Volcanic Activity at Yellowstone :: essays research papers

Yellowstone is a national park covering 3,468 square miles in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana and it is elevated 8,000 feet from the ground on a plateau. But is there still present volcanic hazard in Yellowstone? The park is covered with over 10,000 geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and travertine terraces, perhaps caused by a ?hot spot? that it overlies. A violent history suggests equally as devastating future volcanic activity, underground forces are causing the landscape to change and geysers to become more active. The real question is, if a super volcanic explosion took place, would human life exist as we know it ever again? The history of volcanic activity at Yellowstone starts with its first eruption at Huckleberry Ridge 2.1 million years ago, the leftovers reached as far as Iowa and central Texas. Then 800,000 years later, another eruption took place in Mesa Falls creating Henry Fork Caldera near Park, Montana. The last eruption took place 630,000 years ago, called the Lava Creek eruption, spewing 240 cubic miles of debris, and spreading as far as Louisiana and California. Hidden underneath the park, powerful volcanic, magnetic, and hydrothermal forces are reforming the land. Several earthquakes, uplifting, and subsidence of the landscape proves that these powers exist. Recent studies have caused scientists to think that Yellowstone could be growing larger as flowing molten rock builds up below the ground. In a period of 10 years, the volcano has risen 5 inches, not a significantly detectable difference, but it may have split the ground in the Norris Geyser Bassin that could reawaken some of the geysers, like the Steamboat. In spite of this newly found information, scientists do not speculate the volcano erupting any time soon, but with time, it will end with a super natural disaster, destroying everything in its path When Yellowstone does erupt, the United states could be covered in 3 feet of ash from the eruption. First, the pyroclastic flow would swallow most of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Then, like Yellowstone eruptions have done before, the world would fall into a freezing, winter lasting around 10 years. Mass famine would take place all around the world as the eruption would have devastated the agriculture, effecting the food.