Note to self: Proofread posts more carefully before posting. Spell check does not pick up on all errors. . .

Spell Czech -- gets ewe every thyme!

Yellowstone is one of those scenarios that makes one pause, to be sure. Sort of like a meteor collision, in that we know that it's statistically probable, but it's a topic we'd prefer to regulate to doomsdayers and filmmakers with large CGI budgets.

I personally wouldn't be too concerned about the Yellowstone Caldera going bang, but if it does then tough times are ahead for everyone.

Not being a geologist I think from what I have gathered is that a Magma flow in a volcano exhibits what are called harmonic tremors. Basically a very long duration series of earth tremors where one earthquake is pretty indistinguishable from another. (showing long period or very long wavelength frequencies coupled to the higher frequency oscillations)

Rather than look at the USGS list of earthquakes in the Yellowstone region the seismographs nearest the earthquake swarm in Yellowstone is probably a better indication of what is going on;

http://quake.utah.edu/helicorder/ymr_webi_3d.htm

Although the University of Utah doesn't believe that there are no tremors associated with volcanic magma movement (i.e. harmonic tremors) with the current Yellowstone earthquake swarm, I do believe myself that there is some evidence of limited harmonic tremors energising the the larger earthquake events (i.e M> 2.5) that might be associated with fault slippage.

The fact that there is also another current earthquake swarm here in northern California just north of San Francisco coupled with lots of activity in in the Mexicali volcanic activity region and the recent 5.9 earthquake of the coast of California yesterday (near Eureka again) doesn't do much for confidence either. Certainly seems like something is brewing in this part of the world on the ring of fire.

Two years ago there was an earthquake swarm near Reno, and a few years before that, another swarm near Mammoth. Whloe lot os shakin' goin' on.

I agree, Yellowstone is a high-impact low-threat (relatively speaking) problem. You should not specifically prepare for it. You should however think about skills that would be very useful in an environment after a volcano that you might want to learn to have an edge on surviving. Things like: negotiations/persuasion/leadership (you may not be the leader, but you'll need to know where to fit in), weapons training, gardening/farming, cooking, metal working, building small structures, and the list goes on.

Use an all-hazards type of mentality, don't focus on the high-impact low-threat ( i.e. TEOTWAWKI ), but learn skills that will be valuable. If you have a degree in something that is less than 100 years old, it generally probably will not help you in something like a TEOTWAWKI event.

Yep, I put Yellowstone into the "Not much we can do about it now" category. It's really an event that you can only prepare for generally. Beyond that, I don't have access to the sort of resources I'd need to really mitigate such an event. You just hope you survive the initial blast and debris storm, and then apply general survival knowledge after the fact as best you can.

The one thing I did manage was to relocate to a place where the inital impact would hopefully be lessened. That and I do have access to some rather hardened areas here that I didn't anywhere else in CONUS. Whether I can get to them in time even locally will still be a risk.

IIRC, the Science Channel talked about the yellowstone area and it's possible role in the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and it's role in the end of mankind. Of course the same show was talking about killer asteroids and other such planet-killing, TEOTWAWKI phenomena. not much you can do to prepare for those things other than what Ben said. Increase your skill base, knowledge base, library, etc, hope you survive the initial blast and do your best to survive.

Mark, who is considering a career change but wondering if it really matters in the shadow of the apocalypse.
*doing my best Blast imitation*