8 This is impossible

Somewhere in the office of USGS

" What did you say? Dare to say it again?"

Mike snorts towards his colleague Jeff. He was sure that Jeff was only exaggerating or maybe Jeff was too eager to prove his finding that he simply stating the obvious.

"I said, the Yellowstone super-volcano is going to erupt soon. I mean real soon."

"Hahaha... are you serious Mike? Did you mean to say that THE Yellowstone super-volcano? Say, did you read too much discussion online again?"

Jeff raised his eyebrows mockingly while looking straight at Mike in disbelief. He knows that Mike always has this obsession of proving that one day the super-volcanoes around the world will soon erupt.

"You do know right, the probability of the Yellowstone volcano to have super eruption is almost equivalent to none? Mike, the Yellowstone super-volcano at most have given out lava around 70,000 years ago, and that's it. The lava down there were not enough to cause the doomsday to earth like the people said. It is not due to erupt now nor was it going to erupt soon. Are you jumping on the bandwagon of those online discussions, giving out the prediction of when the volcanoes going to erupt?"

Mike said to Jeff cynically. He cannot believe that Jeff is still persistent in proving his theory on the Yellowstone super eruption. I mean, Jeff is a senior seismologist. His job is to analyze the data of the shift of the earth's surface and anything related to tsunamis. He is also to provide a proper mitigation plan for any incoming disasters accordingly. He is not supposed to blatantly believe in some speculation that going on on the internet, especially in his specialty of seismology.

" No, it's true Mike. I have checked and re-checked the data of it dozens of times already. There is suddenly a huge number of movement under the earth crust that is almost triple the normal amount of our yearly data from only these 2 months for this year. The data shows that something down there were wreaking havoc of all the earth's tectonic plate. All of a sudden there are multiple mild earthquake that takes place from the Yellowstone National Park area and these movements is happening also in the Pacific plates as we speak right now. Coincidentally the quakes were all nearby and along the caldera around the world."

"Hawaii's tsunami siren was already triggered a few hours ago, and from the satellite, I can see that a huge area has already been wiped clean by the tsunami. It might have been due to the earthquake down under the sea, but all of these are not co-incidence Mike. There must be something huge that is going to happen real soon."

"The seismic data that we received earlier today also recorded multiple earthquakes that are happening all around the world. The Krakatoa in Indonesia have been spewing up ashes for the past 3 weeks now, and look at this news from Indonesia. The lake Toba super-volcano also seems to be closed and off-limits to tourists ever since last December as frequent mild quakes were recorded since last year. " Jeff was panicking as he explained to Mike. His hands were busy showing Mike his data findings.

"Tell me Mike, if all of these are all coincidence? Or is this a sign? Both the Yellowstone and The Toba lake super-volcano showing an extraordinary number of quakes from these 3 months only. Can we ignore the signs or take this seriously from now on?"

Jeff tried to reason again with Mike. He has to convince him so that extensive research and more data are needed to understand the situation better. These are not a simple matter to be ignored. If these two super-volcanoes were to erupt... You are lucky if you were dead during the eruption rather than experiencing the aftereffect of the eruption.

"So, what are you saying? Do you mean that not only the Yellowstone is showing rare activity, but another super-volcano in Asia are also having signs that are going to erupt?"

Mike frowns his eyebrows and looking straight at Jeff. He finally showed some signs of he is being convinced by Jeff's data.

If it is proven that Jeff's findings are correct, then they probably have at most a year to prepare for the worse.

Looking at Mike's expression, Jeff finally relaxed a bit as he looks more or less convinced of his explanations.

"Currently the Indonesian officials have raised the alert on Krakatoa volcano, but nothing yet on the Lake Toba super-volcano. Probably they were thinking that it won't ever erupt and they are ignoring the signs as not to make the people living surrounding the lake to panic. I can say they are wrong on that, as I can see there are swelling of the ground started taking place on the site of Lake Toba from the satellite data."

"I may need your permission to coordinate with the people from the Volcano Hazards team for more data. The data I have here is limited, but it is enough to conclude that the super-volcanoes are behaving out of their norms.."

Mike was tapping his fingers on his desk while he flips on the pages examining the data from the file that Jeff provides him.

After a long silence, Jeff finally lifts his head looking up at Jeff.

" Okay, do it. You have my permission to do that... Find out everything you need to support your idea, and cooperate with the Indonesian officials if necessary."