The huge eruption from Yellowstone volcano over 500,000 years ago was not just a massive blast. According to a new report, it involved a series of explosions.
Yellowstone Volcano Super-Eruption
The Yellowstone volcano's super-eruption 631,000 years ago did not consist of a single enormous explosion. Instead, according to a recent study, it was likely a sequence of eruptions or several vents ejecting volcanic material quickly one after the other, Space.com reported.
As stated by the U.S. According to the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Yellowstone Volcano Observatory 2022 Annual Report, which was released on May 4, fieldwork over the previous year has revealed new geological evidence that "the formation of Yellowstone Caldera was much more complex than previously thought."
One of the largest volcanic systems in the world is found in Yellowstone. It is situated above one of the mantle's "hotspots," regions from which hot plumes erupt and cause volcanoes to emerge on the crust above. In the last 3 million years, it generated three caldera-forming eruptions - the Lava Creek eruption, 631,000 years ago; the Mesa Falls eruption, 1.3 million years ago; and the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff eruption, 2.1 million years ago.
According to National Geographic, the previous volcanic eruptions at Yellowstone National Park had been global disasters. So, scientists are trying to predict its next eruption. Its last eruption was about 640,000 years ago.
Since it had been thousands of years since its last eruption, many believed the volcano was due to erupt soon. However, Michael Poland, a geophysicist and the scientist-in-charge at Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, told Live Science in an email that it was just a misconception about Yellowstone and volcanoes because they don't have timelines. They erupt when enough eruptive magma is beneath them, and pressure will move the magma to ascend.
He told Live Science that neither of the two is true for Yellowstone at present. He reiterated that it's all about the magma; without it, volcanoes don't erupt.
What Are Super-Eruptions?
The Huckleberry Ridge Tuff and Lava Creek eruptions, which ejected more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic kilometers) of material, are considered super-eruptions. The Yellowstone caldera was created as a result of the latter. Despite being roughly ten times larger than Mount St. Helens' 1980 eruption, Mesa Falls' 67 cubic meters (280 cubic kilometers) of material eruption is not considered a super-eruption.
According to previous studies, the Lava Creek super-eruption was not an unexpected event; deposits in the Sour Creek Dome region, east of the national park, indicate that at least one eruption may have occurred before the massive explosion. Following the eruption, ignimbrite, a volcanic rock created by the deposition of a hot mixture of material expelled during an eruption, was found in the location, and it had completely cooled before the main, mapped Lava Creek eruption happened.
It seems unlikely that the Yellowstone volcano will erupt very soon. The discovery that the Lava Creek eruption may have followed a pattern similar to the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff eruption, however, may provide insight into what to anticipate if and when Yellowstone blows. According to Poland, these significant caldera-forming eruptions in Yellowstone "may not be single events, but rather have multiple phases."
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