, rocks above the K-T Boundary are much darker than the lighter-colored rocks below the K-T Boundary. The iridium is found in a narrow band, not visible in this long distance photo, between the two layers.

In the End of the World 2012 Movie, we visit Chicxulub, Yucatan, where the comet exploded 65 million years ago. For more information on the K-T Boundary/K-Pg Boundary, Iridium and the Chicxulub Impact, please see the Wikipedia article, Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.