Latest Yellowstone Caldera Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The geologic formation of the supervolcano encompassing the Yellowstone National Park region has been the subject of much debate. A new study, led by the University of Rhode Island's Professor Christopher Kincaid, provides new evidence that may put an end to the debate by demonstrating both sides may be right. The international team of scientists used a state-of-the-art plate tectonic laboratory to show the volcanism in the...

The early April earthquake of magnitude 8.6 that shook Sumatra was a grim reminder of the devastating earthquakes and tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people in 2004 and 2005. Now a new study, funded by the National Science Foundation, shows that the residents of that region are at risk from yet another potentially deadly natural phenomenon – major volcanic eruptions. Researchers from Oregon State University working with colleagues in Indonesia have documented six major...

Brett Smith for Redorbit.com New research is casting doubts on the frequency or even the possibility of a ‘super-eruption’ that could blot out the sun from the Earth with a thick veil of volcanic ash. A joint research team from Washington State University and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre said the biggest Yellowstone eruption on record was actually two different eruptions at least 6,000 years apart. According to the study published in the June 2012 issue...

Supervolcanoes are one of nature's most destructive forces. In a matter of hours, an eruption from a supervolcano can force thousands of cubic meters of molten rock above ground, and scar landscapes with massive calderas and craters. These catastrophic eruptions have a global impact, and yet scientists still do not fully understand them. Today, a team of scientists studying Bolivia's Uturuncu volcano is trying to shed some light on how supervolcanoes can become so powerful. Uturuncu,...

NASA said on Tuesday that there is no evidence of a massive supervolcano erupting in 2012, despite what some may believe. A supervolcano refers to an explosive volcanic eruption that eject about ten thousand times the quantity of magma and ash that Mount St. Helens expelled in 1980. NASA said Earth's surface has preserved clues of many massive supervolcanoes through hollowed-out calderas-craters that can be as big as 60 miles across after a volcano collapses from emptying out its entire...

The "super-eruption" of a major volcanic system occurs about every 100,000 years and is considered one of the most catastrophic natural events on Earth, yet scientists have long been unsure about what triggers these violent explosions. However, a new model presented this week by researchers at Oregon State University points to a combination of temperature influence and the geometrical configuration of the magma chamber as a potential cause for these super-eruptions. Results of the...

The composition of a vast plume of hot rock and briny fluid 200 miles beneath Yellowstone National Park's surface has been mapped, a soon-to-be published study says.Researchers are able to receive a clear picture of the type of material that activates Yellowstone's volcanic features through these "geoelectric" images of the plume, says study co-author Robert B. Smith, professor emeritus at the University of Utah and coordinating scientist of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory."This is the...

Conductivity image hints volcano plume is bigger than thoughtUniversity of Utah geophysicists made the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot and partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. The image suggests the plume is even bigger than it appears in earlier images made with earthquake waves."It's like comparing ultrasound and MRI in the human body; they are different imaging technologies," says geophysics...

Montana State University researchers have discovered a rare oasis of life in the midst of hundreds of geothermal vents at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake.A colony of moss, worms and various forms of shrimp flourishes in an area where the water is inky black, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a cauldron of nutrients, gases and poisons, the researchers reported in the September issue of Geobiology.The vent is close to 100 feet below the surface of Yellowstone Lake and a third of a mile offshore...

While the ongoing eruption of a volcano in Iceland has caused havoc for local farmers and travelers throughout Europe, a possible eruption of a much stronger volcano at the Yellowstone National Park would be potentially devastating, a representative from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) told reporters on Monday."The impact would be severe," Bill Burton, a volcanologist with the agency, told the AFP news agency. Fortunately, he adds, "The next major eruption for Yellowstone, if...