The Yellowstone Supervolano is an active volcano beneath the Yellowstone National Park, a sprawling
area straddling Wyoming, Idaho and Montana in the United States.
Given its eruption pattern, it could be ready to blow at any time.
What would this mean for America, Canada and the rest of the world.
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I am Rebecca Felgate and today
we are asking, What if the Yellowstone Volcano Erupted.
Before we get into this video, I just want to remind you guys that you can become a Questioner
today by subscribing and you can click that big old notification bell to be the first
to know a big question gets a big answer.
The Yellowstone Volcano last erupted 640,000 years ago, the eruption before that took place
1.3 million years ago, and the one before that 2.1 million years ago.
For those with some quick mathematics skills, you’ll spot a rough pattern here – honey
is due a spew.
But this things don’t happen spontaneously; scientists are constantly monitoring volcanic
activity in and around the calderas.
They have a technologically advanced network of sensors and that monitor the calderas for
signs of activity.
SO, what if the worst was confirmed and scientists realised the volcano was going to experience
a super eruption?
Of course there would be 1000 degree flowing lava that would scorch anything and everything
in its path, but that really wouldn’t be the main issue.
What would be the catastrophe causer would be the hot ash thrown high into the air.
The ash cloud could drop fall out over a 500 mile, so 800 kilometre radius from the epicentre
of the eruption.
This means Salt Lake City, Cheyene and Boise, and Denver would be covered in over 1 meter
of ash.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Albuquerque, Calgary, Winnipeg, Chicago, Kansas
City and Saint would see up to 30 centimetres of ash, and even places as far away as Toronto,
New York, Washington DC and Austin in Texas could experience up to 3 centimetres of ash
covering.
Of course, the jet stream could carry ash as far away as Europe.
To put this in perspective, just millimetre of ash is enough to cause airport closures,
seriously damage property, cause breathing problems and shut down transport, such as
airports.
This means that the fallout would include the total destruction of Midwest agriculture,
and rivers and streams would be clogged by ashy much, diminishing the water supply of
the states, and some areas of Canada.
If this is just the damage millimetres of ash can do – what about the people living
close to the volcano?
Well unfortunately, it is curtains for them.
The closer ash falls near the eruption zone, the less time the air will have had to cool
the particles of searingly hot volcanic ash.
People who had not evacuated within a 100 kilometre radius of the Volcano would die,
and buildings would practically melt.
The death wouldn’t just be focused in on the immediate radius either, a lot of people
with asthma and are respiratory problems would be in serious risk.
It isn’t just ash that would be a problem, either.
In the long term, a supereruption from Yellowstone would throw gasses like sulphur dioxide in
the air.
Lots of these particles in the air can absorb the suns light and reflect it back out into
space, meaning we wouldn’t get as much light on earth as we are used to.
This would cool the climate for anything up to ten years and would have the ability to
effect rainfall patterns and generate more freezing weather than could devastate crops
across the world, not just the united states.
resulting climate cooling could last up to a decade.
The temporary climate shift could alter rainfall patterns, and, along with severe frosts, cause
widespread crop losses and famine.
It is estimated that the damage caused by a fall scale eruption of Yellowstone could
cost the United States three trillion dollars, with 20% of the countries total economy destroyed
or severely disrupted.
While at the moment, we are unable to stop an eruption, Nasa does have an idea for a
3.5 billion dollar plan that could greatly reduce the risk of eruption.
We’ll have to wait and see how funding for that one goes!
So that is one scary question answered for you