Yellowstone National Park contains a supervolcano that may expel more than 1,000 cubic meters of rock and ash at once, which is 2,500 times more debris than was expelled from Mount St. Helens in 1980. Volcanoes erupt because the lower density of magma compared to the surrounding rocks causes it to rise. When the magma begins to rise, bubbles begin to form from the dissolved gasses which exert even more pressure. This allows the magma to rise to the surface and reach great heights. Supereruptions occur every 100,000 years in which it takes thousands of years for the volcano to awaken or the magma to gradually buildup. However, it was recently found when tracing volcanic crystals that the outer rims of crystals show a rapid, drastic change in temperature and composition, which means that magma may move into the system and spark a supereruption within only decades.

The supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park has many societal connections. The eruption is expected to be thousands of times more powerful than that of Mount St. Helens, and may blanket a majority of the United States in a thick layer of ash and create a volcanic winter. The debris from the eruption can remain in the atmosphere and block the sun’s rays from reaching the earth. This will in turn lead to a drastic change in the planet’s climate and diminish food sources and other resources and may make survival difficult for a range of species. Furthermore, since recent studies show that it may only take decades for a supervolcano to mobilize thousands of tons of magma, it is difficult to predict the next supervolcano eruption and thus, preparation for such an outcome is challenging.

 

Hall, Shannon. “A Surprise From the Supervolcano Under Yellowstone.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/science/yellowstone-volcano-eruption.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ftrilobites.

 

“Why Are There Volcanoes? Why Do They Erupt?” Oregon State University, Oregon State University, 12 Aug. 2017, volcano.oregonstate.edu/why-are-there-volcanoes.

 

-Rasman Rayyan