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Forecasting volcanoes is a lot like forecasting earthquakes, it's really difficult to do and often there's very little warning, maybe a couple of days at most,
by chrisco255 6y ago
Forecasting volcanoes is a lot like forecasting earthquakes, it's really difficult to do and often there's very little warning, maybe a couple of days at most, but sometimes comes with no warning at all. The White Island volcano killed several people last year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island_eruption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island_e... This place was a famous tourist destination.
One of my favorite sites for tracking Volcanic eruptions is: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano_news.html https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano_news.html . It provides real-time updates on volcano advisories.
I would say we're still very susceptible to a supervolcano eruption. There is no stopping that level of force. It can dramatically shift the climate for years, if not decades. And it would be catastrophic for crop production. I suspect we would need to move a large portion of our crop production into greenhouses and growhouses in order to survive that level of event.
- dekervin 6y agoI am genuinely curious, what hobby of yours makes you track volcanic eruptions regularly ?
- chrisco255 6y agoI just study climate developments and geological history sometimes and volcanoes are a big part of that. They've shaped life on earth.
- CameronNemo 6y agoHow would green/grow houses help in such a situation?
- chrisco255 6y agoThe cold weather would kill crops in all but probably tropical latitudes. The lack of sunlight will slow plant growth. Placing plants in greenhouses / growhouses would keep them warm and you could supplement sunlight with LED lighting to feed the plants.
- Exmoor 6y agoBut creating enough greenhouse capacity to feed 8 billion people would be incredibly difficult. Bottom line would be, if something causes sunlight to be largely blocked around the world for a sustained period of time, the number of people who would starve to death would likely number in the billions.
- fulafel 6y agoGreenhouses cool down rapidly after sunset though, they still freeze if it's many deg below freezing outside. (Also mass crops like wheat and soy would have to solve harvesting machinery and resource cost vs area size)
- s1artibartfast 6y ago>Greenhouses cool down rapidly after sunset though This simply isn't true and depends on a number of factors. greenhouses can fairly easily maintain 2-30 degrees above the outside temperature. furthermore, the temperature drop described in the article was 1-2 degrees below average.
- CameronNemo 6y agoLED lighting could also be used for outdoor crops. From my perspective green houses are most beneficial for pest management and water conservation. They might actually prevent light from reaching plants to the same degree as an outdoor grow due to reflection and opacity.
- closeparen 6y agoLava flows are a relatively local and immediate problem, what will really get large numbers of people over a long period of time is clouds of ash blocking out the sun.
- ClumsyPilot 6y agoGrowhouses handle the situation perfectly well, but there are very few of them as conpared to open fields. The only country i know of that has enough glasshouses to feed a significant chunk of its population is the netherlands.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 6y agoThe White Island eruption was forecasted though. It's just that tourists kept going there regardless.
- alliao 6y agowhoa any forecast reports? I think the tourists are suing the tourism companies right now
- asdfasgasdgasdg 6y agoThey were at an elevated alert level weeks before the event and the tourism company made explicit notice that they go no matter what the alert level but there's always a risk. Good luck w/ the lawsuit is all I can say. The linked Wikipedia page has details.