After decades of slumber, the world’s largest active volcano has awakened, with a new eruption starting at the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa late last month; and although there is no danger of an imminent eruption from the caldera at Yellowstone, it has been discovered that there is more magmaread more
A recent study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, indicated that the risk of a "Supervolcano" eruption could be between 10 to 100 times more likely than previously thought.
Scientists originally assumed that seismic activity was necessary to crack open the earth’s crust and trigger a supervolcano eruption, but evidence now suggests that it is the build up of pressure from contained magma that ultimately causes it to break through and escape onto the surface in a cataclysmic explosion.
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Unknowncountry has been monitoring the increased earthquake activity at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, and considering the potential effects of a Super-volcano eruption. The National Park is perched on top of a simmering Super-volcano which has been responsible for some of the largest and most cataclysmic volcanic eruptions in known history.
Last week’s ‘Weekender’ feature documented an increase in earthquake swarms around the Yellowstone area – over 130 in September alone – and a 3 inch swell in the volcano’s caldera every year for the past three years suggesting that the magma underneath is rising. The cause of the tremors has not yet been determined, but could be influenced by planetary alignments according to some experts and peer-reviewed studies.
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There is earthquake activity around two supervolcanoes, one in North Korea and the other in the United States. Earthquake swarms in such areas can indicate magma movement, and scientists are studying both volcanoes. A thousand years ago the eruption of Mount Paektu in what is now North Korea was probably the largest in human history. The eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano would devastate the United States. In addition to these two restless supervolcanoes, large-scale earthquake activity is continuing. Like the meteor count Unknowncountry reported on earlier this week, the earthquake count has been rising worldwide for a number of years.
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