If you’re part of science blogging community, then you’ll probably know that my festive title relates to the Yellowstone Caldera; and how it’s going to cause our impending doom (date tbc). Basically, earthquake activity around Yellowstone has increased, as you can see for yourself, which may or may not be indicative of your death. After all, if we’re to believe the BBC docudrama of the aforementioned caldera, dramatically dubbed a supervolcano, things won’t be so rosy if the lava starts flowing and the dust begins to rise. Still, it would be slightly ironic, and even poetic, if there are still some of us around to appreciate things, that our end comes from something unrelated to greedy bankers and global warming.
…Okay, we’re probably not going to get our apocalypse porn, as Maria Brumm aptly put, so I’ll tone things down a bit. I just felt blogs continually fail to match the dramatic lies ingenuity of our cousins in the mainstream media. Nonetheless, we don’t really know much, and by that I also mean volcano aficionados, about the relationship between seismic activity and a supervolcano busting its lid; for the obvious reason of not having experienced anything like this beforehand. So, until someone can tell me otherwise, I’m keeping one eye on the fault lines.
For more useful information than I could ever possibly provide, Greg Laden’s account is a good place to start. He gives a nice overview of the situation, while offering us most loyal of readers an additional treat: “I am personally keeping close watch on the seismic activity in the area and if I see anything ominous I’ll let you know.” Though his warning does come with one, very minor, caveat: “As soon as I finish packing and driving about 2,000 miles to the south of here.”
On a side note, albeit a related one, I was first made aware of the earthquakes by my brother, who in turn had found it on a gaming forum of all places. This gives me some optimism, for if the apocalypse is overdue, then at least it’ll be the geeks of this world who’ll survive (prior knowledge etc)… And we all know how much fun that’s going to be. Plus, it is almost assured we’ll get a lego-based reconstruction of the event. With that in mind, let’s all put on our happy death day smiles.