The Effects Of Yellowstone Volcanic Complex On The World

Assess the extent to which primary rather than secondary impacts are the more serious effects arising from volcanic eruptions. (30 marks)

Something beautiful can also be dangerous, as like the darkness can have phenomenal results. Volcanoes are one example of nature’s beauty, they can be fascinating, exciting, magnificent, but they can also be catastrophic. Their hazard eruptions put many lives at risk, destroying properties, places, and can disrupt air quality. The list of volcanoes is huge, there are three groups of them, dormant, extinct and active volcanoes. From the latter group there are about 500 in the entire world. Although both Mt. St Helens and Mt Pinatubo are two of the most significant volcanoes in the world, they have some characteristics that show their differences and similarities between both of them.

Yellowstone Park sits over a large volcano. The Yellowstone volcano is considered to be a super volcano due to the violence and volume of ash that was produced in one eruption. Super volcano eruptions can drastically impact the entire planet by causing potentially catastrophic climate change. There have been no super volcano eruptions in human history. However, there have been many super volcano eruptions at Yellowstone over the past 18 million years. The super volcano eruptions have created what is known as the Yellowstone caldera. The last super volcano eruption was 640,000 years ago. This eruption caused a pillar of ash to rocket into the air as high as 100,00 feet. From that height, a layer of ash covered the land as far away as the Gulf of Mexico. There were actually two events more

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 rising threat of the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park alarms geologists, who are concerned about the quick refresh of magma in a reservoir, that feeds into the volcano. A new study, which analyzed minerals and fossils left from the last major eruption, shows that another could happen in the near future, with very little warning. Additionally, researchers that study the Yellowstone volcano are unsure of how soon the next eruption will occur, and a prior team suggests more destructive and larger blasts may be more frequent. Scientists believe the volcano has only exploded twice in the past two million years, based on fossil deposits found near the site of Yellowstone.

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

Yellowstone National Park’s landscape was formed by numerous geological processes. The park is home to some of the most active volcanic, hydrothermal and earthquake systems that occur. Yellowstone’s geological features are a result of residing on a volcano caldera. Volcanic activity takes place here as a result of the shallow source of magma. The park was made famous because of its location on the North American plate which has slowly, yet consistently, shifted as a result of plate tectonics. After many years of the earth’s crust moving, a hotspot now resides below Yellowstone. A large portion of the park contains broad volcanic plateaus. Over the last 2 million years, three large caldera eruptions have emerged on the landscape influencing

Miocene volcanic rocks that form the Timber Mountains and Oasis valley caldera complex border the basin to the north (Christiansen et al., 1977) and extend southward beneath the basin. Most of these volcanic rocks are silicic ignimbrites that are 9.5-16 Ma (Christiansen et al., 1977). These volcanic rocks are overlain by moderately to highly deformed siltstone, fanglomerates, tuff, and limestone that have been correlated to the Furnace Creek Formation of Death Valley (Hunt and Mabey, 1966; Naffe, 1973) which has been dated at 5.3 to 6.4 Ma (Fleck, 1970; Hay et al., 1986).

by phreatomagmatic eruptions at the central summit (Pullinger, 1998). This suggests that there is high hydrothermal activity

The Yellowstone is known as one of six largest supervolcanoes in the world. Though this supervolcano has not erupted recently it does have continue to have volcanic activities. The previous eruption remains have been found outside of the Yellowstone National Park that link to the Yellowstone Caldera. Ben Ellis and Mark Darren, authors of the article “‘Super-eruptions’ and silicic volcanism from the Yellowstone volcanic field,” describes current volcanic activities of this area and how it has expanded and transition from its previous super-eruptions to what has happen now, and what changes could another volcanic reaction cause for this area. Ellis and Darren wrote that the “. . . evidence of volcanic activity is all around” (135). In this they were talking about Yellowstone.

Earth is an extraordinary place where many titanic forces are at work each day. At the location of Mount St. Helens though, an eruption occurred that had never been recorded before in human history, taking off 600 feet of its summit. The study of this eruption will help bring Geologists closer to understanding the secrets of Earth.

Yellowstone is one of the largest known volcanoes in the world and the largest volcanic system in North America. The volcano is found above an intra-plate hot spot that has been feeding the magma chamber for at least 2 million years. The giant caldera is the product of a large-scale collapse of the crust after 3 ultra-plinain or super volcano eruptions, large explosive events that erupt several hundreds to few thousands of cubic km of magma. These eruptions took place 2.1, 1.3 and 0.64 million years ago. Yellowstone’s magma chamber is believed to still be active and contain at least 15,000 cubic km of melt. Yellowstone volcano is located in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States. Yellowstone volcano is a super volcano; last time

A major eruption melting the ice and snow could send debris flows, pyroclastic flows, and lahars towards Puget Sound and the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area. Volcanic hazard mapping has identified areas in the park that could be affected in the future by debris flows, lahars, pyroclastic flows and surges, lava flows, volcanic projectiles, tephra falls, and lateral blasts. Longmire Village and the Cougar Rock, Ohanapecosh, White River, Ipsut Creek, and Sunshine Point campgrounds are all vulnerable to these hazards. Monitoring of volcanic activity is on-going. There is a need for an emergency response plan to address these hazards. The reaction between groundwater and rising gas and steam from the underlying magmatic system creates zones of hydrothermally altered rock. Fumeroles at the summit of the volcano are one result of this reaction. Another result is the largest volcanic ice-cave system in the world at the summit of Mount Rainier. Earthquakes are also geologic hazards associated with Mount Rainier. Earthquakes precede a volcanic eruption although not every earthquake means an eruption is imminent. Other than Mt. St. Helens, Mount Rainier is the mos (Graham)t seismically active volcano in the Cascades. The destruction of cryptobiotic soils and general soil erosion by human impacts are important issues. A

Eyjafjallajokull is a stratovolcano nestled on the southern coast of Iceland. It is the oldest volcano on Iceland at 800,000 years old and has only erupted five times. Its elevation is 1666 and it has a summit caldera measuring 2.5 km in width. On the east and west flanks there are fissure fed lava flows and the composition is mainly Basalt but there have been Trachyandesite, Trachybasalt, and Trachydacite compositions erupted. The tectonic setting is a rift zone sitting right on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Predicting when a volcano will erupt is a tricky and complex process. There are a multitude of signals that will be given off indicating that an eruption is imminent. Sometimes the predicting behaviors will not lead to an eruption, however. A.M. Sparks states that it is important to first understand the properties of a volcano and it’s processes in order to create an accurate prediction(Sparks, 9). There are several recent methods that have been discovered as predictors of a volcanic eruption.