The Controversy Of Yellowstone Supervolcano

The Yellowstone volcano is very active volcanic system which requires much observation. The geysers, mudd pots, hotsprings and steam vents are all examples of the heat from molten rock of a volcano. For many years the Yellowstone volcano could not be located. There is not obvious signs of a volcano, but scientists looked for other clues. Rhyolite is present in a location that has pinetress and many mosquitoes can be found due to the lakes that have formed. Rhyolite is a very violent eruption, due to the high silica content,  it flows slowly, like honey, and tends to pile up and form lava

You may think that a supervolcano is far out of our reach and it could be thousands of years before one erupts and causes havoc all across the world, conversely it is not as far away as you may be thinking. A supervolcano refers to a volcano being able to spew more than two hundred and forty cubic miles of magma. Volcanoes causing this much destruction are not uncommon and there have been five volcanoes to erupt and wipe out massive amounts of life. Five may not seem like a massive number, but what came about during these eruptions and after the fact is what makes the event a terrifying reality. Around two hundred and forty eight million years ago the Permian-Triassic extinction destroyed ninety to ninety five percent of all species on Earth due to a massive volcano, other instances include The Laki Volcano in 1783 and

The west coast of North America has been tectonically and volcanically active for billions of years. The Sierra Nevada Mountains in eastern California were born of volcanoes, and magma has been erupting in the Long Valley to the east of the mountains for over three million years (Bailey, et. al., 1989). However, the climactic eruption of the region occurred relatively recently in the region's geologic history. About 760,000 years ago, a huge explosion of magma warped the Eastern Sierra into the landscape that exists today. The eruption depleted a massive magma chamber below the earth's surface so that the ceiling of the chamber imploded, forming what is now known as

Lava flows of rhyolite and basalt have flowed through parts of Yellowstone as recently as 70,000 years ago. These lava flows destroyed everything in their paths while moving slowly at a rate of a few hundred feet per day, flowing months, or sometimes even several years. They are thick and cover as much as 130 square miles. They have nearly filled the Yellowstone Caldera, and spilled beyond the caldera’s border. These lava flows are responsible for forming four of the nine named plateaus in

Simultaneously, Mt Adams is the second highest mountain and the most under looked volcano in Washington State. In terms of volume, Mt. Adams is the second largest volcano (behind Mt. Shasta) in the Cascade Range (Alt & Hyndman 1984). Since it has been relatively quiet for the past couple millennia, it does not receive as much attention as it’s counterparts and draws very few tourists due to it’s remote setting (Hill 2004). Prior to recent research, not much was known regarding Mt. Adam’s eruptive history, frequency or how explosive previous eruptions have been. (Hildreth & Lanphere 1994). In this paper, I will discuss the geography, history, geology, and hazards of Mt. Adams and it’s surrounding area; focusing heavily on its geology and geologic hazards.

The supervolcano in Yellowstone had an earthquake swarm that hit more than 1,200 events. Most park roads in yellowstone are closed for the season because of safety precaution this event and there are currently 1,284 tremors. Together with frequent earthquakes, vigorous hydrothermal activity, and abundant emissions of volcanic gases, relatively slow movements of the ground surface attest to ongoing activity in the vast magmatic-tectonic system beneath Yellowstone National Park. Imperceptible to the naked eye, episodes of uplift, subsidence, and stretching or contraction of the surface are monitored by repeated surveys and networks of sensitive instruments operated by YVO and its partners. Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas

The formation of LIPs associated with superplumes might have affected sea level, climate, and may have caused the extinction of some species. Because when volcanic eruptions begin, the huge quantities of basaltic lava spew out of the ground, the hot basaltic lava has low viscosity that can erupts the localities, and it can flow tens to hundreds of kilometers across the

The evolution of the Grand Canyon National Park has been one of the marvels of the world to which many researchers had dedicated substantial amount of controversial studies in attempt to accurately estimate the origin of the canyons and caves/gorges ages and Colorado Plateau current attained mean elevation of nearly horizontal sedimentary rocks based on numerous scientific interpretation of new research data without consideration of a slew of prior geologic data sets that confused geologists many generations ago. It is widely believed in the industry that weather element and volcanism during the ice ages (Cenozoic period) raised the amount of water in the Colorado River drainage system which increased the speed of the Colorado river and its active tributaries and its ability to cut through rocks many years ago, steepened the river (tributaries) gradient attributed to the uplift of the Colorado Plateau sitting near at sea level and the great depth of the Grand Canyon (Flowers, 2010). Additionally, increased differential erosion rate billions of years ago, exposed major geologic rock structures by cutting almost all the terraced walls of the current Grand Canyons created in part by volcanic activity that deposited lava and ashes across the area which completely obstructed the Colorado river system.

Lava from this powerful volcano can cover an area twice the size of Washington D.C. The lava can cause a large amount of wildfires that could ruin the habitats of many wild animals, and decimate the population of animals, and trees. “During eruption, these flows oozed slowly over the surface, moving at most a few hundred feet per day for several months to several years, destroying everything in their paths”(volcanoes.usgs.gov). This can be a total devastating event and can change what we know as Yellowstone today. Last but not least this volcano can alter the

The theory of plate tectonics states that earth’s crust is broken up into plates. Geologists speculate that a hot spot in the upper mantle of the earth's crust is responsible for the heat that derives the Yellowstone thermal and volcanic activity; the result of three gigantic volcanic eruptions that caused by the underlying hot spot. The volcanic eruptions started with the collapse of the mouth of its volcano and formed large volcanic craters called calderas. Yellowstone’s volcanic past has the first and the largest caldera that blew up about over two million years ago, and it was

Evidence: According to the article, by Elaina Zachos in February 8th there was an large earthquake of 2.9 magnitude.Also in February there has been 200 and all of them have been 5 miles under the surface. “Supervolcano” and “earthquake swarms” seem like daunting terms but in Yellowstone they are non threatening.Earthquake swarms can be a result of stress

Annotated Bibliography Capra, L. (2006). Abrupt climatic changes as triggering mechanisms of massive volcanic collapses. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 155(3), 329-333. This article explains how volcanic collapse can affect the climate.

A mudpot is also just a geyser but the rock has melted away. A fumarole is a volcanic vent which issues steam and gas. All of the geological landmarks in Yellowstone get their heat from magma 3 miles and 125 feet under the ground. Some of the most pretty and amazing geysers are: Riverside, for its beauty, Grotto, for the cone shape of the geyser, Clepsydra, because it runs almost nonstop, Cliff Geyser, because it also runs almost nonstop and you can get very close to the geyser, and Old Faithful, for its predictability, colors, and height. Old Faithful’s name comes from its predictability. The average time between an Old Faithful eruption is 74 minutes. The range is from 60- 100 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 100-180 feet. Each eruption can last a low of 1.5 minutes to a high of 5 minutes. Each eruption expels a whopping 3,700-8,400 gallons every time it erupts. The water temperature can be 204 degrees fahrenheit and the steam is above 305 degrees fahrenheit. There is also a supervolcano under Yellowstone. It has erupted 100 and more times in 16.5 years. Fortunately, these have all been small eruptions. There is a large eruption about every 600,000 years. These large eruptions have happened 3 times. Each one made a huge caldera. The were each 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 640,000 years ago. The lava never travelled much outside of the Yellowstone boundaries. If the supervolcano erupted, it would definitely

Data collection and sources; the data used in this study comes from Azzalin and Bowman(1990). It includes a data frame with 272 observations on 2 variables that is eruption time and waiting time. The data is heavily rounded times originally in seconds.

My article is about Yellowstone supervolcano's, for example the article states that ‘’ a supervolcano is not expected to erupt or explode anytime soon if it did , though, the eruption would be powerful enough to blanket the western U.S. with ash’’. Many people have a theory that a mantle plume formed the Yellowstone supervolcano a new computer test shows that this theory was really wrong. ‘’ Leonard thinks the heat source comes from Juan de Fucaridge. It is a volcanic area in the Pacific Ocean. Scientist keep arguing over the information of the Yellowstone. My article also tells me about Lijun Liu a geologist ‘’he built a computer simulation with his student Tiffany Leonard after entering information about Yellowstone into the computer’’