Quote:
Originally Posted by countryboy73
My somewhat tongue in cheek post, identified by the emoticons attached, seems to have rattled some cages. For the record, I do not think scientists are stupid, quite the contrary. However, my point was that timing a supervolcano is a delicate thing, especially on such a long interval. Nature has been known to surprise us...
In addition, scientists and other professionals are not always right, like when the medical profession thought cutting you and draining your blood cured conditions. Humans are, well, human.
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You didn't rattle my cage. I swas simply pointing out the stupid.
Nobody is timing a volcano; the article cited was a newspaper article, not a scientific study.
You don't help yourself by doubling down and attacking the scientific method in this post too. You need to remember that it was scientists and the medical profession that ultimately discovered important things, like the true purpose of blood, the germ theory of disease, viruses, etc.
There are always going to be things that are at the limit of human knowledge, and other things that are well known and firmly established. Basic physics (addressing geo-centrism) is now thoroughly understood. Basic medicine (addressing bleeding) is also well understood, if not completely. These things are not going to radically change.
The basics of geology, plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are similarly on solid foundation. We need a lot more information to refine the discipline so that we can predict eruptions and earthquakes with accuracy. But we know enough about geology to use it to find oil and other precious minerals, to know what ground is likely to slide (if not when), how much weight certain types of rocks and solids can hold, etc.
The Nepal earthquake was predicted to be imminent in geologic terms, and sure enough, it happened.
If it were practical to do so, I would bet you that the next Yellowstone eruption happens 550,000 to 850,000 years after the last one.
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