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Colossal volcanic eruption could destroy Japan: study

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Hurry up and explore mars.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

We will all certainly die. Someday. For now, let's have some fun and avoid obsessing over killer asteroids, super-volcanoes, and other things over which we have little control.

27 ( +28 / -3 )

Lovely story to wake up to Monday morning. Let's scare everybody just a little bit more. If nothing can be done, and it doesn't look like it can, why blare this headline. It's not like we can start to build arks and get ready to push off at the first sign of flowing magma.

16 ( +17 / -1 )

"The new research comes weeks after Mount Ontake erupted without warning"... and maybe this research started after the eruption as well, maybe over a sake or two... I am not taking this too lightly, I am not just making my bags searching for a safer place to move to just yet (and most places that are safer from natural calamity have their own form of dangers anyway). Sure these scenarios could happen sometime but very little can be done and if you need a safe place to get some peace of mind I will tell you, good luck, you will need it.

9 ( +9 / -1 )

It’s theory, and a scary one.

But, there is little reason to his the panic button. If Japan has survived so many natural/manmade disasters in its past. It should be able to endure.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Fear mongering

13 ( +16 / -3 )

When every acre of arable land is vital to a nation, you don't write big chunks off just because a hot hill is near. So farmers farm, tourists tour and climbers climb, while the ground beneath them tosses in its sleep. Telling people on volcanic land that there may be an eruption is like telling sailors there may be a hurricane. After a while they get used to the things, and don't scare easily.

11 ( +10 / -1 )

Just read Sakyo Komatsu's 1973 novel Japan Sinks (Nihon Chinbotsu), a fictional account based on an eruption and quakes damaging the whole country. He postulates the Japanese government's attempts to manage the disasters, their ultimate triage and save part of their population before time runs out. Their policies on (non)-acceptance of refugees comes back and bites them, as many countries refuse to accept refugees, though of course the usual ones do.

It was re-published in English after the Great Hanshin quake in 1995, with a sequel in 2006.

4 ( +4 / -1 )

Colossal volcanic eruption could destroy Japan: study.....And likely won't for 10's of thousands of years. By that time....

Another headline could read "The sun may implode and may death to our solar system".

5 ( +7 / -2 )

I'm scared to leave the house now.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

On the bright side, in such an event, school would definitely be canceled!

9 ( +8 / -0 )

So not a good time to be investing in Kyushu real estate then?

I saw these Kobe University researchers on TV news a couple of days ago, the worst case scenario is pretty much everywhere except Hokkaido getting covered in a thick layer of ash.

They say there have been 10 such eruptions in the past 120,000 years, so I guess on average one every 12,000 years. Not very likely to happen in any of our lifetimes, but given the stakes it probably is a good idea to try to figure out a bit more about how and when these things happen.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I am sure I had already read this same title in the Japanese version of the J.W.s Watchtower, but I think they said not only Japan, but the WHOLE WORLD would blow up and we would all die in magma etc..if we did not hurry up and REPENT?? I could be wrong, but hey why don't we hurry up and REPENT!!! Hahahaha!!! I think we should worry more about corssing the street and not getting hit by some idiot flying through their red light, etc...

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Think JW says only 100,000 or so will be saved. The rest will perish.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I believe this guy is capitalizing on the previous tragedy to make a name for himself. Doom and gloom sells pretty well. Maybe he's trying to work himself some kind of volcano death porn book angle.

ALL OF US could die if a gigantic asteroid hits us or ANY OF US could die in the next twenty minutes (and many, many of us do).

Have fun kids! (but just in case, wear a condom)

6 ( +7 / -1 )

We really are living on the edge in this country! Not to worry though, I was looking at some quake/tsunami maps the other day and chances are by the time this super volcano has woken up there will be nothing left for it to do.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is silly. The geological record tells us that the Japanese archipelago is very old, and while there have been changes over the eons (like everywhere else in the world), there's nothing to suggest an event along the lines of Sakyo Komatsu's 1973 science fiction novel "Nihon Chimbotsu." If something like this is going to happen somewhere, it's more likely to be in Indonesia, which is famous for cataclysmic explosions like Krakatau in 1883.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Seems like a straightforward overreaction bias to their embarrassing mis-prediction of Kobe.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

not Japan!!! nooo!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

There are lots of "colossal" natural disasters that could destroy all sorts of things (and probably will, give enough time). However, we are talking about geological time spans and not something that one can predict with any degree of certainty. The article sounds like an attempt by these two professors to get in the news.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I think we forget that Mt. Aso on the island of Kyushu is actually part of a VERY large ancient volcanic caldera--and it is active even today. There is a chance if the entire caldera goes up in an eruption (not an impossibility!), it could spew out more volcanic ash than Mount Tambora did in 1815--and that could cause very serious volcanic ash damage as far east as Tokyo itself and could result in ash falls as far as the US West Coast.

On a more localized scale, Sakurajima east of Kagoshima is a threat to the city, as we saw from the last major eruption exactly 100 years ago. This is why no one is allowed on the slopes of Sakurajima, since a major eruption could happen at any time.

5 ( +4 / -0 )

Oh no, we might all die sometime in the next 100,000 years! Maybe!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The key word is could.. Move along nothing of any real news here, just pure speculation...

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Please God no! I just washed my car

7 ( +8 / -1 )

I'm surprised the article doesn't go into the global effects of such a massive eruption. Volcanic winter for decades. Mass starvation. Billions dead in Asia, mass extinctions of flora and fauna, and so on. Maybe well get that article later this week....

2 ( +2 / -0 )

surely a movie in here somewhere.....

5 ( +5 / -0 )

maybe those professors should focus more on kids, wife and family and enjoy life than spreading nonsense fear among the citizen... if it happen than its happen... car accident more likely than any volcano eruption... everyone stop driving cars tomorrow?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The art of prediction is to say " see I was right" if it happens and to say "well it is going to happen soon" if you are questioned. Predictions and prophesy are just a waiting game. Sooner or later something will come along that can be shoe horned into the picture that will fit... more or less or less or more. Just ask Nostradamus.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

i dont believe any of it. made up stories to deserte a country

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Yellowstone in the United States will pop before Japan's next super volcano. Lesser volcanoes like Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainer in the American Pacific northwest are due sometime from now through the next century. And there are dozens more large so-called dormant mountains around the world. Something is going to pop within the next decade, wrecking a lot of modernity.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And, it could happen tomorrow!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Interesting and all that, but what can you really do? Sounds like there's nothing at all your average Joe Tanaka can do to prepare for such a possibility, or even that the government should be doing.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Kurosawa Akira touched on this in his film, Dreams. If you have a chance check it out and experience his genius and vision.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I prefer the comments to the actual article. Everyone says what my exact response as soon as i saw this article pop up a few days ago on some other website.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What the article is calling for is more funding to study the problem and find solutions. What I'm seeing in the comments here is a mass of shrugging and "I can't fix it so it can't be fixed"

If this was someone motivating for funding for Ebola research (about as likely as a mass volcanic eruption) you'd all be for it. But because it is much bigger and you don't understand you're just shrugging and denying that anything needs to be done.

Give the geologists their funding and let them work on it for 50 years and they'll find a solution.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

And Yellowstone is going to blow away the western half of the U.S. at some point...

Reality is, the line between life and death is so thin and humans are fragile, people die tragically all the time, our daily life in developed countries just creates an illusion that it will "never happen to me"

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Alarmist headlines like this beget more funding, which begets more alarmist headlines. It's an endless cycle.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

We could also all choke on mochi tomorrow. Though it won't happen.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There can be cycles of increased activity, just as there can be cycles of increased earthquake activity or periods of climate instability. All of the could have serious affects for many people . Same is true for many things. But in the end there is not much you can do about it nor the government nor anyone else. Everything that you have including life itself is at best temporary. That being the case, pay attention to all that you have, be it people or things, appreciate them, with people let the know how much they mean to you, and enjoy them fully. Live intensely and well. Seems better than sitting around worry about something that you can do nothing about.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

sounds like there in need of extra funding.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Better odds of dying while using my smartphone as I cross the str

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Glas I emigrated, than and the threat of nuclear accidents, tsunamis, North Korean missiles, a war with China and ... yeah, just glad not there anymore.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

The ash pattern depends on the jet stream flowing parallel to the islands. It doesn't always flow that way because of seasonal variation. The article didn't give a sense of size and the calderas vary in size. For example, the event in 1815 was bigger than Krakatoa but less known. However, it was the cause of the Year Without A Summer in 1816 that wreaked havoc in the Northern Hemisphere. On the other end of the scale, also in Indonesia, there was an event that almost extinguished the human race according to the genetic records about 70,000 years ago. If Yellowstone blows its top, if there are any survivors, they would be living in the Southern Hemisphere. Where I live, the ash layer would be about five feet deep.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A 10cm covering of ash might be an improvement on a lot of areas.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Could get hit by a bus too, live in fear or just live, everyone will die but not everyone lives. Some live in fear while others don't think of it. Some die a little bit each day, if you are not standing on the edge looking over then you have not really lived.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I almost lost my lunch after reading this ... Geez .... surely there must be less terrifying news to report!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

what do u mean no one is allowed up Sakurajima? I've been up there

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I've been up there

You've climbed to the top? I don't think so. You'd be toast.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yes, it could happen. And, some space rock could smash the moon to bits causing the bits to strike Earth, or Earth directly. Or, not.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Wow, these imaginary scenarios just keep getting larger and larger!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

You've climbed to the top? I don't think so. You'd be toast.

Agreed. Climbed two-thirds to the summit with a friend when we were young and crazy (20 years ago), and we barely made it down. Gas erupting from everywhere, deep gullies from the ash down to the bedrock, and occasional projectiles. I'm amazed my girlfriend at the time still agreed to marry me.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

You've climbed to the top? I don't think so. You'd be toast.

Agreed. Climbed two-thirds to the summit with a friend when we were young and crazy (20 years ago), and we barely made it down. Gas erupting from everywhere, deep gullies from the ash down to the bedrock, and occasional projectiles. I'm amazed my girlfriend at the time still agreed to marry me.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Has not the West in America, namely Yosemite have the same problem with hundreds of thousands of years of documented moving hot spots and huge calderas?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sounds like some scientist needs some extra funding and this is a good way of getting it

2 ( +2 / -0 )

anybody who gets worried from reading this is a fool, youve probably got more chance of being hit by lightning than dying from a massive volcano. no need to stress about something that is totally uncontrollable

0 ( +0 / -0 )

looks like titanic hit the rock

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Sad that the general population do not take heed and at least make an attempt to fully understand and help find ways for survival. It is bad enough trying to find ways to survive politically motivated regulations and laws taking away our hard earned yen. It tkes the entire popolation to cooperate for a nation to survive such natural disaster. It is not a laughing matter when an entire nation of millions are affected. It is no different from Ebola or even ISIS problem. The fact is Japan is the most volcanic nation in the world.

Japan is also one of the most densely populated countries in the world. So there is a need to be very concerned, if you wish to live and for your heirs to survive.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Thank you! This is now the silliest thing I have read today.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's like the earthquake in Fukushima,thousands dead And the Kobe earthquake too with thousands dead.

Those living before those tragedies would have said the same as most of the posters here.

It won't or can't happen to me! Stick around in Japan long enough and you'll get to witness how brutal nature can be here....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

“It is not an overstatement to say that a colossal volcanic eruption would leave Japan extinct as a country,”

It's not an OVERSTATEMENT that a COLOSSAL volcanic eruption could destroy most of the U.S.A. (Yellowstone caldera), or the Hawaiian Islands, or large portions of South America, or the ice above the Arctic Basin, or Iceland (Bardarbunga), or many other areas around the world. But it would take a colossal eruption to do so.

Are colossal eruptions possible? Yes they are. Will such colossal eruptions actually take place? Who knows. Is there anything that mankind can do stop any volcanic eruption? No, there isn't. Should I worry about a colossal eruption taking place tomorrow, or next year, or 20 years from now? No.

Kobe University earth sciences professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and associate professor Keiko Suzuki say a colossal volcanic eruption is POSSIBLE sometime in the future. Thanks for the info Tatsumi and Suzuki. Now I have an incentive to finish building my TARDIS.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Where would the Japanese people flee to, if this was to happen and they need to evacuate?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Colossal volcanic eruption could destroy Japan: study

Colossal tsunami could destroy Japan: study

Colossal meteor could destroy Japan and the world: study

Colossal alien invasion could destroy Japan: study

Colossal angry dinosaur could destroy Japan: study

In the realm of what-ifs and fantasy anything can and will destroy anything else.

But, in the world that we live in there is nothing much we can do against the force of nature. Sure, we could throw more money into a pit so scientists can continue to tell us that the end is near. But that won't give us an answer. It will just get you into the poorhouse.

These guys are almost as bad as religious fanatics.

The new research comes weeks after Mount Ontake erupted without warning-killing 57 people and leaving at least six others missing in the country's deadliest volcanic eruption in almost 90 years.

And since it's fresh in their minds why not come out with a research like this? Great time to try and scare folks into throwing money at you in the form of grants.

It's always about the money. No matter if it's a religious zealot telling folks that if they don't give him/her money the world will end or a professor making a doomsday prediction.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/asteroid-will-destroy-world-next-week-says-televangelist-pat-robertson-1446276

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/437733/The-end-of-the-world-IS-nigh-Huge-asteroid-will-hit-earth-in-2032-claim-astronomers

Best way to get money is to scare it out of people.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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