How will the world end? (Serious discussion please.)

[OvSeth]

I've made alot of useless/stupid threads in the past, but this one is really bugging me. According to many, many sources, the world (or part of the population of the world) will end/die in the next 8-10 years.

My biggest concern is the super volcano: Yellowstone. The closest thing I could find that describes what it would do if it erupted is this.
The ash would block the sun, and would probably crush us. All of this would cause famine, cannibalism, etc.

Just like Old Faithful, you can expect me to erupt in evenly spaced cycles, which for me is every 600,000 years. It has been 640,000 years since my last eruption... I'm way overdue.

Immediately before I erupt, there will be large earthquakes in the Northwestern US. The ground will swell, with most of the area being uplifted. One earthquake will finally break the layer of rock that holds the magma in, and all the pressure the Earth can build up in 640,000 years will be unleashed in a cataclysmic event.

Magma will be flung more than 50 kilometres into the atmosphere. Within a thousand kilometres virtually all life will be killed by falling ash, lava flows and the sheer explosive force of the eruption. Volcanic ash will cover places thousands of miles away. One thousand cubic kilometres of lava will pour out of the volcano itself, enough to coat the whole of the USA with a layer a few inches thick. The explosion will have a force 1000-2500 times that of Mount St. Helens. It will be the loudest noise heard by man for more than 75,000 years, the time of the last super volcano eruption in Toba, Indonesia.

The long-term effects would be even more devastating. The thousands of cubic kilometres of ash that would shoot into the atmosphere could block out light from the sun, making global temperatures fall dramatically. This is called a nuclear winter. As during the Toba eruption, a large percentage of the world's plant life would be killed by the ash and severe drop in temperature. Effects world wide would cause massive food shortages. If the temperatures decline by the 21 degrees they did after the Sumatra eruption the Yellowstone super volcano eruption could truly be an extinction level event.

According to the Toba catastrophe theory, modern human evolution was affected by a recent, large volcanic event. The theory was proposed by Stanley H. Ambrose of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Knowledge of human prehistory is largely theoretical, based in fossil, archeological, and genetic evidence. Within the last three to five million years, after human and other ape lineages diverged from the hominid stem-line, the human line produced a variety of human species. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, a massive volcanic eruption changed the course of human history by severely reducing the human population.

Around 70,000–75,000 years ago the Toba caldera in Indonesia erupted with a force three thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens. According to Ambrose, this led to a decrease in average global temperatures by 3 to 3.5 degrees Celsius for several years. This massive environmental change is believed to have created population bottlenecks in the various human species that existed at the time; this in turn accelerated differentiation of the isolated human populations, eventually leading to the end of all the other human species except for the branch that became modern humans.

Some geological evidence and computed models support the plausibility of the Toba catastrophe theory, and genetic evidence suggests that all humans alive today, despite their apparent variety, are descended from a very small population, perhaps around 1,000 individuals. Using the average rates of genetic mutation, some geneticists have estimated that this population lived at a time coinciding with the Toba event.

My second concern is (though I can't really say I totally believe in it) is the predictions of John Titor, the "Man from the Future".
For thoses who don't know who he is, you can check here and here.

What are your memories of 2036?
I remember 2036 very clearly. It is difficult to describe 2036 in detail without spending a great deal of time explaining why things are so different.

In 2036, I live in central Florida with my family and I'm currently stationed at an Army base in Tampa. A world war in 2015 killed nearly three billion people. The people that survived grew closer together. Life is centered on the family and then the community. I cannot imagine living even a few hundred miles away from my parents.

There is no large industrial complex creating masses of useless food and recreational items. Food and livestock is grown and sold locally. People spend much more time reading and talking together face to face. Religion is taken seriously and everyone can multiply and divide in their heads.

How is our worldline different from this one?
For starters, the fact that I'm here makes it different. I've also noticed little things like news events that happen at different times, football games won by other teams, things like that.

I would guess the temporal divergence between this world line and my original is about 1 or 2 percent. Of course, the longer I am here, the larger that divergence becomes from my point of view.

With the world's situation at the moment, theres something that's bound to happen. Third world war (nuclear), volcano, asteroid.. you name it!

How do YOU think it will end.

By the way, as the title stated, I'd like this thread to remain serious (of course, funny stuff and jokes are cool, but completely deriving off-topic wouldn't be appreciated)

 

[Undefined]

A full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone caldera could result in millions of deaths locally and catastrophic climatic effects globally, but there is little indication that such an eruption is imminent. [1] However, the system is not yet completely understood, and the study of Yellowstone is ongoing. Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which averages +/- 1.5 cm yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure. [citation needed] Major eruptions of the Yellowstone hotspot appear to occur roughly every 700 thousand years. The last major eruption was 630 thousand years ago, the so-called Lava Creek Tuff eruption.

The facts seems to be off, we need someone who knows for certain to settle this.

Besides, why dwell on this?

 

[Conti]

eipc troll is epic.

 

[OvSeth]

The facts seems to be off, we need someone who knows for certain to settle this.

Besides, why dwell on this?

Because I found the topic interesting. I'm not dwelling by the way, just asking opinions.

 

[Anonymous]

It ended the day the music died.

 

[Altitudes]

Nuclear Bomb or Global Warming

Man, this shit is depressing

 

[Leandro]

The world will most likely end in one of the following scenarios:
1) Swallowed when the sun enters red giant stage. However, the increased strength of the solar winds might push the earth to a safer orbit.
2) If gravity turns out to be more powerful than the force which promotes expansion of the universe, it could crunch back into a single point with all the matter of the universe again.
3) Ripped apart if the expansion of the universe is accelerating(as it many scientists think it is) and so the dark energy wins, and the gravitational force that holds the planet together would simple be overpowered.
4) If neither of those happen(as it could also be, depending on which model we have about the expansion of the universe is right), then essentially we could wait until all particles that make up the earth to decay. It would take an INSURMOUNTABLE amount of time(about 10^100 years I think, but I'm not sure), but this is something we can be pretty much be sure about.


About the humanity, I don't know...and I don't care.

Peace

 

[Muffin]

The world will most likely end in one of the following scenarios:
1) Swallowed when the sun enters red giant stage. However, the increased strength of the solar winds might push the earth to a safer orbit.
2) If gravity turns out to be more powerful than the force which promotes expansion of the universe, it could crunch back into a single point with all the matter of the universe again.
3) Ripped apart if the expansion of the universe is accelerating(as it many scientists think it is) and so the dark energy wins, and the gravitational force that holds the planet together would simple be overpowered.
4) If neither of those happen(as it could also be, depending on which model we have about the expansion of the universe is right), then essentially we could wait until all particles that make up the earth to decay. It would take an INSURMOUNTABLE amount of time(about 10^100 years I think, but I'm not sure), but this is something we can be pretty much be sure about.


About the humanity, I don't know...and I don't care.

Peace

You forgot about the andromeda galaxy thats on collision course with the milky way!

it would be SO fucking epic to watch taht

 

[Altitudes]

Apparently I will die of boredom

How will I die?

 

[Undefined]

 

[Altitudes]

Good way to go!

 

[Muffin]

How will I die?
Your Result: You will die in a nuclear holocaust.


The country responsible will be an unexpected one. I hope that you will be close to the epicenter of the explosion. Radiation is terrible. Your death, however, will always be remembered.

wtf?

 

[Conti]

wtf?

that shit is out to get you.

 

[Conti]

well actually nevermind that would mean its a faster death right?

 

[Muffin]

i dont know?

I'm actually at a loss if i want faster or slower death. Slower death means i get time to think over and cherish some of my memories. OR the time for an epic scream. Whichever.

 

[Altitudes]

well actually nevermind that would mean its a faster death right?

I'd still rather die while nutting on chick than death from a nuclear bomb any day

 

[Nikki]

I got that I would die saving someone

how fantastic.....

 

[RiderOfJustice]

How will I die?
Your Result: You will die while having sex.


Your last moments in this life will be enjoyable indeed...hopefully. Do not fear sex. Try not to become celibate as a way of escaping death. You cannot run from destiny.

hehe better to go out that way than the others.

 

[Night Reaper]

when cartman eats us all

 

[Knarfi]

1) Swallowed when the sun enters red giant stage. However, the increased strength of the solar winds might push the earth to a safer orbit.

Kinda what i thought. Also, theres a star near the earth that has a possibility to explode soon, which will create a supernova or even a hypernova, and this will pwn the earth as well.


EDIT: And also, there are alot of thing that could cause the earth to simply collapse. If that happens, every atom will lose the vacuum between the core and the atomcloud (? its where the electrons are), and that will make the earth as big as a tennisball, but still with the same weight.