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The Yellowstone Supervolcano

By: Arkhum Smith

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Location:

  • Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States of America.
  • Longitude: 44.4000° N
  • Latitude: 110.7000° W

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Volcanic Hotspot

The Supervolcano in Yellowstone actually isn’t caused because of a plate boundary. It’s actually a hot spot, meaning that instead of it being formed by two plates either converging or diverging it is caused by magma seeping through the Earth’s crust from the mantle and then formed a volcano.

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Types of Magma

Rhyolitic

  • Rhyolitic eruptions could produce large amount of volcanic ash and pumice.
  • Very viscous, therefor traps gas, builds pressure, and then erupts in a very violent manor.
  • Highly explosive.
  • 650 – 800 degree’s Celsius

Basaltic

  • Flows very easily because of it’s low viscosity and low gas content.
  • This low viscosity is due to a low silica content.
  • Not explosive.
  • 1000 – 1200 degree’s Celsius

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Type of Eruption:

  • This supervolcano can produce two different types of eruptions: effusive and explosive
  • Effusive: magma rises through the surface and flows out of the volcano as a viscous liquid called lava.
  • Explosive: magma is torn apart as it rises and reaches the surface in pieces known as pyroclasts.

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Similar Volcanoes:

  • Long Valley Caldera
  • Valles Caldera
  • Cero Galan Caldera

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Shape of the Volcano:

  • The volcano measures 34 miles, by 45 miles in size.
  • The super volcano is a caldera, meaning that the last time it erupted is collapsed on itself, creating a giant crater in the earth, 1500 square miles in area.
  • The volcano isn’t just one mountain, it actually spans out under ground into many different states!

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Average Eruption:

  • The last time the volcano erupted was about 640,000+ years ago.
  • The volcano does not erupt very often. In fact, scientists believe the volcano has only erupted 3 times, the first dating 2.1 million years ago.
  • On average, scientists think that the volcano erupts about every 600,000 years.
  • Scientist think the volcano will erupt sometime in the 21st century, however they are not sure when.

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The Last Eruption:

  • The last time the caldera erupted was in 1350 B.C.
  • However, the last lava flow was about 70,000 years ago.
  • All three of its eruptions in history were 6,000, 700, and 2,500 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens.
  • Scientists do not know how many people were killed, since it was so long ago, but if it were to erupt today scientists believe it would be fully capable about wiping out the entire globe.
  • The magma that powered the volcano still exists, and is what powers the geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, and mud holes.

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Pictures of Yellowstone

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Bibliography:

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