[QUOTE=gd_barnes;315465]Makes me glad that I live in Kansas, as boring as it is. All we have to do is duck a few tornados here and there and those are fun to chase after every once in a while. :smile:[/QUOTE]I'm possibly in an even better situation. It is one of the most geologically stable parts of the world; it's well insulated from large tsunami(*) by the rest of the UK, Ireland and Brittany; we're high enough (just) to cope with a few metres of extra sea level rise; although we get far more than our fair share of tornadoes, they're little ones.; our climate is mostly harmless, though miserable, and likely to stay that way unless the North Atlantic Drift shuts down completely.

Paul

(*) Even the great North Sea tsunami caused by a landslip in Norway didn't get this far inland

[QUOTE=cheesehead;315472]Just you wait until the New Madrid fault lets go again.[/QUOTE]

New Madrid lies in the Missouri boot heel, completely on the opposite side of Missouri from the Kansas-Missouri border and about 7 hours away. We might feel a major one from about 400 miles away but it's unlikely to affect us much.

[QUOTE=xilman;315477]I'm possibly in an even better situation. It is one of the most geologically stable parts of the world; it's well insulated from large tsunami(*) by the rest of the UK, Ireland and Brittany; we're high enough (just) to cope with a few metres of extra sea level rise; although we get far more than our fair share of tornadoes, they're little ones.; our climate is mostly harmless, though miserable, and likely to stay that way unless the North Atlantic Drift shuts down completely.

Paul

(*) Even the great North Sea tsunami caused by a landslip in Norway didn't get this far inland[/QUOTE]

The central U.S. is pretty darn close to as safe as it gets as long as you're far enough away from the New Madrid fault. We're at about 800 feet above sea level and the closest major body of water is off the coast of Louisiana or Mississippi, 800-900 miles to the south. Tornadoes annoy us from time to time but that's about it. Actually if you go a little north of me, perhaps to Minnesota, it'd be about as safe as you could get. With a colder climate, not many tornadoes, and nowhere near any fault lines (that I'm aware of). The biggest issue there would be blizzards in the winter.

[QUOTE=gd_barnes;315479]New Madrid lies in the Missouri boot heel, completely on the opposite side of Missouri from the Kansas-Missouri border and about 7 hours away. We might feel a major one from about 400 miles away but it's unlikely to affect us much.



The central U.S. is pretty darn close to as safe as it gets as long as you're far enough away from the New Madrid fault. We're at about 800 feet above sea level and the closest major body of water is off the coast of Louisiana or Mississippi, 800-900 miles to the south. Tornadoes annoy us from time to time but that's about it. Actually if you go a little north of me, perhaps to Minnesota, it'd be about as safe as you could get. With a colder climate, not many tornadoes, and nowhere near any fault lines (that I'm aware of). The biggest issue there would be blizzards in the winter.[/QUOTE]You're still much closer to Yellowstone than I am. If it cuts loose it's bad news for the entire northern hemisphere but it's unlikely that we'd see even a millimetre of ash falling around here. I'd expect to see some, not least because every year we find a fine sprinkling of Saharan dust washed out and visible on smooth surfaces after prolonged southerly winds. I guess the average deposition is a few microns per annum. The Sahara is at least 2000 km away and nowhere near the direction of the prevailing winds.


Iceland is relatively near by, so we could get some dust and acid rain for a while, I suppose. The recent eruption of Mount Unpronounceable was interesting but the over-reaction was grotesque. Really no need to shut down European airspace for several weeks. Can't complain though, as it gave me an extra 2 days holiday free in a 4-star hotel on La Palma.

Campi Flegrei are potentially vaguely disconcerting; nearer than Iceland as the wind blows, and a caldera that could do something Tambora-scale if not Yellowstone-scale.

[QUOTE=fivemack;315482]Campi Flegrei are potentially vaguely disconcerting; nearer than Iceland as the wind blows, and a caldera that could do something Tambora-scale if not Yellowstone-scale.[/QUOTE]Indeed.

Around these parts the economic fallout would be far greater than the volcanic fallout. We're still well over 1000km away and it's to the south-east of us, whereas the prevailing winds are westerly from the North Atlantic. The economic fallout would have a global impact; the volcanic fallout would be a strictly local affair, covering the Mediterranean countries mostly. I wouldn't want to be in Spain, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, etc, and especially not on the coast, but India, the UK and Saudi should be fine. We'd have a few cold wet years (some parts might welcome that!) but probably not much more.

Added in edit: drop Spain from the list.

[QUOTE=xilman;315477]our climate is mostly harmless, though miserable,[/QUOTE]

:missingteeth:

I think I'm almost as safe as Gary, being about as far from the New Madrid fault, about 14 hr driver further from Yellowstone, and even less tornadoes to worry about.

[QUOTE=gd_barnes;315479] Actually if you go a little north of me, perhaps to Minnesota, it'd be about as safe as you could get. With a colder climate, not many tornadoes, and nowhere near any fault lines (that I'm aware of). The biggest issue there would be blizzards in the winter.[/QUOTE]

Things would get uncomfortable, but survivable, up here in the winter if some global event caused a shutdown of society's services. I feel ok with my family's ability to outrun a glacier, should it come to that. Significant quantities of Canadian meltwater might turn the Mississippi basin into an elongated inland sea, but I'm 150 m above that so not too worried about it. Yep... seems fairly safe here in the upper Midwest.

[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/italian-scientists-convicted-over-earthquake-warning-153427877.html"]Italian scientists convicted over earthquake warning
[/URL]

[QUOTE] An Italian court convicted six scientists and a government official of manslaughter on Monday and sentenced them to six years in prison for failing to give adequate warning of a deadly earthquake which destroyed the central city of L'Aquila and killed more than 300 people in 2009.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=gd_barnes;315479]New Madrid lies in the Missouri boot heel, completely on the opposite side of Missouri from the Kansas-Missouri border and about 7 hours away.[/QUOTE]

I didn't realize MO crossed that many time zones...

[QUOTE=xilman;315481]You're still much closer to Yellowstone than I am. If it cuts loose it's bad news for the entire northern hemisphere but it's unlikely that we'd see even a millimetre of ash falling around here.[/QUOTE]

When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts again, ashfall will be the least of the concerns outside of N. America - global cooling will likely be the biggie as far as landbound animal species are concerned. The 1883 eruption of Krakatau caused crop failures in much of Europe in the year or two following the blast - The YSV is estimated to have generated 50x as much ash as that.

[QUOTE=science_man_88;315534][URL="http://news.yahoo.com/italian-scientists-convicted-over-earthquake-warning-153427877.html"]Italian scientists convicted over earthquake warning
[/URL][/QUOTE]

That should be in the wacky news thread. WTF.



Let he who could have done better (i.e., told the future) be the one to lock them in jail.

[QUOTE=xilman;315477]our climate is mostly harmless, though miserable[/QUOTE]It did directly drive away one of your greatest minds.