Scientists have been worried for years that the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone will explode, but there’s a more immediate concern about the health of that beautiful national park: Fire. Climate is changing fire patterns in the west in a way that could increase the frequency of large fires in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to a point that sparks dramatic shifts in the vegetation there.
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Why it may be about to blow – Is the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park about to blow? Sometimes science is right and seismologists have discovered that there is a huge plume of molten rock over 600 miles deep beneath the park that is increasing the changes of volcanic activity.
Seismologist Mathias Obrebski used huge array of seismometers to test the seismic plates along the plume and found them to be unstable. On the Fox News website, Lynne Peeples quotes seismologist Vic Camp as saying, “Chemical and physical volcanology evidence suggested a plume, but this is the first seismic proof. If you look at the mass extinctions on Earth, we think that a few may have been associated with eruptions from mantle plumes.”
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New detailed seismic images of the “plumbing” that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles. Does this mean it’s about to blow?
A study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20% larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.
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Danger of volcano eruption is over – The earthquake swarm in Yellowstone is finally dying down, so the fear that they might set off a volcano that would lead to the deaths of as many as a billion people has also abated.
According to the Billings Gazette, 400 more quakes have been reported since the beginning of the year, but they died down by January 8, although earthquake activity is still “well above typical.” There have been false website evacuation alarms, but none of these were legitimate and there is no immediate danger to nearby residents.
Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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