Monday, March 21, 2011

Yellowstone supervolcano

Yellowstone is the largest supervolcano on Earth!Most volcanoes that produce super-eruptions are very long-lived (active over millions of years), produce very large explosive eruptions, and remain dormant for long periods (from thousands to hundreds of thousands of years) between major eruptions.The Yellowstone supervolcano last erupted approximately 630,000 years ago. Scientists believe that it’s now overdue a repeat performance….
Beneath the beauty of America’s first national park is a killer volcano that is 1,000 times more powerful than Mt. Saint Helens and hundreds of times more powerful than all the volcanos in Iceland …combined! Yellowstone was set aside to protect and preserve its treasure of geothermal features—over 10,000 of them! Geysers are the most famous of these features— half of the world’s 700 geysers are located in Yellowstone.Three giant calderas in the western US, all formed in the last 1 million years include the Yellowstone hot-spot and two rift related supervolcanoes, Long valley caldera in eastern California and Valles caldera along the edge of the Rio Grande river in New Mexico.Each covered large areas of the US with volcanic ash when they last erupted.Although giant calderas (“supervolcanoes”) may slumber for tens of thousands of years between eruptions, their abundant earthquakes and crustal deformation reveal the potential for future upheaval.The super volcano at Yellowstone, and its kin around the world are a credible threat to man.“Yellowstone supervolcano could erupt again and when it does the whole world will be transformed.Yellowstone is located in the Rocky Mountain chain, but its geological story is different.At Yellowstone, the large thermal and CO2 fluxes require massive input of basaltic magma, which continues to invade the lower to mid-crust, sustains the overlying high-silica magma reservoir, and may result in volcanic hazard for millennia to come.

No comments:

Post a Comment