~SUPER VOLCANO: MAGMA RESERVOIR UNDER YELLOWSTONE MUCH BIGGER THAN ORIGINALLHY THOUGHT: 'SWELLING'
Mac Slavo
If there’s one earth-bound natural disaster that threatens human civilization and the United States as a whole, it’s the Yellowstone Caldera.
It’s believed that the last monster eruption of the volcano quietly sitting below Yellowstone National Park in the Northwest corner of Wyoming occurred some 640,000 years ago, with a minor eruption having taken place about 70,000 years ago, right around the time of the last ice age.
Scientists originally believed that the modern day caldera was pretty big, but recent data suggest their figures were off… way off.
The magma reservoir under the Yellowstone National Park is 50 miles (80 km) long and 12 miles (20 km) wide: more than two and a half times larger than expected. Naturedescribes the reservoir as “a 4,000 cubic kilometer underground sponge,” between six and eight percent of it filled with molten rock.
…
Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah Jamie Farrell made the discovery after studying data recorded from more than 4,500 earthquakes. Yellowstone is one of the world’s most geologically active places: Farrell and his Utah team noted small quakes occurring “as often as every few seconds.”
…
Yellowstone’s magma reservoir is one of the world’s largest. Geophysicist Robert Smith — also on the Utah-based team — said he didn’t know “of any other magma body that’s been imaged that’s that big.”
Via The Verge
While scientists don’t know when the caldera will erupt, Michio Kaku explains that we’re due for another one. Recently the Caldera swelled 10 inches, something scientists had not observed until this year.
Should another eruption occur it would spew debris across the United States for hundreds of miles, cover the earth with clouds, and potentially leading to a significant cooling of the planet.
The following History Channel documentary explores the Caldera and what an eruption would look like:
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
Contributed by Mac Slavo
Related articles
VIEW VIDEO