THE YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO

The NYT had an article on this which caught my eye, but I like this National Geographic article, too.

The bad news is that if this one goes off, with the prevailing winds, it could bury the Great Plains, the Midwest and the eastern U.S. in several feet of ash. It might also bring on a volcanic winter. Between 1812 and 1815, five major volcanoes in the southwest Pacific region went off, culminating in the explosive eruption of Mount Tambora in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). The eruption itself probably killed 80,000 to 100,000 people. But the effect on the climate was more dramatic. People called 1816 "the year without a summer." At least hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation or the diseases of malnutrition. Millions of head of livestock (and perhaps game animals as well) starved to death because the natural fodder did not grow that year. In Europe in some places, people who were starving made human wave assaults on soldiers guarding warehouses.

That's the bad news. The good news is . . . uhm . . . I don't think there is any good news if that sucker blows.