Nature & Environment

The next Yellowstone supereruption is close

By T.K. Randall
May 3, 2012 ·  21 comments

Image Credit: USGS - C.G. Newhall It's easy to forget that sitting below the idyllic landscape of Yellowstone National Park, spread over the junction of three states in the northwestern United States, is a boiling mass of magma. Tourists admire the geysers spewing hot water into the air, never thinking of the pyrotechnics that would be visible were the volcano itself to erupt.

For many years, volcanologists have recognised the Yellowstone caldera as one of only six super-volcanoes around the world. New research has indicated that while the caldera isn't as "super" as once believed it is potentially a lot more active. No matter what the case may be there's no mistaking the potential for devastation - even the 12% reduction would still give off hundreds of times the amount of ash that the Mount Saint Helen's eruption did in 1980.[!gad]It's easy to forget that sitting below the idyllic landscape of Yellowstone National Park, spread over the junction of three states in the northwestern United States, is a boiling mass of magma. Tourists admire the geysers spewing hot water into the air, never thinking of the pyrotechnics that would be visible were the volcano itself to erupt.

For many years, volcanologists have recognised the Yellowstone caldera as one of only six super-volcanoes around the world. New research has indicated that while the caldera isn't as "super" as once believed it is potentially a lot more active. No matter what the case may be there's no mistaking the potential for devastation - even the 12% reduction would still give off hundreds of times the amount of ash that the Mount Saint Helen's eruption did in 1980.

Source: Gizmodo | Comments (21)

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