[Spoiler] Let's Talk - Natural and Cosmic Doom!

[Syf]

Hello everyone,

Welcome to "Let's Talk". Today we introduce the new chat threads by me, Syf, called "Let's talk". These threads are not true "debate" threads, but in some sense, are debates. The main goal of these threads will be to allow people to express their thoughts on the matter, be it fact or not so much so.

First, let me lay out the simple rules -

[fieldset="let's talk general rules"]

Rule 1.) Feel free to express your thoughts on the subject without fear of being attacked... however,

Rule 2.) Do not post in a hateful, demeaning, harmful, hurtful, or otherwise offensive context. No saying "Liar" or "Your full of ****... or posting anything that is intended hurt or damage anyone or the topic of the "Let's Talk" thread. If you do, It will be erased from the thread and you as the "Bad poster" will face the Admin... Me.

Rule 3.) This is not a Debate, so do not tell someone they are wrong. If you want to post in reply because what you see is "not true" or "different then what you think", then do so in a positive, friendly manner. We are not here to prove what we know, but to "share" our thoughts on the matter. While someone might want to say something like "That's crazy, how can you think that way..." etc, I will expect a more polite response such as "not to contradict you, but there is this way to view it..." or something "as nice".

Rule 4.) If you can't say it nice, don't post it at all!

[/fieldset]



Today, on Let's Talk, we discuss the recent activities of Natural and Cosmic relevence relating to Volcanoes, Fissures, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, sever Weather, Asteriods, and other Solar activities that can effect our lives and even spell doom for our planet. The focus is on recent events Such as the Iceland Volcano eruption and earthquakes that have been happening around the "Ring of fire" and generally all over the world. And finally, to add to the mix, we will include 2012: the seemingly crazy and / or scary predictions centered around it.

In the last few months, We have seen a lot of earthquakes hitting along the Pacific rim of the Americas, as well as other places, such as Haiti and last week, even a nasty one hit China. To add to the mix, there is the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano that has shown us once more that a "small" volcano is still a force of nature not to be taken lightly. Impressive and at the same time, makes one think about such things, including things directly related and of similar threat to our lives as we know them.

Just last week, we had a small asteroid zip "very" close by. Considering how big the universe is, any rock that passes by Earth closer than 1 million miles or kilometers is like a bullet grazing past one's head, touching the hair as it races by. A near miss in a huge game of soccer. The ball bounced off the poles that make the goal's structure in which the net is tethered to.

Now with "All" these things happening, and more so seemingly more frequently in "our lifetimes" than any other point in mankind's past, one can't help but wonder...

Sure, 2012 is likely to be nothing more than "Just another year", but in times like this, I know I can't help but ponder "what if there is something to the 2012 doomsday predictions". I myself ponder what I might be able to do to survive.

I am in the central part of North America and so Hurricanes, typhoons, Tsunamis, etc have little affect on my location. However, I live in "Tornado Alley", home of the highest number of tornadoes in all the globe... And, to top it off, I live a short distance from the New Madrid (within the "damage zone") as well as relatively near the Valles Caldera Supervolcano and I am subject to a Yellowstone Supervolcano Eruption event as well given my location. But honestly, I know it's not "just me" We all live like this, with an axe hanging over our heads as far as all this goes. We all either live on or near a fault line, coast line, volcano, flood zone, etc. And thus, I am sure we all have "thought" about it. What it would mean for each of us, what we'd have to do to survive, and the loved ones we'd most likely lose in such chaos.

So, let's kick this off with "What" is likely to impact you where you live. On a small or Local event, as well as bigger event (like Yellowstone blowing, sending the entire planet into a "dark age". Later in the thread we can chat about what we can do to survive such events.

 

[thunderfoot]

What a neat thread idea! Might be hard for some to do, though. Like me, lol. I tend to post first and then think.

I live right on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Hurricanes are a reality. Surviving them is a drill which I have known and done all my life.

- Water for drinking, or at least some way of purifying the water available. Enough to last about 21 days.

- A similar amount of foodstuffs. As much as I hate MRE's, they will serve. I just have to survive long enough for normalcy to begin to return.

- Medicine and first aid supplies. Surprising how many people do not stock small things like aspirin and the like.

- Fuel for essentials. Such as chainsaws. Additional fuel to have something valuable to barter with.

- Firearms. *Sighs* Wish I did not have to have these. But I'd rather be uncomfortable about having them than be robbed or worse by not having them. The last hurricane caused society around here to subside to a very low level. There were a great many not nice people running about just taking whatever they wanted from whomever they wanted. My neighbors and I noticed we were quickly left alone by looters and such when it was obvious we would defend ourselves. As shocking as this sounds, it did indeed happen. Now if someone needed help and we could provide it, we would do so without hesitation. But we refused to be taken advantage of by lawlessness.

One of the things people forget in a situation such as this, and we've all faced one, is you have to tend to yourself before you can help others. It sounds a little cold blooded but it is the truth. Anyone who does not have the necessities for themselves is usually in a position where they cannot offer any help to anyone else.

 

[Borg_Queen]

Well, let's list what natural disaster can happen in or affect my country:

As recent events prove; Volcanic ash clouds and ash rain thanks to nearby volcano. Norway even happens to have a volcano themselves, though it's on Jan Mayan, not the main country. This does also have a global effect.

Meteor impacts as well could happen here and is also global.

Any super eruption from any super volcanoes are also global and understandable will affect this country as well.

And yet another global/cosmic natural event; Solar storms, they can shut down all electricity and such.

More local stuff; My country has each year several avalanches, whether it being of snow, rock, dirt, etc. The snow avalanches happens mostly at early spring. Though as I don't live near any mountains, none of them will affect me directly unless it's under a vacation near one of those mountains or any family/friends that is there then it happens.

Each year Norway also have floods, usually during the spring thanks to high melting of snow. I live abit above ground, but to get to the city I need to get to the lower grounds, and it has happened that the city has been over flooded.

Norway has tornadoes as well which comes each year, usually during late July/early August. We don't hear so much of them though, due to that they most of the time strike unpopulated areas. Also a note; most of them are weak and even some of them are water spouts.

Norway do have earth quakes as well, but not thanks to fault lines. Norway's earth quakes are caused by that the country is still rising from the last ice age.

Hurricanes strike Norway each year, usually around New Year. This polar Hurricanes are being said to be equally powerful as the tropical ones. And one year, the Hurricane Frode that struck Northern Norway, was said to be as powerful as Hurricane Andrew in 1992 were. At that time I lived near Bodø on the West-Northern coast of Norway, so I experienced Hurricane Frode. Though I was at the outer edges of it. Now, there I live in Tnsberg, there is not that big chance for Hurricanes affecting right there I live, but there still is a small chance as I live by the coast.

Tsunamis are always something that can strike Norway due to Norway being a country with a shoreline, a big shoreline as well. And since Norway isn't so far away from volcanoes as well as an under water drop that has had landslide in the past and caused Tsunamis as a result, Norway indeed has a noticeable risk of being struck by Tsunamis, again.

And then we have blizzards each winter. And sometimes even ice storms.

And during summers we tend to have heat waves.

I think I got them all now.

 

[Syf]

Well being in your location TF, I am sure you also would be effected by the New Madrid fault as well such events as our supervolcanoes going all doomsday on us. Hurricanes for you are like tornadoes for me. Someone says one's coming, we look outside to see if it really is. That, and Hurricanes spawn Twisters as well as floods. Ever think of moving to higher ground?

I do agree. Almost everyone in the US seems to have the mindset that "nothing" will ever happen to them... And to make it worse, is yeah, they have most likely been effected by a natural disaster at least once already in their life time.

Let's see, In my life time, I have been effected by Ice storms, Blizzards, Earthquakes (I used to live in California), Floods, Power outages, Water system failures, and of course, I have litterally watched Twisters go right by me (once within the outer rim of the debris cloud of the funnel).

 

[ISS_Enterprise_D]

I'm out on the East Coast of the states, so I'm vulnerable for tsunami's from some God-forsaken earthquake way-off in the Atlantic =_=

A severe thunderstorm that passed by not terribly long ago has me positive that should it start raining past cats and dogs and well into raining men (Hallelujah! ), I'm done for.

Since mountain ranges tend to fend off tornado or severe hurricane activity, I'm not terribly worried about that happening, although as I remember when my brother was born back in '99, we were experiencing the outskirts of a hurricane when we ran to the car to head home

 

[Ryderstorm]

Nice Idea for a thread. I will add to it.

I live in Wellington, Ohio....which is allmost a part of the north east of the usa but not really. Basicly if you know where cleveland is look about 1 hour wsw of cleveland. Anyways we are about 20 miles inland from lake erie which presents numerous weather phenomenas which can be very agravating at times. We are prone from everything from tornados, ice storms, blizzards, and floods. In fact winter here can be interesting as I can have 16 inches of snow fall overnight but 10 miles in any direction might get less than 3 on same night and vice versa.

I can remembere having to deal with several tornados as well. I can think of 3 that have touched down within a half a mile of my parents place in the last 15years.

One thing I think a lot of people take for granted or do not think of about is infrastructure. Not just civil infrastructure but personal infrastructure as well.
Where I live we usually are plowed out within a day if there is major snowfall but many other places are not dug our for days and days it seems.

Its kinda ironic when I myself can get into the Elyria, Ohio (the city I work in) but the residents of that city cant even get out of their own driveways when we both have the same conditions. The civil infrastucture of Elyria is..a very lacking compared to Wellington, and well Elyria's personal infrastructure policy seems to be everyone for themselves.

Let me just bring up what I think is "personal infrastructure".

To me that is where you have good relations with the local community. You might have say a fire plan set where if say your house is burning you can go next door to your neighboors radther than stand out in the cold waiting for the fire dept to tell you your house is gone. Or say your kids get off the bus and see something amiss that they can just go to someone elses house where they will be safe until help can respond.

To me civil infrastructure does not just mean roads, bridges, and utilities but also the civil services such as Fire, Police, City engineers, etc....

I know enough to provide for myself as in to keep canned goods stocked, safe water stocked etc....But I also know that wellingtons civil and personal infrastructure far exceeds that of Elyria's.

So basicly I guess my point is....

Know the area, Know the people, Know who you can depend on besides yourself if any.

Now I admit after seeing 2012 the movie and seeing what is happening around the world recently it is not a large stretch of the mind to put the movie with real life. However, not to bring up religion but a certain parts of the holy books of certain religions as well as certain prophets from long ago forcasted allmsot all the events that have happened to date. So is it time to panic?

I will answer that with something I heard Ron White say.

You have 2 threat levels.
Level One: Get your army helemt.
Level Two: Put your army helemt on.

Im at level one right now...

I dont mean that to be as much a joke as it is. But....someday something is gonna happen and at least being at level one your allready prepared to put your helmet on cuz you have it. You can switch to level two quite easily if you maintain level one.

So to coin a phrase.....Be Prepared!!

Ok my rantings and ravings have gone on far to long.....I apologize now to anyone that read this up to here.

Good day!!

 

[CABAL]

Let's see... We have Mt. St. Helens which completely destroyed most of its north face when it last blew. People had to dig their cars out of the ash. It's had some activity in the last couple of years, but it looks like it's just rebuilding the peak for now. Despite being near the west coast, and therefor away from most ocean related things like hurricanes, we have tsunami warning signs all along the shore. A tornado touched down here for the first time in decades a little over a year ago, I think. I may have the timing wrong. It scared the **** out of everybody here.

 

[thunderfoot]

...Ever think of moving to higher ground?...

No. I have not. This is my home and I love it very much. Besides, higher ground just means it will be easier for a tornado or lightning bolt to pick me off. I'm not going that easily.

 

[Syf]

Indeed, I understand the sentiment of not wanting to leave the place you call home. It's part of what makes us what we are.

Yeah, there are a lot of things happening that they "said" couldn't happen. But as usual, what we think we know usually turns out wrong or incomplete. Things have a habit of proving the impossible is instead unlikely, but will eventually happen.

And even though the movie 2012 went all "Hollywood" on us, it did show in some extent what the ultimate instance of "proving what we thought we knew wrong" would be. And to be honest, there are actual theories that support almost everything in the movie. But the problem is, unless we see it happen, it is just a theory. And that's on everything. There are even theories that are complete opposites of what is "generally accepted". But until something happens, all the theories are just that and nothing more.

Now, the question is, if 2012's "planetary shift" were to really happen, how could we as a species survive. And more importantly, where are the most survivable locations for those without a super secret boat. Sorry to say, I don't see all the governments of the world actually working together to save as many of the "elite" as possible. While the technology of those boats were possible with modern tech, don't count on them being built by China so Americans and Europeans can save themselves. And to top it off, most of use here are likely to be excluded from such even if they were built.

I've been thinking... On that line of thought, the Mountains within the continents would be relatively safe places. But for starters, there would be a need for facilities to be built into the mountains well above normal sea levels that 1) are built on the sides of mountains that is away from the oceans. 2) Are built to be able to be sealed for at least a few months (or better, upwards of 20 years). 3) Have several access points that can be sealed in, and seal out from the main facility. This way it prevents breachs in the facility by such things as volcanic ash as well as water from the giant Tsunami. Once the worst part of the event is over, then people can then go out and set up a new life.

One flaw the movie overlooked was the fallout of all the Supervolcanoes erupting would send the planet into an iceage. Even though it only shows yellowstone erupting, it is safe to say that if one supervolcanoe was triggared by such a major event, it would set off all 6 of the current known supervolcanoes, as well as upward of 10 more we don't really know they are supervolcanoes. And that don't count the rest of the volcanoes or fissures that would have erupted as well. At the end of the movie we see them sailing into a nice clear sunset... I think we can safely say there would be no visible sunset for many years.

No need to apologize for your posts. I understand there are a lot of things that "predict" the end of the world or events to come. Most of those are through the Bible, Qur'an, Nostradamus, Egyptian and Baylonian texts/hieroglyphs, Mayan Calander, etc. We are not debating the religions, faiths, belief, or views nor the context there of. I think we can safely speak about the "predictions" without trying to say who or what is right or wrong. 1) this thread is being run by and directly is monitored by an Admin (which out of all BANS by an admin, has the highest number of bans under his belt), me. 2.) We are talking about such events "If" and "When they happen" and how to possibly survive and the effects on our lives and such. 3) We will be civil about it.

One thing about predictions of the future... If the future is known, we can change it. Maybe not stop it, but we have been given a chance to do something about it. Heck, if we know the earth was going to become un-usable, we do have the tech we could survive, even if it means pushing the level of tech to create a moon base or Mars colony.

 

[dinosaurJR]

No. I have not. This is my home and I love it very much. Besides, higher ground just means it will be easier for a tornado or lightning bolt to pick me off. I'm not going that easily.

LOL - I get the feeling that it would take more than a couple of thousand volts or a puny twister to finish off a tough southern gentleman like yourself, huh? All those foreign johnnies you came up against in the Abrams couldnt do it, so I doubt some good old southern weather would even dent you...

Im pretty much in the same boat as BQ - I live in Torshov, pretty much on the northern edge of central Oslo, Norway. (About 2 hours away from Tønsberg by car)

Geologically, Norway is very stable - apart from the after effects (rebounding) of the last ice age, as BQ said - so no earthquakes to worry about as such... Scandinavia has the oldest rocks in Europe (check out the Baltic Shield - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
So tectonics aint an issue...

As for volcanoes - Island has more than enough for everybody... and they are kinda next door - but the biggest issue just now i that the ash is causing cloud cover and lowering the mean ambient temperature (it was 0 Celsius in Oslo yesterday, and we had a little snow - probably due to the volcanic ash "seeding" the clouds over northern Europe )

As for weather - well in the summer it gets hot - real hot (we had 37 Celsius last summer) and in the late summer you get thunder storms. Big ones. Although I think there was only one documented case of death by lightning in '09 in Oslo... In the winter, it gets cold - real cold, -20 Celsius is not unheard of in Oslo (this is a fairly big city, remember, with all the temperature modifying effects - High density of buildings, traffic etc...) but again, the biggest threat is from Avalanches - caused by the weakening of the snow as it begins to melt towards the end of winter...

so - Norway seems to be fairly stable...

I often wonder what would happen during a zombie apocalypse though...

 

[thunderfoot]

...Yeah, there are a lot of things happening that they "said" couldn't happen. But as usual, what we think we know usually turns out wrong or incomplete. Things have a habit of proving the impossible is instead unlikely, but will eventually happen.

Just goes to show all of us just how very far we have left to go in truly understanding our planet. We have a saying around here, "You wanna make God laugh out out loud? Tell him what you have planned for yourself."

LOL - I get the feeling that it would take more than a couple of thousand volts or a puny twister to finish off a tough southern gentleman like yourself, huh? All those foreign johnnies you came up against in the Abrams couldnt do it, so I doubt some good old southern weather would even dent you...

Actually, I am a big creampuff. I'm scared of spiders...

I often wonder what would happen during a zombie apocalypse though...

Awhiles back, you asked what I was smoking and why I was not sharing. I suppose this could now be asked of you? As to what happens during the Zombie Apocalypse, it is called American Idol.

 

[dinosaurJR]

I hate spiders too... borderline arachnophobic... Even the tiny little ones...
a Zombie spider apocalypse... *shudders*

As for impact events - I dont even want to think about that... Isnt there a theory that the impact crater from the collision that wiped out the Dinosaurs is now known as the Caribbean Sea? Imagine the devastation...

Might be needed to kill the Zombies, though, and the Spiders, and the Zombie spiders...

 

[Amateur]

Just to get in on this (and I don't mean the zombie spider thingies )


From what I can tell I'm in a stable position. Well, as far as stable goes. The Home Counties here in the UK don't border the sea, and the actual area I live in is as flat as a pancake that's been run over by a steamroller on a heavy gravity planet...

We can have thunderstorms and such, but I've never heard of anyone being hit by lightning around here. There have been a few tornado cases in recent years, but that's normally up near Birmingham and such (where, to the dismay of all, it actually knocked tiles off the roof!). So as far as locations go I think this one seems pretty safe. At least, it does for now...

Obviously there's thing that will effect me. A massive asteroid is bound to do something to us here nestled around London; same as a very big volcano.

My Philosophy has always been to just sort of take it easy and not stress about things beyond my control, otherwise chances are I'd go crazy trying to build some sort of waterproof fallout shelter that doubles as an arc...

So, yeah - I'm not entirely worried. I do feel bad about the loss of life around the world, but at the same time I think the most calamitous thing in my future's the election