One of the world's biggest volcanoes hides underneath Yellowstone National Park, a vast expanse of breathtaking wildness visited by over 3 million people each year based on Statista's data. The Yellowstone Caldera at the volcano's summit is so massive that it is often referred to as a "supervolcano."
That means it is capable of producing a magnitude-eight eruption on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. According to the Natural History Museum, it could discharge over 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubic miles) of material.
How Strong Will Its Eruption Be?
The 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines is the most powerful volcanic eruption in living memory as it rated 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, as per Natural History. That volcano is 100 times smaller than the benchmark for a supervolcano yet it caused significant devastation in the area. So, how powerful will be Yellowstone supervolcano if it erupts?
The Yellowstone supervolcano remains a source of apocalyptic fascination because of the potential power it holds. A 2014 paper in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems explores what a Yellowstone supervolcano eruption might look like.
Among their findings is that the volcano can bury states, such as Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Colorado up to three feet of volcanic ash. Vox reports that the amount of ash could kill plants and animals, crushing roofs, and short-circuit electrical equipment.
Jacob Lowenstern of the US Geological Survey told Vox that the paper was not any sort of prediction of the future. Rather, he emphasized that it is more likely to get small eruptions from the Yellowstone supervolcano than that worst-case scenario.
READ ALSO: Yellowstone Caldera Has Twice More Magma Than Previously Thought: Should the Public Panic?
How Likely Will the Yellowstone Volcano Erupt?
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) emphasizes that the Yellowstone supervolcano is not overdue for an eruption. they noted that volcanoes are unpredictable both in when and how they will erupt.
Moreover, it is challenging to calculate when the volcano will be overdue for an eruption, which happens randomly, For example, the Yellowstone volcano experienced three eruptions at 2.08, 1.3, and 0.631 million years ago, or an average of 725,000 years between these events
In that case, there could be another 100,000 years to go for this supervolcano to erupt based on the average of two-time intervals between volcanic eruptions, which does not make sense.
Most volcanic systems that experience volcanic eruption from a supervolcano do not experience it many times. When supervolcanoes erupt more than once, they are not equally separated in time.
Although another catastrophic Yellowstone eruption is feasible, experts are skeptical that it will occur. It is questionable whether there is even enough magma beneath the caldera to support an eruption because the rhyolite magma chamber under Yellowstone is only 5-15% liquid (the remainder is hardened but still hot).
If Yellowstone erupts again, it does not have to be a big eruption. According to Science Alert, Yellowstone's most recent volcanic eruption was a lava flow 70,000 years ago.
Perhaps the idea of a possible eruption soon comes from the concept of earthquakes, which happens as stress accumulates on faults. But experts said that there are many variables at play for a volcanic eruption other than earthquakes.
RELATED ARTICLE: Wyoming's Yellowstone Supervolcano Showing Off Signals of Possible Eruption, Study Reveals
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