# Yellowstone Supervolcano Timing Question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 5, 2015, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864 "2015-04-05T08:56:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/81 "2015-04-10T01:29:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> This is actually a fairly simple piece of orbital mechanics, where by “simple” I mean “already solved by somebody else who had more free time than me”. Putting something in orbit around a moon with the same period as the moon’s orbit around its planet means putting it in the L2 Lagrange point between the moon and the planet. Unfortunately, this point is unstable, which means you’d need thrusters on your object to keep it there for any significant period of time, and it’ll also leave your object exposed to the Sun for a significant portion of its orbit, when both the moon and planet are “off to the side”.
>
> The second solution is more practical: That’s the Sun-Earth (or Sun-Ceres, or whatever) L3 Lagrange point. It’s still unstable, but now at least you’re going to stay behind your planet all of the time. And in fact, some spacecraft are in fact launched to the L3 point, or its vicinity, for that reason.
Typo? L3 would be the opposite side of the sun from the planet.
P.S. Somehow we’ve segued from a discussion of the Yellowstone caldera to hiding a melted asteroid space station behind Ceres.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/82 "2015-04-10T03:25:48Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> No, this isn’t true at all. They knew [Mt. St. Helens] was active and shaking, but they had no idea it was going to erupt so spectacularly until it happened.
They must have known something was coming, because evacuation orders were issued two months before the eruption, and [Harry Randall Truman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Randall_Truman)’s refusal to evacuate turned him into a minor celebrity. Then he died.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/83 "2015-04-10T03:36:54Z")
> [@Spoke](#):
>
> They must have known something was coming, because evacuation orders were issued two months before the eruption, …
Yes, amd the day before the eruption they allowed property owner back to their homes so they could get useful stuff out. And they had another such trip scheduled for the owners on the same day the eruption occurred.
Most of the people who died were outside the evacuation zone because they had no idea the explosion would be so big.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/84 "2015-04-10T04:48:15Z")
Point is, they knew two months ahead of time (at least) that something was up. I think if we had that much notice that something was up at Yellowstone, panic would ensue. With Yellowstone, everyone would _assume_ a major eruption.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/85 "2015-04-10T15:22:16Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> . . . Sure, we have identified lots of such species - but most of them are adapted to particular island chains (like Hawaii) or specific locales. No one knows how effective ash colonizers from, say, the South Pacific would be at rehabbing a temperate continental area like the American West/Midwest. . . . .
Don’t think about what it would take to run the experiment. . . . Don’t think about what it would take to run the experiment. . . . Don’t think about what it would take to run the experiment. . . . Don’t think about what it would take to run the experiment. . . . Don’t think about what it would take to run the experiment. . . .
Sorry. It’ll work for at least a little while.
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### Author:  [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2015, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/86 "2015-04-11T10:03:48Z")
For those suggesting a bg reservior of water or even liquid nitrogen, consider a mass of molten rock one cubic mile in volume, with an average temperature of at least 2,000 degrees. Oh sorry, that was for Krakatoa, or Katmai or Pinatubo. A super blow out at Yellowstone might range between 200 and 1,000 cubic miles.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2015, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/87 "2015-04-11T12:40:55Z")
> [@the\_diego](#):
>
> For those suggesting a bg reservior of water or even liquid nitrogen, consider a mass of molten rock one cubic mile in volume, with an average temperature of at least 2,000 degrees. Oh sorry, that was for Krakatoa, or Katmai or Pinatubo. A super blow out at Yellowstone might range between 200 and 1,000 cubic miles.
Exactly. Plus, anyone who’s cooked or frozen a large cut of meat knows it takes a LONG time for heat or cold to penetrate; and we’re only talking a few inches. A puddle of water, or liquid nitrogen, or whatever, would reach a temperature gradient equilibrium within a few dozen or few hundred feet of the bottom of the lake. It’s not going to affect what’s below that, except to make the surface crust a bit thicker and harder, thus raising the pressure and assuring that the big blow, when it happens, with be that much more spectacular. Meanwhile, my guess is that the big blow-up which can loft millions of tons of rock into the air will have no problem lofting the surface liquid first along with the full blast. Any mixing and damping effect will happen 20 miles up in the atmosphere, not at ground level. What if any effect on dispersal patterns that might have - maybe it will slow some of the first dispersal at small amount, but after that, it won’t matter.
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### Author:  [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellowstone-supervolcano-timing-question/716864/88 "2015-04-13T02:07:40Z")
> [@get\_lives](#):
>
> All right, how about a giant reservoir of liquid nitrogen?
> [@get\_lives](#):
>
> It would be like…totally cold? But the ejecta is coming up so fast that it wouldn’t have much chance to lose heat to the nitrogen, and of course there’d be little loss of momentum, since liquid nitrogen is not especially dense or viscous.
So clearly what we need is. . .
A mixture of lead, mercury, and honey, encased in liquid helium.
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