General Chat

Hi CB I showed this thread to my 16-year-old son as he is planning a career in the geology area. He watched the first programme and is going to watch part 2 tonight. He also read the thread with interest and said that the last time it erupted was approx 680,000 years ago, and scientists have found from rock samples that it erupts roughly every 600,000 years - so this means it is quite likely to happen in either our lifetime or the next generation's lifetime. Mandy :)

Hi Mandy, It's good to see young people taking an interest in serioius subjects like this. As you say, it could all go up in their lifetime, and it could help chances of survival for some if people are forewarned. I must say, I've always had a feeling I'd like to live in the North-Western 'corner' of the USA. Somehow that doesn't seem so attractive now! CB >|<

it's just about to start

Penny I hope you meant the programme and not the eruption! I don't know how much warning there would be if the volcano exploded, but there isn't much we could do really, apart from hope the wind blows in a different direction from us and become refugees somewhere else in the world. As for asteroids hitting the earth, I think Bill Bryson asked a scientist how much warning we would have and the reply was that by the time it was close enough to us to see it would be too late to do anything. We have always been at the mercy of the universe. We cannot control the weather, the tides or the earth. Over two hundred years ago, our relatives were probably equally worried about floods and outbreaks of illness. Only today there was something on the radio about Asian bird flu which could kill millions. Sleep well, folks! nell

I managed to see the tail-end of the drama, as well as the 10 p m documentary, last night. I found it extremely scary to imagine being unable to breathe and having the house roof cave in on me. The scale of the disaster portrayed was incredible, and the documentary could provide little in the way of comfort. I think the best I can say about it is I'm glad I don't live in the USA, but nowhere on earth would be completely safe - survival would just be a matter of chance. All we can do is hope it doesn't happen to us. CB >|<

Well I wasn't very encouraged by the 'survival' tips! Would the government really only advise people to store 3 days worth of provision? Obviously there is a very fine line between advising what is necessary, and creating a mad panic though! Scary stuff! Claire xx

Following on to STRUMPS saying that there had been another tremmor in Thailand my grnd daughter emailed me today saying there had been an earthquake in the night in Wellington 6.1 which had been very scary. Very worrying brenda

It's very easy for us in Britain to have a sense of security, but it was mentioned on last night's documentary that there are some volcanoes in Scotland, and Iceland's not that far off. There was a huge split that opened up in the ground thre in the 1700s, emitting clouds of poisonous gas that caused many deaths and bone deformities in local people. I certainly don't think I'd be comfortable living somewhere like Japan, where there is frequent earthquake activity. It would be interesting to know just what our Government has up its sleeve for dealing with any global disasters that affect us here. CB >|<