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What would happen if Yellowstone volcano were to erupt?
If the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone National Park ever had another massive eruption, it could spew ash for thousands of miles across the United States, damaging buildings, smothering crops, and shutting down power plants. It’d be a huge disaster.
What Vei would Yellowstone be?
This would be a mass of uncompacted ejecta ten kilometers in length, ten kilometers in width and ten kilometers deep. Eruptions at Toba (74,000 years ago), Yellowstone (640,000 years ago), and Lake Taupo (26,500 years ago) are three of the 47 VEI 8 sites that have been identified.
What is the danger zone for Yellowstone eruption?
Zone One would extend up to 80km from the eruption, blasting the ground with sweltering hot gases and up to 3m of volcanic ash at temperatures over 400ºC. Some 70,000 people are found in this area of impact and unfortunately, the direct effects of the eruption are not survivable.
How far would the lava go if Yellowstone erupted?
The devastation would not be restricted to the local environment. Yellowstone’s plume of ash, lava, and volcanic gases would reach a height of fifteen miles or more, and from this lofty position, be blown across North America.
Is Yellowstone about to erupt 2020?
Yellowstone is not overdue for an eruption. Even so, the math doesn’t work out for the volcano to be “overdue” for an eruption. In terms of large explosions, Yellowstone has experienced three at 2.08, 1.3, and 0.631 million years ago. This comes out to an average of about 725,000 years between eruptions.
What does VEI 4 mean?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Volcanoes that have produced explosive VEI-4 eruptions. Such eruptions release a tephra volume of at least 0.1 km3 (0.024 cu mi) with substantial effects on the surrounding area.
What is VEI and how does it work?
Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) is a numeric scale that measures the relative explosivity of historic eruptions. Volume of products, eruption cloud height, and qualitative observations (using terms ranging from “gentle” to “mega-colossal”) are used to determine the explosivity value.
Can Yellowstone cause an ice age?
During colder climatic periods, Yellowstone has been covered by ice. Bull Lake ice dammed rivers, and deposits from the glaciers are found both above and below Yellowstone lava flows, meaning that the ice age occurred both before and after times of Yellowstone eruptions.
Is there enough magma under Yellowstone to erupt?
The rhyolite magma chamber beneath Yellowstone is only 5-15\% molten (the rest is solidified but still hot), so it is unclear if there is even enough magma beneath the caldera to feed an eruption. If Yellowstone does erupt again, it need not be a large eruption.
What happened during the three giant eruptions at Yellowstone?
(Public domain.) During the three giant caldera-forming eruptions that occurred between 2.1 million and 640,000 years ago, tiny particles of volcanic debris (volcanic ash) covered much of the western half of North America, likely a third of a meter deep several hundred kilometers from Yellowstone and several centimeters thick farther away.
Are there any active volcanoes in Yellowstone?
Yellowstone, one of the world’s largest active volcanic systems, has produced several giant volcanic eruptions in the past few million years, as well as many smaller eruptions and steam explosions. Although no eruptions of lava or volcanic ash have occurred for many thousands of years, future eruptions are likely.
What is the most explosive event at Yellowstone?
The most likely explosive event to occur at Yellowstone is actually a hydrothermal explosion—a rock-hurling geyser eruption—or a lava flow. Hydrothermal explosions are very small; they occur in Yellowstone National Park every few years and form a crater a few meters across.