Many magnificent spots in the globe can be found in the United States.
For instance, there's the Grand Canyon, the rocky mountains, the gorgeous beaches, and
even the magnificent ocean of the planet.
It's no surprise that it's regarded as one of the most beautiful continents in the world.
The United States founded its own National Park Service in 1916 with the aim to conserve
these many magnificent areas.
The park service currently manages 63 of the country's protected sites.
This covers an area of 85 million square kilometers, approximately equal to the size of Germany.
Yellowstone National Park is one of these well-known parks that the National Service
Park is looking into.
This park can be found in the northwestern region of Wyoming, with some overlap in Montana
and Idaho, and it encompasses around nine thousand square kilometers of territory.
Wildlife abounds in Yellowstone, as do various geothermal features.
One of these is the Old Faithful, a cone geyser that erupts water 54 meters up in the air
every ninety minutes or so.
Every year, about almost four million people visit the park to enjoy the lovely sights
it has to offer.
Nobody, on the other hand, appeared to be aware that Yellowstone is concealing a deadly
secret.
Are you aware that Yellowstone is situated right on top of the world's largest supervolcano?
Yes, I’m referring to a volcano not just large in the North American continent, but
on the entire globe!
Isn't that terrifying?
Adding to that, did you know that the Yellowstone Caldera that we have today was constructed
by a series of massive volcanic eruptions that occurred a long time ago?
One of these volcanic eruptions occurred 2.1 million years ago, another occurred 1.3 million
years ago, and the most recent occurred roughly six hundred and sixty-four thousand years
ago, according to records.
Super eruptions were the geological term for these eruptions.
This means they would always be categorized as magnitude 8 or greater in the volcano explosivity
index, which is absurd to comprehend.
These eruptions eject lots of molten material and lava that would harm everything on its
path.
The most recent eruption encircled Yellowstone Lake and ejected so much material that it
produced a 55-by-80-kilometer depression on the land that we now know as the current Yellowstone
Caldera.
Analyzing the history of the eruptions in Yellowstone, the volcanic eruptions appeared
to have a disturbing pattern.
Take this into consideration: following the third most recent explosion, the second most
recent explosion occurred around eight hundred thousand years.
The most recent one occurred approximately six hundred and thirty-six thousand years
after the second one.
The most recent explosion occurred six hundred and sixty-four thousand years ago, and that
is about twenty-eight thousand years longer than the duration between the two most recent
explosions.
This is also one of the main reasons why Yellowstone is frequently garnering a lot of attention.
Because the volcano is now dormant, experts and scientists have repeatedly assured the
public that an eruption in Yellowstone will not occur anytime today.
This is based on over thirty years of research, and the information they gathered indicated
that while a massive eruption is theoretically feasible, it is unlikely to occur within the
next ten thousand years.
But, what if the scientists' prediction didn't come true, and the volcano in Yellowstone
erupted?
How awful would it be?
Let's make some guesses.
Yellowstone's entire volcanic system is enormous.
The magma chamber that now sits beneath the national park measures sixty kilometers long,
twenty-nine kilometers wide, and eight kilometers deep, and houses an incredible volume of molten
lava.
Let’s say that one day a massive plume of molten rock goes up from hundreds of miles
beneath the Earth's surface, feeding this chamber.
And, as the magma goes up and cools in the chamber, the ground in Yellowstone will rise
and fall regularly.
This would even result in the elevation of the ground in Yellowstone Park moving up by
a few inches per year.
It's important to note that any major eruption would almost certainly be accompanied by a
lot of seismic activity, which would serve as a warning indication that something catastrophic
was about to happen.
That is why according to many seismologists there might be significant earthquakes occurring
weeks or even months before an eruption in Yellowstone, as magma breaks up the rock underneath
it as it rises to the surface.
This is also due to the pressure that would keep developing and grow in strength until
there was nowhere else to go but to explode.
The magma would erupt through the ground, sending debris as high as twenty-four kilometers
into the stratosphere.
Right after the explosion, the lava would envelop the surrounding area, which is basically
the entire territory of the National Park itself, putting everybody within 65 kilometers
of the epicenter at risk of being physically buried in lava.
Aside from the immediate threat of burning, the explosion would eject a million cubic
kilometers of material into the sky.
This would lead to the forming an umbrella cloud that would spread uniformly in all directions,
making skies look dark throughout much of the North American continent.
Unfortunately, this cloud will pour down deadly volcanic ash throughout the whole mainland
United States.
The places that would be most hit by this with up to a meter thick of hot volcanic ash
are Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, and Utah.
On the other hand, Denver, Boise, and Salt Lake City will suffer significant damage as
well, if not total destruction.
There would be inches of ash covering everything in places throughout the Midwest, Nevada,
and Southern Alberta.
The Atlantic and Pacific coasts would almost certainly see a light coating, but this would
be dependent on the time of year and weather patterns involved during the explosion.
The saddest part of it all, of course, would be the terrible devastating impact on human
life.
Even if people are not near the epicenter, a four-meter layer of ash being thrown down
on a metropolis would kill not only humans but also vegetation and animals.
This event could completely wipe off the Midwest's corn and soybean crops, as well as poison
farmland for the next generation.
If this happens, food production in the United States would be significantly hampered, and
in order to survive, America would most likely have to rely on food imports from other continents.
In fact, a few inches of ash can already destroy farms, impede roads, and cause major health
problems for almost the entire population.
The explosion would also destroy essential infrastructure, poison water supplies, shut
down power lines, affect all air travel throughout the continent, and even destroy electrical
transformers, thus shutting down America's electricity system.
Adding to the sheer catastrophe that is about to engulf North America if ever Yellowstone
explodes, a massive volcanic eruption would have a significant impact on the global climate.
A change in the global climate would certainly affect everyone who lives on this planet in
some way.
It's worth noting that volcanoes can release sulfur aerosols that reflect sunlight away
from the Earth, causing the temperature to decrease, thus experiencing cold weather.
To put it another way, when Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it is
said that it cooled the planet by 1 degree for at least a few years.
The same thing happened in Indonesia in 1815 with the massive Tambora eruption, which was
believed to have chilled the planet so much that it damaged crops around the world, potentially
causing severe famines in some areas.
Snowfall was even recorded in June that year in the Eastern portion of the United States,
making it known as the year without a summer.
The eruptions of these two volcanoes, on the other hand, were little compared to the devastation
that a supervolcanic Yellowstone eruption can cause.
Although it's difficult to say for sure, experts believe that the volume of material released
into the atmosphere after a major eruption in the Yellowstone would cause the planet
to cool by up to 10 degrees for a decade.
Of course, the drastic change in the climate would result in a global disaster.
It would make crops all over the world to be damaged, and in this case, it has the potential
to put the lives of hundreds of millions of people in starvation and would also cause
significant damage.
If Yellowstone were to blow up at any time today, FEMA, the US Federal Emergency Management
Agency, projected that the damage would be three trillion dollars.
As you can see, if the Yellowstone erupts, the consequences will be catastrophic for
everyone.
But don't worry; it's doubtful that it will happen in our lifetimes.
Based on the frequency of the previous three major eruptions, the chances of it happening
in any given year are around 0.0001 percent, which is so much lower than the chances of
humanity being destroyed due to an asteroid striking the Earth’s surface.
So, yeah, you don't need to be concerned about this right now.
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