If Yellowstone Blows

Pfft. I wouldn't describe that as such.

Mm. I suppose we could hope that China and India would be too preoccupied with their own issues to do anything overly aggressive right away. Then again, upwards of 80% of the US would be dead, so I guess it wouldn't be our problem to start with.

Would the US fleet calmly accept being undersupplied and underfed? Or would some of the fleet go rogue and becomes the best armed pirates/mercenaries in the post-yellowstone world.

Let's not forget the number of US nuclear equipped subs roaming around the world that would no longer be supplied.

edited 13th Feb '12 10:10:13 PM by nightwyrm_zero

Well...up beat news?

It probably won't kill the human race and after the ash falls and world stabalized, the USA is may end up being farmer heaven or a mineral rich paradise just waiting to be resettled.

It will be just like the Wild West, Gold/Dirt Rush! An exciting time full of action, adventure and international intruge for the New Final Frontier!

Yeeehaw!

edited 13th Feb '12 10:09:45 PM by Natasel

Considering that we are talking about a world crisis, it is also entirely possible that the Chinese would just let the American vessels go to Australia unmolested. Because they deserve to go somewhere, and at least in Australia they're not really China's mouths to feed. Hell, out in the ocean all ships will probably be cut off from communication temporarily, and they'll be more likely to trade information in the hopes the other guy knows something.

Wouldn't surprise me. But they wouldn't be able to sustain it for very long if they tried. Where would they obtain all the high-grade ammunition and fuel for those fancy jet fighters and cannons, missile launchers, etc.?

Our navy is just a fancy set of decorations without the logistics to support it.

As to the idea of this post-eruption US as a farmer's paradise, yeah... maybe in a few thousand years.

In the immediate aftermath, and the foreseeable future afterward, it would be more like a godforsaken wasteland.

I'd love to see an example of a country starting a war when there are riots in their streets (I can see people going "it's the end of the world!" and running around looting stuff, when the ash clouds cover the entire sky), and expectations of food problems in the future. I'd like to see a country sending its armies overseas for war when it most probably needs them to maintain law and order within its borders.

You probably won't need to hope. They WILL be. And remember, they have the largest population, and thus LOTS of mouths to feed with dwindling food supplies.

edited 13th Feb '12 10:14:08 PM by IraTheSquire

Expecting anyone to immediately wage war in this situation is kind of stupid. Because the first thing the governments are going to want to do is figure out what the fuck just happened. War, believe it or not, will not actually be the first thing on most people's minds. Hell, for a little while most of them won't even know what their military strength is.

There were riots in the streets during the US Civil War. You know what you do at that point? You draft a bunch of guys, pay them properly (for once), and then put down the riot via martial law rules (i.e. "open fire"). Such is how it always goes.

As for sending armies overseas, that's unlikely. Then again, there wouldn't be anything left to take over in the Western Hemisphere anyhow.

Exactly my point, and so China will probably be doing that and NOT sending her troops to Australia.

We don't know when Yellowstone is going to explode. We do know, however, that it will. And that nothing we hold to be true today will be true in that explosion's aftermath. We can pretty much guarantee that if there is any way to further mess up the situation, it will no doubt be found. Those left alive after the aftermath of that mess up will envy the dead of Yellowstone.

The Toba super-eruption roughly 70000 years ago reduced the population of the entire planet to 15000 people. Every male that is alive today is the descendant of one of those survivors. Yellowstone may be even worse in its long term effects, and what those effects cause the survivors to do to each other.

I thought that Toba eruption thing is still being disputed. And also, our ancestors didn't have the tech available today, let alone whatever it will become in the future.

edited 13th Feb '12 10:18:10 PM by IraTheSquire

This is why I think the fleets will turned to piracy. Would many nations agree to supply the remainder of the US fleets when they need the food, fuel and ammo for their own people/military? How long before the fleets resort to taking the things they need by force. The fleets won't be hitting ships for money or ransom like today's pirates, they'll be hitting cities and major ports for supplies.

Who knows, by the time Yellowstone erupts, we might all be on Mars...

They wouldn't last long, methinks.

Even with naval superiority, they won't just have the troops on hand to do this. The US Military as a whole is quite intimidating, yes, but the Navy doesn't just carry whole armies around with it outside of times of war, and with the US basically gone they aren't picking up any troops...

The higher level your technology is, the further and harder your fall will be if that technology goes down the toilet. Our ancestors were better at survival than we are. Taking on mammoths with spears during the Ice Age would tend to prove that.

And if you want to ignore the genetic bottleneck caused by the Toba eruption event that scientists in that field have found overwhelming evidence for, go ahead, I won't stop you.

Because there's no way Australia could benefit from having highly trained men and women in its service. Nope, no way at all.

Yeah, see, this is the fucking US Navy we're talking about. Countries would benefit from having those crews that manage to survive in their service. Especially if they have the ability to arm them. Which is pretty much what they'd end up doing. Going to Australia is like the emergency plan. Putting themselves in Australia's service is what happens when they realize they can't go home, but still have skills that are useful for Australia's purposes. You're talking about piracy like it's the only option they'll consider, when that pretty much goes against what our navy is trained for.

I would think they'd sooner align by default with some other member of NATO. Possibly Britain, at least until substantial reconstruction is done on the US.

edited 13th Feb '12 10:28:47 PM by Balmung

Yes, but soldiers tend to go against their training when put in situations where the chain of command loses its binding.

After all, we don't train soldiers to think that raping, murdering, and pillaging civilians is acceptable. We don't train soldiers to think that torturing people in POW prisons is acceptable. But that all happens anyway.

Here's the thing: You still have at least CVBG level remaining chain of command, and these are ships at sea lead by officers, not security guards in a prison. There's enough people still who will still be following protocol to keep order. Odds are, the course of action would be similar to whatever they'd do in the event of the nuclear annihilation of the continental United States, sans retaliation. Which is to say, they'd probably go wherever they would if the US just got turned into a radioactive parking lot, but they were still afloat.

edited 13th Feb '12 10:33:55 PM by Balmung

Because no ship crews have ever mutinied before.

I honestly think it would be a disaster. Not on every ship, of course. But even the lightest-weight American warships would make all kinds of trouble for awhile.

Also, as I understand it, the way the cloud would go would mean that Britain would likely be in no state to take these ships... nor any other country in Europe, save maybe Russia, which is hardly the first choice, I'd think...

Balmung, I think the general consensus is that Britain is fucked in a few days because of the wind from Yellowstone blowing in that direction. Plus, for the guys in the Pacific Ocean, Australia is a much closer place to gather and get in contact with other American survivors.

I still say piracy is not going to be the first or even eventual option. They convene in Australia, or wherever is safest, eventually figure out that America is a lost cause. Given basic command structure, the first thing they're going to do is determine what parts of the command structure is left. Why wouldn't Australia want them around in this new and potentially dangerous scenario? It's more practical to hire them, so to speak (give them asylum or refuge or whatever term fits best in this doomsday situation) than to turn them away and create a potential problem.

Everyone is talking like piracy will be the first and only option taken by the Navy, and that somehow it will be taken by the Navy as a whole. I don't find that a practical or likely outcome.

And of course those officers are still people. People who've also been trained to take care of their ship/crew. How might they respond to former allies who might now refuses to supply them.

This is of course pure speculations. I'm not trying to make the US navy out to be a bunch of pirates-in-waiting, but desperate people can do desperate things.

Fallout from Yellowstone would obliterate Britain, and much of the rest of Europe along with it. You may remember that two-part drama documentary a few years ago dealing with a Yellowstone=boom! scenario? That they came up with the notion that the magma chamber wouldn't completely empty and dump every last bit of pyroclastic flow, heat, sulphuric acid and massive rocks out into the atmosphere? Trust me, we will not be that lucky.

The makers of the show only came up with that scenario to have the dramatic helicopter flight at the end of the second part of the story. To give hope to the watching audience. Not out of any belief that there would be anyone left from America (or speaking English as a main language) to crew any choppers.

And who knows what ripple effects such a massive volcanic eruption would cause in the other geologically active areas in North America?

edited 13th Feb '12 10:37:42 PM by TamH70

As someone mentioned, we might be on Mars by the time Yellowstone erupts. Can't see how Yellowstone will just wipe out our tech.

And as I was speaking only according to wikipedia, and given the following:

I won't say that the evidence is entirely overwhelming.

edited 13th Feb '12 10:43:29 PM by IraTheSquire

I would also wonder at Isreal's possible actions at the loss of their US ally. Would they over-react due to the perception that they're alone among a bunch of hostile neighbours and start a mid-east war.