The Yellowstone Supervolcano Rising

Is it time to sell that condo in Jackson Hole?

Whenever a scientist comes out and says “The bottom line is…” and warns off the likelihood of a cataclysmic event of some sort, you better believe there is a good story somewhere behind that dismissal.

The same can be said for the story that  focuses on a report from scientists at the University of Utah, who have shown that the “supervolcano” underneath Yellowstone has risen at a record rate since mid 2004. Apparently, a “pancake-shaped blob” of molten rock he size of Los Angeles was pressed in to the slumbering volcano, some six miles down.

“There is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion. That’s the bottom line,” says seismologist Robert B. Smith, lead author of the study and professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. “A lot of calderas [giant volcanic craters] worldwide go up and down over decades without erupting.”

Well, there it is. Thankfully, we have nothing to fear, right?

The November 9th issue of the journal Science reported that the caldera floor of the massive volcano has risen 3 inches, per year, for the past three years. This is a rate of growth three times more rapid than ever observed, since records were first kept back in 1923.

“Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock,” Smith says. “But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again,” he adds.

If you were traveling Yellowstone's pristine backcountry peaks and alpine valleys, you would never realize that you're traveling atop of the world's most massive active volcano. Only when you got down to the boiling thermals of Firehole River and the Geyser Basin whould you realize that you're a stranger in a strange land.

Some 600,000 years ago there was a colossal caldron of magma, a supervolcano, that exploded with such violence that it left an ash layer almost ten feet deep a thousand miles away in eastern Nebraska killing all plant life and covering almost all of the United States west of the Mississippi. Modern geological surveys have shown that this supervolcano erupts cataclysmically every 600,000 years, and the land that supervolcano in trapped in is what the Blackfoot Indians called the land of evil spirits -what we call today, Yellowstone National Park.

A brief history lesson on Yellowstone shows us an area that crosses over the Wyoming border in to Montana and Idaho, and holds North America’s record as being the largest volcanic field. Produced by a “hotspot” 400 miles beneath the Earth’s surface, it rises to 30 miles underground, at which point it widens in to an area about 300 miles across.

At this point, blobs of magma which have been channeled up from the hotspot – a gigantic plume of hot and molten rock – break off from the top of the plume, and rise in to the magma chamber beneath the Yellowstone caldera.

It is this magma – that is believed to exist between 5 and 10 miles beneath the surface of Yellowstone – that heats the geysers and hot springs that have made Yellowstone National Park one of America’s foremost attractions.

The problem that the seismologists are facing is that they simply have not enough data to make an educated guess as to what will happen next. We know of three supervolcanic eruptions that happened before our time on Earth, but nothing more. Is Yellowstone nearing an explosion, or is this just part of the supervolcano’s normal processes?

Thankfully, our ability to use our planets past to predict its future continues to grow, to a point where, maybe someday, we will be able to predict what Yellowstone is up to.

Story Links:

http://www.physorg.com/news113754946.html

Comments

[Richard Rosa]

My background is social science, so my comment may be way out of line to some earth scientists and energy technologists. I don't understand why American Earth scientists are not in touch with the government of Iceland where thermo-electric power is generated on a a daily basis. The supervolcanoe of Yellowstone provides an opportunity to explore the avenues of producing thermo-electric power.

[EDGARDO MALDONADO]

I EDGARDO MALDONADO FROM 307 NORTH ST APT 168 BUFFALO NY 14201 NEED TO LET YOU NO THAT IS A GOOD CHANSE OF AN EXPLOTION ON THAT PARTICULAR VOLCANO BECAUSE OF THE PROPHECIES OF THE BIBLE, THE PROPHECIES OF MICHAEL NOSTRADAMOUS AND THEDAILY SOLAR DATA ISSUED ON 2025 UT 27 FEB 2006.

ATT EDGARDO MALDONADO

[sarah lyon]

what is the height of yellow stone volcano?

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