Quote:
Originally Posted by Twosugars
Statistically speaking, sure. As you say, we can't go worrying about that every day. Besides it is only one of many global catastrophic risks.
Going by the past eruptions volcanoes can cause damage to varying degrees.
The global impact of Krakatoa or Tambora was relatively limited (pretty sunsets after Tambora were painted by Turner), some cooling and crop failures. Other eruptions were more serious. There is some evidence that an eruption caused a mini ice age in medieval Europe with widespread famine etc; or even more serious when super eruption might have almost wiped out early humans 74000 years ago (genetic bottleneck).
As to comparison between Krakatoa (Krakatau) and Yellowstone, here's a diagram from USGS. As you can see, Yellowstone would be 10 to 100 times bigger. Our civilization would be set back in a significant way.
Amounts of ash deposited
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Wonderful graphic
Like you say, there's a lot of natural events that could occur world-wide that could cause us problems at any time. That's why I think it's important to have some kind of plan at home, where people will go, who they will call, places to check-in, meet up, etc... sure, nothing may be happening in the news that is especially worrying, but that doesn't mean that emergencies don't happen or things can't change suddenly.