Yellowstone: The World's Most Massive Supervolcano

Hiking through 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.

Hiking through 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 catastrophically every 600,000 years, and the land that supervolcano is trapped in was called by Blackfoot Indians 'the land of evil spirits' -what we call today, Yellowstone National Park.

John Colter, the legendary montain man who first discovered Yellowstone, wandered in there with an arrow in his back seeking refuge from pursuing Blackfeet. Colter didn't know that he and his horse were trotting over a 2.2 million acre caldera that forms the world's highest plateau that caps a seething magma chamber forty-five miles across-the size of Rhode Island- and eight miles thick of hot molten rock that rises up from 125 miles down toward the Earth's core. When Yellowstone explodes, and it will someday, Hiroshima will look like a 4th of July display. What no knows for sure is: when.

To monitor Yellowstone's potenial hazard, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory was formed in 2000, administered by the University of Utah, the Park Service,  and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

John Colter, the legendary montain man who first discovered Yellowstone, wandered in there with an arrow in his back seeking refuge from pursuing Blackfeet. Colter didn't know that he and his horse were trotting over a 2.2 million acre caldera that forms the world's highest plateau that caps a seething magma chamber forty-five miles across-the size of Rhode Island- and eight miles thick of hot molten rock that rises up from 125 miles down toward the Earth's core. When Yellowstone explodes, and it will someday, Hiroshima will look like a 4th of July display. What no knows for sure is: when.

To monitor Yellowstone's potenial hazard, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory was formed in 2000, administered by the University of Utah, the Park Service,  and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

Comments

[Alex]

- Science Daily (Dec. 14, 2009): Yellowstone's Plumbing Reveals Plume of Hot and Molten Rock 410 Miles Deep... FOXNews (26.12.2009): Yellowstone to Become Best Monitored Hot Spots in World - The Yellowstone "supervolcano" will soon be among the best monitored hot spots in the world with the installation of new earthquake monitoring equipment... Jan 18, 2010: More Than 200 Earthquakes Rattle Yellowstone National Park Since Last Night:
http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-than-200-earthquakes-rattle.html

[Milkman]

It's gonna be a bad day for anyone anywhere near this thing when it pops. Probably have global effects as well with ash, blocked sky, etc.

[Ray]

Revelation is not in black and white no more its in full color.

[Dr. Robusto]

Is it possible that a white hole exist beneath this strange formation?

Is Large Hadron Collider responsible?

Should I care?

[Dave]

Just remember 1 or 2 hundred years is a split second in geological time. We probably have many other dangers and disasters more likely to cause us trouble. A strong Faith is the best shelter.

[william]

We have a constant stream of these stories, throwing out sensationalism without giving the full story. This url tells the full story. In short, yes the earth is active underground, but the threat is not as alarming as it seems. Read the article, and look past the commercial sensationalism that has infected the science field. Go to the url.

[sundancer2012]

If this supervolcano blows, it could very well destroy the Earth.

[Zeebus]

Yeah, so we'll all be dead when this thing goes off. What's new?
If this doesn't kill us, it'll be Al Gore's global warming. If that doesn't kill us, it'll be chemicals in baby bottles. Blah blah blah...just live your lives and stop worrying about sh*t you can't control.

[Marty Ferguson]

Sundancer,

It blew 600,00 years go; the earth is still here! WAKE UP!!!!

[Marty Ferguson]

600,000 YEARS AGO

[Doug]

I have read some of the most idiotic self serving statements above. Selfish and close minded. Of course it will change everything. Of course many will die, Of course electricity, meat, grain will be affected. Of course it will change world climate. Its called the natural history of the living earth. We are just not evolved enough to completely accept our fragility on her. We are just a blink in earths life. You can either be smart and prepare for the human race to live on. That doesn't mean you specifically. I believe it will be enough to put us into a ice age but from that will come new life and a new world. All what we complain about and hate about of insignificant lives will be gone. I only hope that the ones left will do better and learn a new way to live. I value life but not my own. I value human life. I hope it will last to evolve to something better then we are now.. Monkeys wild with cell phones and cars.
Good Luck

[Mister G.]

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come".

- (Wm. Shakespeare ~ Julius Ceasar Act II, Scene II).

Let us ALL move to Yellowstone and enjoy the country, scenery and life while we still have it!