So maybe another geyser erupting at Yellowstone is no big deal. However, coming on top of a massive increase in Earthquake activity, heating up of surface rivers and lakes, and new ways of measuring the monstrous lava pool sitting just below the surface like a giant time bomb ready to erupt, it is getting attention. People are on edge, while conspiracy dwellers are ready to burst in anxiety, as the dreaded Yellowstone super-volcano shakes, rattles, and rolls. If the supervolcano should erupt, and the last time was 640,000 years ago, it would cause worldwide damage. However, Melchizedek said there would be a substantial increase in seismic activity including geyser eruptions, earthquakes, and even superheated rivers and lakes. While this significant change in behavior in one of the world's most dangerous natural parks will strike fear in the hearts of doomsday advocates, this will not trigger the supervolcano eruption. We should consider it a wakeup call to remind us to stop damaging Mother Earth, one of God's precious creations, and find harmony and a state of grace with the Earth. All of God's creations are special to him and should be to us. Here is what the news media had to say about the latest Yellowstone activity.
Unusual eruptions at world's largest
active geyser in Yellowstone
By
Jon Herskovitz,Reuters8
hours ago
(Reuters) - The world's largest active geyser has erupted
three times in the past six weeks at Yellowstone National Park, including once
this week, in a pattern that is unusual but not at all indicative of a more
destructive volcanic eruption brewing beneath Wyoming, geologists said on
Saturday.
Steamboat Geyser, which can shoot water as high as 300
feet (91 meters) into the air, erupted on March 15, April 19 and on Friday. The
last time it erupted three times in a year was in 2003, the U.S. Geological
Survey's Yellowstone Volcano Observatory said.
The last time it erupted prior to March was more than
three years ago in September 2014.
"There is nothing to indicate that any sort of
volcanic eruption is imminent," Michael Poland, the scientist in charge
for the observatory, said in an email.
This year's eruptions have been smaller than a usual Steamboat
eruption, but the two in April were about 10 times larger than an eruption at
the park's famed Old Faithful Geyser in terms on the amount of water
discharged, he said.
Geologists have not pinpointed a reason for the latest
series of eruptions, but say they could indicate a thermal disturbance in the
geyser basin, or that Steamboat may be having smaller eruptions instead of one
large.
Since most geysers do not erupt on a regular schedule,
"it might just reflect the randomness of geysers," Poland said.
Only Waimangu Geyser in New Zealand has rocketed to
greater heights than Steamboat, but not for more than 100 years, the U.S.
National Park Service said.
Yellowstone sits atop a volcano that created a vast
crater. Its plateau hosts the world's most diverse and expansive continental
hydrothermal systems, including the multicolored springs, mudpots and geysers
for which the park is known.
While the Steamboat eruptions are unusual, what would be
far more worrying would be the water in the hydrothermal systems drying up,
which could indicate that the super hot magma deep below was making its way to
the surface.
"Yellowstone hasn't had a volcanic eruption for
70,000 years! Geysers erupt all the time," said Jake Lowenstern, a
USGS research geologist who specializes in volcanoes.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Daniel Wallis
and XX)
Yellowstone geyser erupts for 3rd time in
6 weeks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo.
— Apr 27, 2018, 6:50 PM ET
The Silex Spring in the Fountain Paint Pot area in
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart)
An underwater river or "fountain" of magma has been
located underneath the Yellowstone supervolcano. Despite fears that this could
trigger a major eruption in the near future, experts say it's not expected to
blow anytime soon.
According to a research paper published
in Nature this week, scientists Peter Nelson and Stephen Grand believe the
magma may stretch as far as Mexico.
The researchers describe "a single narrow, cylindrically
shaped slow anomaly, approximately 350 km in diameter that we interpret as a
whole-mantle plume," according to the study's abstract.
The scientists note the approximate length of the plume was made
"using the travel times of core waves recorded by the dense seismic
network."
Whether the plume could cause magma to rise in a vertical stream
is still unclear, the researchers added. They also noted the Yellowstone
hotspot itself, which is home to the famous bubbling springs, is also a source
of debate.
The researchers also indicate they've demonstrated the plume's
existence because the structure "gradually decreases in strength" as
it nears the surface and could have temperatures near the mantle of at least
650 degrees Celsius (1,202 degrees Fahreneheit), perhaps in excess of 850
degress Celsius (1,562 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Our results strongly support a deep origin for the
Yellowstone hotspot, and also provide evidence for the existence of thin
thermal mantle plumes that are currently beyond the resolution of global
tomography models," the researchers wrote.
Concerns have cropped up in recent memory, most notably in the
last week when Yellowstone experienced four mini-tremors, that the supervolcano
would erupt faster than initially thought.
However, any talk of it potentially wiping out life as we know
it is incorrect.
According to National
Geographic, researchers Hannah Shamloo and Christy Till analyzed
minerals in fossilized ash from the most recent eruption in the summer of 2017.
What they discovered surprised them – the changes in temperature and
composition only took a few decades, much faster than the centuries previously
thought.
Despite some sensationalist claims seen in the media, the
supervolcano is not expected to erupt anytime soon and if it did, the events
would not be catastrophic. "There's no reason to think it could impact
mass transport the way the Iceland eruption did nor would it have any effect on
crops," Till told Fox News in October 2017. "There is no evidence to
suggest it could destroy mankind."
The supervolcano last had a major eruption about 630,000 years
ago, Till added. Prior to that, the last major eruption was 1.3 million years
ago, per a report from ZME
Science. A smaller eruption, the most current on record, occurred
70,000 years ago.
All eyes or motion detectors are focused on Yellowstone National Park and the recent increase in earthquakes as well as the very recent increase in the intensity of earthquakes. With the well documented massive magma deposit nearing the surface of the earth and the exceptional geologic structure of the park, offering over 400 various types of vents for releasing the massive pressure from below, Yellowstone is the most and best monitored natural disaster zone in the world. Just last September the earthquake activity picked up substantially and it has been increasing ever since. In September earthquakes averaged about 2.0 in magnitude. By January the average magnitude moved up to 2.3 and in the last few days it has reached 2.7 to 2.9.
Cause for alarm, nobody knows. Cause for concern, you better believe it!
There are perhaps 20 supervolcanoes around the world but none has the massive size and danger potential as Yellowstone. Since the most recent eruptions have been 640,000, 1.2 million, and 6 million years ago, we are most certainly way overdue.
Here is what the media are reporting on the most recent developments at Yellowstone. Ironically, the European media is far more interested in Yellowstone than the American media snf they do s much better job of reporting on activity.
Yellowstone earthquake: Fears for deadly SUPERVOLCANO
ERUPTION after TEN quakes in one day
FEARS
for a Yellowstone supervolcano eruption have been sparked after a swarm of 10
earthquakes struck the seismically volatile US national park today following
another quake yesterday.
PUBLISHED: 17:10, Sun, Feb
18, 2018 | UPDATED: 17:18, Sun, Feb 18, 2018
Yellowstone
has been hit by 10 small earthquakes today, setting alarm bells ringing with
the park’s fearsome supervolcano already “under strain” according to one
expert.
While all
the quakes were relatively small, it does point to an increasingly volatile geological
landscape at the park.
All of
today's earthquakes struck near Maple Creek and measured 2.9 of less
magnitude.
Yesterday
Yellowstone was also hit by a 2.6 magnitude earthquake.
Below the
surface of the park lies the fearsome Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano which
last erupted approximately 630,000 years ago.
Experts
warn it erupts roughly every million years, with some geologists claiming it is
already showing signs it could be ready to blow once again.
Yesterday's
earthquake roughly 20 miles from the supervolcano will add to concerns of an
imminent - and devastating - eruption.
Earlier
this week seismologists from UNAVCO, a nonprofit university-governed
consortium, said the site was “under strain”.
They said
“the strain signal is larger than would be expected if the crust under
Yellowstone were completely solid”.
However
these findings are "no cause for alarm”, they said, and reflect the
expected measurements of a volcano which has been building up for close to a
million years.
If the
Wyoming volcano were to erupt an estimated 87,000 people would be killed
immediately and two-thirds of the USA would immediately be made uninhabitable
due to a huge ash cloud sparking rapid climate change.
The large
spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect
life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter” for huge parts of Earth - not
simply the American West.
The
massive eruption could be a staggering 6,000 times as powerful as the one from
Washington’s Mount St Helens in 1980 which killed 57 people and deposited ash
in 11 different states and five Canadian provinces.
If the
volcano explodes, a climate shift would ensue as the volcano would spew massive
amounts of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, which can form a sulphur
aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight.
Movie Clips of
Yellowstone Eruption
Scientists 'DON'T KNOW' how big a
'tremendous' eruption from Yellowstone volcano could be
A
“TREMENDOUS” super eruption could be about to take place in Yellowstone, US, as
local experts admit they “don’t know” how big the volcanic blast will be.
PUBLISHED: 02:06, Mon, Dec 4, 2017 |
UPDATED: 07:03, Mon, Dec 4, 2017
Fears are growing a huge eruption
is due from Yellowstone, 630,000 years after the last blast sent debris flying
hundreds of miles across America.
A study by a team of scientists
from Bristol University found these deadly eruptions may happen every 17,000
years or so.
This means our next
super-eruptions could be overdue after the two most recent super-eruptions to
rock Earth happened somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago.
Michael Poland,
Scientist-in-Charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, has now admitted
they do not know how large an eruption could be about to take place.
He said: “We don’t know whether there’s enough magma beneath the
surface to have a super eruption.”
What if
it erupted?
Explaining
exactly how large eruptions are measured he continued: “Super volcanos, or
super eruptions, are these eruptions that are on the eruption intensity scale,
there’s something called the volcano explosivity index (VEI) and eruptions that
have a VEI of eight are considered super eruptions.
“And
that’s pretty massive, most eruptions that we see would be VEI three, four. Big
ones are five and then once a century or so there’s a six, so a VEI eight is
really, really tremendous.”
The
confession from Mr Poland that experts are unsure how big an eruption from the
volcano would be is unlikely to put people living in the US at ease.
Denver City is the biggest city at direct risk of a major blast,
located around 500 miles to the south-east of the volcano.
However,
Salt Lake, Cheyenne, Rapid City, Billings and Boise would all also potentially
be at risk.
Denver
is home 600,000 people with as many as two million others living in the metro
area surrounding Colorado’s capital.
Salt Lake City, located one state west in Utah, could see as
much as three feet of ash could fall, smothering the city and blotting out the
sun if a VEI eight erupted.
More
than 180,000 people live in the city with more than one million inhabiting the
surround metro area.
Doctor
Harley Benz of the US Geological Survey said huge eruptions in the past had
left nothing in its wake.
He said: “We’re talking about a huge area that was covered in
tens of feet of ash, in a very large area out to 100 miles from the centre.”
However
Mr Poland has said he hopes no such event takes place.
He
said: “The evidence suggests that a lot of the magma reservoir is actually
solid, and about 50 percent of it is molten, so there may not be enough down
there to have a super eruption.”
‘UFO’ spotted over Yellowstone Volcano
in SHOCKING video
UFO hunters are convinced that they have spotted an alien
spaceship taking off at Yellowstone National Park after witnessing a bright,
pulsating light which was caught on a webcam live stream.
PUBLISHED: 13:33, Mon, Feb
12, 2018 | UPDATED: 14:46, Mon, Feb 12, 2018
A video uploaded to conspiracy YouTube channel The Hidden
Underbelly shows what appears to be a bright light lifting from the ground in
the hills in the background.
The
light then moves towards the camera slowly, before veering off to the left of
the screen.
Viewers
of the video were convinced that the bright light is definitely a UFO, and
believe that the authorities have some answering to do.
Somme
Bomb posted: “Would love to see them explain that one. You can see clearly the
light interferes with the clouds and you can see the reflection in the river.”
Twilights daughter added: “They must have been checking out the
geysers and scenery just like the humans were.”
Yellowstone
has also piqued the interest of many around the globe over fears that it could
soon erupt.
The
Yellowstone Caldera supervolcano last erupted 70,000 years ago but a spike in
seismic activity around the national park has unsettled nerves.
If the Wyoming volcano were to erupt it would kill an estimated
87,000 people immediately and make two-thirds of the USA immediately
uninhabitable.
The
large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly
affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter”.
The massive eruption could be a staggering 6,000 times as
powerful as the one from Washington’s Mount St Helens in 1980 which killed 57
people and deposited ash in 11 different states and five Canadian provinces.
If
the volcano explodes, a climate shift would ensue as the volcano would spew
massive amounts of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, which can form a
sulphur aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight.
Yellowstone timebomb - Over 11,000 MILES
of magma just waiting to spew from park
MORE than 11,000 cubic miles of magma is waiting to burst from
beneath the world's most dangerous volcano in Yellowstone National Park in the
US.
PUBLISHED: 14:23, Fri, Jun
2, 2017 | UPDATED: 15:36, Fri, Jun 2, 2017
Deep magma reservoirs, such as
that below the Yellowstone caldera, are the key to causing volcanic
‘super-eruptions’, that could threaten millions of lives, new research
suggests.
If a mega eruption of
Yellowstone, one of the world’s largest supervolcanoes,
happened so much toxic ash and moult on rock would be hurled into the
atmosphere it could block out sunlight and trigger a nuclear-winter type effect
or even a mini ice age.
An international team of
geologists carried out the study which shows the importance of large magma
reservoirs in creating Earth’s most powerful volcanic eruptions.
The researchers claim that the
most powerful volcanic eruptions, dubbed ‘super-eruptions’, are triggered by a
slow and steady drip feed of magma from large reservoirs deep within the
Earth’s crust into smaller reservoirs closer to the surface.
These large reservoirs draw in
hot magma from the Earth’s mantle and exist as large volumes of partially
molten rock that are able to store magma like a sponge.
By conducting a number of numerical simulations of this process,
the research team showed that these large reservoirs are crucial to generating
the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth.
But,
fortunately, the team also showed that these large reservoirs can take millions
of years to form, hence why ‘super-eruptions’ happen so rarely.
Yellowstone
is believed to have seen super eruptions at intervals of two million, 1.2
million and 640,000 years ago, meaning another one could be due any time.
It
is believed the new findings could help to understanding why some volcanoes
erupt frequently and at certain magnitudes.
The
study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, found the amount of magma
that is stored in the upper layer of the Earth’s crust determines the frequency
and magnitude of volcanic eruptions.
Small
eruptions that erupt less than one cubic kilometre of material occur very
frequently (from daily to yearly), while the largest eruptions that erupt
hundreds of cubic kilometres of material are infrequent, with hundreds of thousands
of years between them.
Co-author of the study Dr Wim Degruyter, from Cardiff
University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, said: “Our current
understanding tells us that hot magma can be injected from the Earth’s lower
crust into colder surroundings near the surface.
"At
this point, the magma can either erupt or cool down to such a point that the
magma solidifies and an eruption does not occur.
“Up
until now, this theory hasn’t been able to explain how the magma can maintain
its heat in these near-surface reservoirs and thus produce extremely powerful
eruptions.
“Our
study has shown that the key to this is much larger reservoirs deeper below the
surface that are able to slowly increase the temperature in the upper part of
the crust such that it becomes more amenable to the storage of magma.
"When
the crust has become fully mature, giant reservoirs are able to form in the
upper crust and thus we see extremely powerful eruptions.”
Previous research revealed that a deeper magma body connects to a
magma reservoir in the upper part of the crust underneath Yellowstone, which
spreads across the sates of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
The
deeper magma body sits 12 to 28 miles below the surface and it’s believed that
the hot molten rock could fill the 1,000-cubic-mile Grand Canyon 11.2
times.
It
is believed that the last super eruptions at Yellowstone were fed by the
volcanic plumbing system that sits beneath it.
Dr
Degruyter added: "Our calculations appear to agree with the observations
that have been made at Yellowstone.”
The
study, Lifetime and size of shallow magma bodies controlled by crustal-scale
magmatism, was led by researchers at ETH Zurich, and also included researchers
from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
In yet another example of the warning of a year of devastating storms and weather anomalies in order for Mother Earth to correct the damage we have done to it with over 2,000 nuclear bomb explosions since 1950, one of the world record disaster potentials is volcanic eruptions. This is another element of the one year of record shattering weather anomalies followed by seven years of more random destruction as prophesied by Melchizedek.
Iceland's
Enormous Bardarbunga Volcano 'Ready to Erupt' as Four Earthquakes Strike in
Just Two Hours
Melissa Matthews,Newsweek8 hours ago
Iceland’s largest volcano, Bardarbunga, could erupt at
any moment, bringing a cloud of ash that could hinder worldwide tourism, and
cause air quality issues, reports Yahoo UK. Some worry it would be reminiscent
of the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull, which disturbed
travel at the time.
The country’s largest volcano, which stands at 6,591
feet above sea level, has been hit with earthquakes this week. These vibrations
could have huge implications, according to volcanic expert, Páll Einarsson at
the University of Iceland. He spoke to the Daily Star in the UK and explained that
an eruption is brewing.
A photo during the last eruption of Iceland's Bardarbunga
volcano. Experts believe the volcano could have another eruption within the
next few years. BERNARD MERIC/AFP/Getty Images
“The volcano is clearly preparing for its next eruption,
that may happen in the next few years,” he told the outlet. The earthquake
won't cause an eruption; rather, they hint that one could be coming. “The
earthquakes last week are just the symptoms of this process, they do not cause
the volcano to erupt,” he told the Daily Star.
Bardarbunga last erupted in 2014, and NASA documents show that seismic activity
increased for seven years before the event. It dipped briefly in 2011 after
another volcano located nearby, GrÃmsvötn, erupted, but once again became more
active in August 2014. Later that month, the volcano finally erupted, spewing
lava for days.
What concerns most experts is that the next eruption
could be a repeat of the chaos in 2010 following the eruption of
Eyjafjallajokull. According to The Telegraph, 100,000 flights were cancelled
from the incident, leaving 10 million people stranded. Airlines lost $1.7
billion dollars in revenue. LiveScience reports that the eruption,
which stopped flights for almost a month, was so drastic because the ash spread
further than normal and was present in the atmosphere for a greater length of
time.
Scientists later discovered that the prolonged drama
was in part due to an adverse reaction between the magma and the surrounding
glacial water. The ash was more porous and not as aerodynamic, which made them
stay afloat longer.
There’s no evidence that if the eruption of Bardarbunga
would cause the same kind of havoc. Einarsson told the Daily Star that
it’s simply not possible to determine what the next eruption will be like, but
thinks it will be harmless according to the statistics.
Lava flowing from the last eruption of the Bardarbunga
volcano in Iceland. A new eruption could cause havoc for air travel.BERNARD
MERIC/AFP/Getty Images
Still, Einarsson said the country needs to prepare for
the worst.
Though he emphasizes they are not common, he also says
“we have to be prepared for larger and more disastrous eruptions.”
Yellowstone’s
supervolcano could erupt much faster than anyone thought
Mike Wehner,BGR NewsWed,
Oct 11 3:32 PM EDT
There’s
a dangerous giant sitting dormant in the United States, and when it finally
wakes up it has the potential to cause utter devastation. I’m talking of course
about the supervolcano hiding beneath Yellowstone National Park, and while it’s
long been thought that any hint of a possible eruption would be seen thousands
and thousands of years in advance, new research throws that safety buffer right
out the window, suggesting that the Yellowstone Supervolcano could go from calm
to critical in as little as decades.
The
research, which was presented at the IAVCEI 2017 volcanology conference in
Portland, focuses on the most recent eruption of the volcano, which is thought
to have occurred some 631,000 years ago. But rather than taking several
thousands of years to build up, as previously thought, the newest data suggests
that the most recent eruption was prompted by new magma pushing into the
Yellowstone system just decades ahead of the big event.
This
much more rapid timeframe between dormancy and eruption is obviously very
troubling, especially when you consider the global impact that the event could
have. The most recent eruption of the Yellowstone system spewed an estimated
240 cubic miles of material into the air. 2.1 million years ago an even larger
eruption occurred, sending 585 cubic miles of rock and dust skyward. For
comparison, that’s approximately 6,000 times the amount of material launched
from Mount St. Helens during its 1980 eruption.
“It’s
shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet
and sitting there to the edge of an eruption,” Hannah Shamloo, graduate student
at Arizona State University and lead author of the study, said of the
discovery.
Still,
at the moment there’s little reason to be concerned, as the Yellowstone
Supervolcano seems to be perfectly content to continue its unusually long quiet
spell. When the mighty beast decides to wake back up is anyone’s guess, but now
at least we know that we might not have nearly as much warning as we once
thought.
Yellowstone
Supervolcano Could Erupt Sooner Than We Thought. Here’s What You Need to Know.
Researchers
from Arizona State University spent weeks studying fossilized ash deposits from
the Yellowstone volcano and recently shared their findings. The minerals in
these deposits revealed that the critical changes in temperature and
composition preceding an eruption build up over a
matter of decades, rather than thousands of years as scientists
originally thought.
"It's
shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet
and sitting there to the edge of an eruption," Hannah Shamloo, a graduate
student at Arizona State University who worked on the research, told The
New York Times.
This
is an alarming thing for a volcanologist to say. The good news is that
scientists are likely just decades away from being able to more accurately
predict when an eruption would occur.
Sometimes
knowing more about the world around us makes us feel more in control of our
lives and survival. And sometimes knowing more only underscores how small and
helpless we are compared to the forces of nature on the angry rock where we
reside.
Here
are some more facts about supervolcanoes that may or may not make you feel any
better.
Is
Yellowstone the only supervolcano to worry about?
No,
of course not. There are about 20 others around the world and three others,
besides the Yellowstone supervolcano, in the U.S. Scientists suspect that one
of them erupts every 100,000 years
or so.
While
Yellowstone hasn't had a super-eruption in 631,000 years, others have been active
more recently. Campi Flegri,
a supervolcano in Italy whose name translates to "burning fields,"
had a super-eruption 15,000 years ago.
That's
250 cubic miles. That's more than three times as large as the Campanian
Ignimbrite eruption in Italy, which created a sulfurous cloud that floated
more than 1,200 miles away to hang over Russia.
That's 2,500 times more material than
Mount St. Helensexpelled in 1980, killing 57 people.
An
eruption at Yellowstone would result in a cloud of ash more than 500 miles
wide, stretching across nearly the entire western United States.
None
of this sounds ideal, but how does it rank in terms of apocalyptic near-future
possibilities? According to NASA, supervolcano eruptions are a bigger
danger to life on Earth than any asteroid.
Luckily
NASA has a plan to neutralize
supervolcano threats. It would cost approximately $3.4 billion and
involves drilling down just over 6 miles into the volcano in order to release
heat and hopefully avoid a violent eruption.
This
plan could cool the supervolcano over the course of hundreds or even thousands
of years. There’s another bonus: It would become a source of geothermal energy,
too. But there are considerable risks, too. It could trigger the
eruption it's meant to save us from.
How
likely is it that the Yellowstone supervolcano will erupt?
Despite
the fact that this new research shows conditions leading up to supervolcano
eruption could occur in several decades, the chances that you will personally
experience an explosion of this scale are still low.
The
odds of the Yellowstone supervolcano erupting within a given year are one in
730,000, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Here’s a little perspective:
Those odds are significantly better than your chances of
winning the lottery and only slightly worse than the chance you'll be
struck by lightning.
Yellowstone supervolcano last erupted 640,000 years ago.JIM URQUHART/REUTERS
Before the Yellowstone supervolcano next
erupts, we might have only a few decades to prepare—not thousands of years, as
previously thought. By analyzing the last eruption to take place, a team of
researchers has estimated how long it took for the required amount of magma to
build up in the main chambers. The preliminary findings show it
happened startlingly fast.
The last major eruption at Yellowstone—one of
the world’s largest active supervolcanoes—took place around 640,000 years
ago, sending about 240 cubic miles of volcanic ash, dust and rock into the sky.
If an eruption were to
talk place today, experts estimate a blanket of ash would cover most of the
U.S. "Ash-fall thicknesses of centimetres throughout the American Midwest
would disrupt livestock and crop production, especially during critical times
in the growing season,” a 2014 report said. "Thick
deposits could threaten building integrity and obstruct sewer and water lines.
Electronic communications and air transportation would likely be shut down
throughout North America. There would also be major climate effects."
To understand what goes on beneath Yellowstone
before an eruption—in a bid to work out what might happen prior to the next
one—researchers at Arizona State University analyzed the last big eruption,
looking at crystals that show the changes that took place in the run-up to the
event.
Hannah Shamloo, a
graduate student at the university, and colleagues presented the team’s
preliminary findings at a volcanology conference in September. According to The New York Times,
she said changes to the crystals indicate there was a fast increase in
temperature at the site. The magma appears to have accumulated very quickly,
and then an eruption occurred a few decades later. “It’s shocking how little
time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there
to the edge of an eruption,” Shamloo said.
The findings do not help scientists predict
when the next eruption might take place. They could, however, serve as
something of an early warning system. By monitoring what’s going on underneath
Yellowstone, they can track changes to the magma and be on alert if it starts
accumulating.
Mike Poland, the scientist in charge of the
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory at the U.S. Geological Survey, says the
research is interesting, and while the results are preliminary, they
potentially open the door to many more questions—including what processes
actually trigger rapid magma movement and an eruption.
“I think it's
important to note that these results say that the rejuvenation of Yellowstone's
magma system may have occurred over decades prior to eruption,” he tells Newsweek. “The research does not provide any
information about what actually triggered the eruption.
Ground deformation at Yellowstone National Park over the last two
years. USGS
“One thing I would emphasize is that even if
large eruptions are preceded by only decades of unrest, this is still something
we are positioned to detect well in advance. Yellowstone is one of the
best-monitored volcanoes in the world, with a host of seismic, deformation,
thermal and geochemical sensors and satellite datasets always looking for
changes,” Poland says.
An example of this was the earthquake swarm
that has been taking place at the supervolcano since June. Since it began,
almost 2,500 earthquakes have been recorded at the site—making it the longest
and most vigorous swarm since 1985.
“We see interesting things all the time, but
we haven't seen anything that would lead us to believe that the sort of
magmatic ‘rejuvenation’ event described by the ASU researchers is happening
now,” Poland says. “We're in a good position to see that sort of event
thanks to the monitoring systems that are in place—seismicity (not just the
numbers of earthquakes, but also their types) would change drastically, as
would styles of deformation, and there would probably be significant thermal
manifestations.
“The research does a great job of helping us
understand the conditions that set up the last large eruption at
Yellowstone. Hopefully, the researchers will continue their investigations
to see what more the crystals they are studying can tell us, particularly about
the specific conditions that led to the eruption.”
Yellowstone supervolcano may be only decades from a
catastrophic eruption
Aris
Folley, AOL.com,AOL.com
Researchers are saying the supervolcano sitting beneath Yellowstone
National Park could erupt sooner than thought -- and could possibly plunge
the planet into a "volcanic winter."
It's been roughly 631,000 years since Yellowstone's last super-eruption
and, until now, scientists thought it would take centuries for the supervolcano
to make the transition, according to National Geographic.
Now, after analyzing minerals in fossilized ash from Yellowstone,
researchers from Arizona State University are saying the lava-filled
mountain could erupt in just a few decades.
The discovery arrives several years after a 2011 study found that
the ground above Yellowstone's caldera had risen as much as 10 inches in some
places over the course of seven years.
"It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area
and the rates are so high," the Bob Smith, an expert in Yellowstone
volcanism at the University of Utah, told National Geographic at the time.
Researchers are also saying the supervolcano has the
ability to produce an eruption of a thousand times more powerful than
Mount St. Helen's eruption in 1980 and eject more than 1,000 cubic kilometers
of rock and ash -- which could blanket large areas of the US.
Arizona State graduate state Hannah Shamloo, who developed the theory
that there was a much shorter timeline than once anticipated for an eruption,
spent weeks with several colleagues at the site in Yellowstone where they
collected and studied fossilized ash from its last eruption.
"It’s shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic
system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption,"
Shamloo told New York Times, while
adding that more research is necessary before drawing
definite conclusions.
Though
the pair presented the study at a recent volcanology
conference before the American Geophysical Union in 2016, it
has yet to be peer-reviewed.
