YELLOW STONE ACTIVE VOLCANO
ALL THE INFORMATION GIVEN BELOW ARE NOT SURE THEY WERE COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES FROM VARIOUS SITES FROM THE INTERNET
SUPER VOLCANO THREAT TO NORTH AMERICA
Some experts believe that a super volcano in the United States may soon erupt with such force as to lay waste much of North America. Moreover they believe that such an event may now be imminent and would constitute a major catastrophe whose effects would be felt around the world and push Mankind to the very brink of extinction. This is a relatively young volcano but its immense size and the power of its previous eruptions - amongst the largest in recorded world history - mean it poses a threat of considerable proportions.
HIGH POWER
Some indication of the enormity of the power involved in these eruptions, thousands of times more powerful than a normal volcano can be judged from the first astonishing eruption of the Yellowstone around 2.1 million years ago. This was so potent that it gouged out a crater 85 kilometres long by 60 kilometres wide - a truly phenomenal eruption that had it happened today would have come close to obliterating the whole of the United States. That isn’t to mention the broader implications for the world as a whole, with volcanic ash obscuring the Sun and likely to have enormous consequences on world weather, agriculture, and quality of life.
The Yellowstone Volcano is relatively young, in fact surprisingly young. Moreover during the course of its two million years of life it has erupted with astonishing periodicity around once every 600,000 years. Some experts feel that another eruption is well overdue. The fact is that until recently the Yellowstone has not attracted much concern. In the 1970’s however scientists noticed there had been a two feet rise in the vertical level of the Caldera and this prompted closer investigation of the Yellowstone which is now monitored around the clock. From this study we know that the caldera rises and falls over time and is now said to be bulging towards the Southwest. In addition the north side is estimated to have bulged around 170 feet in the last 50 years. But are these bulges indicative of a coming eruption? Experts say not, explaining that these rises and falls are merely a normal part of the volcanoes life cycle.
IMMENSE MAGMA RESERVOIR
It is thought that 5 miles beneath the surface of the Yellowstone lies an immense red hot reservoir of magma around 30 miles long, 20 miles wide, and 6 miles deep. This magma is what powers Yellowstone's fantastic geysers and hot springs, but it is the pressures associated with this build-up that could one day prove lethal with an explosion of unparalleled proportions that some experts believe would not only obliterate much of North America but push the entire human race to the brink of extinction.
The last eruption of the Yellowstone was 600,000 years ago and blasted 1,000 cubic kilometres of volcanic rock into the atmosphere which would have settled as ash over more than half of the United States.
