Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park is one of the most extraordinary places on the earth.
It not only has a colossal volcano, but it also has an active geyser field and a number
of other hot springs and geothermal features.
Visitors can see steam rising from the surface, bubbling mud pots, and even geysers bursting.
It's also a great spot to encounter wildlife like bison, elks, antelopes, wolves, and bears.
Yellowstone is rather distant due to its location, and the geothermal features can be deadly.
Yellowstone National Park covers approximately 3500 square miles and sits atop a volcanic
hot zone.
The majority of the park is in Wyoming, although some parts extend into Montana and Idaho.
Yellowstone is known for its gorges, alpine rivers, and lush forests.
Yellowstone National Park is situated on top of a super volcano.
Super volcanoes are volcanoes that spew forth more than a thousand cubic kilometers of gas,
ash, magma, and rock.
Lake Toba in Indonesia, Lake Taupo in New Zealand, and Yellowstone National Park in
the United States are all super volcanoes that erupted within the last 100 000 years.
Within the volcano system, there has been a massive and rapid uplift in the last several
months.
This uplift is most likely caused by increasing magma beneath the surface.
While there is no immediate threat of an eruption, geologists are keeping a tight eye on the
situation.
Join us as we venture to Wyoming to discover the breathtaking grandeur of Yellowstone National
Park and learn more about the massive abrupt uplift in the volcanic system detected by
Yellowstone National Park officials and the threat it poses.
As the North American continent has drifted southwest, the Yellowstone hotspot has remained
stable for a long period.
The old eruptions in the Yellowstone region can be linked to what is today known as the
southeastern part of Oregon.
The most recent breakouts occurred in the northeast region of Wyoming, where the Yellowstone
Super volcano has had three significant eruptions.
The super volcano, the most recent of which occurred 640 thousand years ago, is responsible
for the park's hot springs, geysers, and other hydrothermal phenomena.
The caldera where the park is located was also formed by the super volcano.
A caldera is a bowl-shaped depression formed when magma or lava is released from a volcano.
Yellowstone's caldera is around 34 miles wide, and the super volcano's last eruption followed
a period of dormancy.
The caldera filled with water over time, and forestation began, creating an ecosystem that
is home to many diverse animal species.
According to park experts, Yellowstone National Park is a safe haven for one of the world's
largest super volcanoes, which is showing signs of life.
Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 and is named after the yellow sandstone
that is found in the area.
The volcano is in northeastern Wyoming where the huge Yellowstone is confined.
We know that the super volcano sits on a hot region formed of molten and semi-molten rock
known as magma, which explains how the ground lifts and sinks.
When this magma pours into a magma chamber reservoir four to six miles beneath Yellowstone
National Park, the ground swells.
When lava cools and solidifies, the ground falls back down.
Volcanologists have been studying volcanic activity since 1923, and between 2004 and
2009, the ground rose 9.8 inches.
However, in 2010, the land began to subside, leaving many scientists wondering if the Yellowstone
would erupt soon and how violent the eruption would be.
Earth sciences professor of the university of northern Colorado and renowned volcanologist
Dr. Steve Anderson says, "The big question is if Yellowstone started shaking tomorrow
what is there to expect," he adds, “I don't think we know exactly what to expect."
However, scientists think it wouldn't be any less than a doomsday.
The Yellowstone plateau volcanic field is responsible for forming the high continental
divide between the northern and central Rocky Mountains.
The plateau has an average elevation of 7900 feet and is surrounded on all sides by mountainous
terrain with peaks as high as 13 000 feet, with the exception of the eastern snake river
plain, which spreads to the southeast as a structural depression about 350 kilometers
long.
For 2.2 million years, catastrophic eruptions, deep ground collapse, incredibly thick lava
flows, ground raising, prolonged faulting, and the erosive power of rushing water and
ice have sculpted the 17 000 square kilometer Yellowstone plateau.
Dr. Jacob Lowenstern, scientist in charge of the Yellowstone volcano observatory research
geologist, explains that "Yellowstone is currently an inactive volcano with low levels of restlessness,"
adding that "there is no current activity going on that would indicate anything happening
and if something was coming there is nothing to show at this point in time."
Over the course of two million years, the Yellowstone plateau volcanic region has experienced
three volcanic cycles, two of which are considered some of the world's most catastrophic volcanic
eruptions.
Lava flows from the last 77000-year-old pitch stone plateau eruption were restricted to
the caldera of what is now known as Yellowstone National Park.
The first eruption occurred at the huckleberry ridge tuff 2.1 million years ago, leaving
a 75-kilometer-wide crater and viscous volcanic deposits.
The second cycle began 1.3 million years ago, when the Mesa Falls tuff erupted.
The last activity was reported on the Yellowstone plateau 640 000 years ago, when a lava creek
erupted, forming a caldera 45 by 85 kilometers in size.
Between 180 000 and 70 000 years ago, 600 cubic kilometers of rhyolitic lava flows rushed
into the caldera; since then, no magmatic eruptions have occurred.
Nevertheless, hydrothermal explosions took place during the Holocene, which is the last
11,700 years of Earth's history.
The two areas that have experienced uplift and subsidence of the ground surface are Mallard
Lake and Sour Creek.
In geology, these locations are known as "Resurgent Domes."
A resurgent dome is a dome-shaped feature that emerged as a result of the caldera floor
expanding or rising as a result of a change in motion in the magma chamber underneath
it.
Currently the geologic activity of the Yellowstone national park is limited to hot springs and
geysers.
Yellowstone is currently one of the largest sites on Earth, with the highest concentration
of geysers and hydrothermal systems.
The region is one of the most seismically active in the world due to the extensive networks
of faults linked to the super volcano and the surrounding terrain.
Huge earthquakes frequently occur near the plateau close to the Teton and Hebgen Lake
faults.
The Hebgen Lake fault ruptured in 1959, severely damaging the region.
Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates become caught at their edges due to friction, and
the tension on the edge overcomes the friction.
Waves of energy are produced and move through the earth's crust, causing the ground beneath
us to tremble.
Massive irregular solid rocks that comprise continental and oceanic lithosphere are known
as tectonic plates.
The university of Utah seismograph stations that oversee the operations and analysis of
the Yellowstone seismic network recorded 59 earthquakes in the region in July 2022.
The main event of the month was a small earthquake of magnitude 3.1 centered 14 miles southwest
of the Mammoth Hot Springs section.
Such earthquake sequences account for around half of all seismicity in Yellowstone.
The Old Faithful is located in Yellowstone's upper geyser basin and the park's southwestern
area.
It spouts more than 14 thousand liters or 3 700 gallons of boiling water more than 30
meters up in the air every 91 minutes.
It was discovered in 1870 by the Washburn expedition.
It was named after its recurring and predictable eruptions, which account for more than a million
eruptions since Yellowstone was designated a park in 1872.
The world's most famous geyser, Old Faithful, erupts 20 times every day.
These eruptions range in height from 100 to 180 feet, with an average height of 130 to
140 feet and a duration of one and a half to five minutes.
Yellowstone remained at background levels of activity throughout July due to ground
water accumulation as reported by the GPS network.
June was somewhat more eventful, with heavy rain and snow melting causing record floods
in the Yellowstone region.
Several landslides and rockfalls occurred between June 10th and June 13th, particularly
on the northern border of Yellowstone National Park.
Some roads and bridges were washed away, Yellowstone floods wreaked havoc on the region's infrastructure,
and houses were severely damaged, isolating entire villages.
The floods did not instigate any detrimental seismic activity nor was the hydrothermal
activity influenced in any way.
There was, however, a major impact on geyser activity.
Geysers began erupting more regularly because geysers emit more frequently during seasons
of significant precipitation than during dryer periods of the year.
The timing shift is minor but statistically significant.
The steamboat geyser erupted twice in 2022, on June 10th and June 20th, with eight major
outbursts.
The University of Utah seismograph stations located a tremendous number of 149 earthquakes.
Since the summer began, GPS stations in Yellowstone caldera and near Norris's geyser basin have
recorded a few millimeters of uplift.
This uplift occurs when snow melts and oozes into the ground, causing it to swell.
There has been a trend of caldera subsidence of a few millimeters every year since 2015.
Gradual subsidence of two to three centimeters or one inch has been recorded annually for
the past couple of years.
Experts say it's extremely unlikely that the Yellowstone Super volcano would erupt, but
recent underground activity raises questions about how powerful it might be.
While most of these earthquakes are hardly noticeable, they give scientists insight into
how quickly the magma chamber beneath Yellowstone is filling up, causing increased shaking and
quivering throughout Yellowstone, which indicates that fresh puddles of magma recently drained
into the reservoir.
The past decade saw the fastest rate of ground surface rising in Yellowstone.
Geologists find it challenging to predict the super volcano's next move because it is
impossible to monitor and analyze every minute detail of what is happening in Yellowstone
National Park.
Despite the increased number of tremors, experts say there are no foreseeable perilous circumstances
as of yet or anytime soon.
Examinations of past eruptions, however, provide some insights.
The three enormous eruptions within the last 2.1 million years had gaps of approximately
600,000 to 800,000 years between them.
The effects of the most recent major eruption, which occurred 640 000 years ago, are felt
throughout the entire park and thousands of miles away in the surrounding landscape.
Each of the three treacherous eruptions spewed enormous quantities of volcanic ash, gas,
magma, and other volcanic debris that shrouded most of the continental US.
The Yellowstone Super volcano fell on itself after each eruption, engulfing forests, mountains,
and everything else in the area.
A caldera-forming eruption would create a massive natural hazard in Yellowstone, according
to scientists.
The last Yellowstone eruption was a thousand times larger than the infamous 1980 Mount
Saint Helens eruption, which killed 56 people and thousands of animals and burned hundreds
of sq. kms in Washington and Oregon.
The last eruption from Yellowstone's super volcano sent a lethal plume of hot ash particles,
rock, and toxic fumes thousands of meters into the air.
One-third of the continent was most likely engulfed in darkness.
Swift currents of hot dry rock fragments and gases known as pyroclastic flows swept through
the landscape, burying and ravaging all in their path.
Yellowstone is currently dormant, with scientists monitoring its every hiccup or cough and attempting
to predict its next outburst.
Although the brewing force beneath the park has been restrained for thousands of years,
Yellowstone's dormancy does not imply that it will not resurface; the question is when
and with what fury.
If an eruption were to occur, it would be a global tragedy.
The super volcano has the potential to produce lava flows that would cover entire states,
as well as a cloud of ash and dust that would hide the sun and cool the earth's climate.
For the time being, park officials are advising visitors to remain vigilant and mindful of
the possible hazard.
Will the Yellowstone Super volcano erupt anytime soon?
Tell us in the comments.