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The Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone supervolcano, is a highly geologically active region in Yellowstone National Park. It measures 55 kilometers by 72 kilometers. Crater Lake, Oregon A caldera is a volcanic feature formed by the collapse of a volcano into itself. ...
A supervolcano refers to a volcano that produces the largest and most voluminous kinds of eruptions on earth. ...
Yellowstone National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. ...
Volcanism
 Yellowstone sits on top of three overlapping calderas. (USGS) Apparently, Yellowstone is riding on one of the planet's few dozen hot spots where light, hot, molten, mantle rock rises towards the surface. Hawaii is believed to lie over a similar hot spot, explaining its solitary position in the Pacific. The Yellowstone hot spot has a long history. Over the past 17 million years or so, successive eruptions have flooded lava over wide stretches of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Idaho, forming a string of comparatively flat calderas linked like beads, as the North American plate moves across the stationary hot spot. The calderas' apparent motion to the east-northeast forms the Snake River Plain. However, what is actually happening is the result of the west-southwest motion of the North American plate with respect to the stationary hot spot deep underneath. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3072x2479, 2473 KB)Geologic information regarding Yellowstone Caldera. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3072x2479, 2473 KB)Geologic information regarding Yellowstone Caldera. ...
In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earths surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time. ...
State nickname: The Aloha State Other U.S. States Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Governor Linda Lingle Official languages Hawaiian and English Area 28,337 km² (43rd) - Land 16,649 km² - Water 11,672 km² (41. ...
Plate tectonics (from the Greek word for one who constructs, τεκτων, tekton) is a theory of geology developed to explain the phenomenon of continental drift, and is currently the theory accepted by the vast majority of scientists working in this area. ...
Big Southern Butte The Snake River Plain is a geological feature of (primarily) the American state of Idaho. ...
Currently, volcanic activity is exhibited only via numerous geothermal vents scattered throughout the region, including the famous Old Faithful Geyser, but within the past two million years, it has undergone three extremely large explosive eruptions, up to 2,500 times the size of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The most recent such eruption occurred 640,000 years ago and spread a layer of volcanic ash over most of the North American continent. Smaller steam explosions occur every 20,000 years or so; an explosion 13,000 years ago left a 5 kilometer diameter crater at Mary Bay on the edge of Yellowstone Lake (located in the center of the caldera). Additionally, non-explosive eruptions of lava flows have occurred in and near the caldera since the last major eruption; the most recent of these was about 70,000 years ago. The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as hot springs (including mud pots) and fumaroles. ...
Old Faithful Geyser, short period eruption The Old Faithful Geyser, located in Yellowstone National Park, is perhaps the worlds most famous geyser. ...
(Redirected from 1980 Mount St. ...
Diamond Head, a well-known backdrop to Waikiki in Hawaii, is an ash cone that solidified into tuff Volcanic ash is the term for very fine rock and mineral particles less than 2 mm in diameter that are ejected from a volcanic vent. ...
World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west...
Dymaxion map by Buckminster Fuller shows land mass with minimal distortion as only one continuous continent A continent (Latin continere, to hold together) is a large continuous land mass. ...
The word crater may refer to A landform resembling a pit or depression in the topography that can be formed in several ways: speculation exists that a meteorite impact with another body can cause an impact crater, an electrical discharge on any scale tends to form circular craters, volcanic activity...
Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in the south of the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States. ...
Lava is molten rock that a volcano expels during an eruption. ...
The volcanic eruptions, as well as the continuing geothermal activity, are a result of a large chamber of magma located below the caldera's surface. The magma in this chamber contains gases that are kept dissolved only by the immense pressure that the magma is under. If the pressure is released to a sufficient degree by some geological shift, then some of the gases bubble out and cause the magma to expand. This can cause a runaway reaction. If the expansion results in further relief of pressure, for example, by blowing crust material off of the top of the chamber, the result is a very large gas explosion. This article is about the type of molten rock. ...
 Welded tuff at Golden Gate was created by one eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera Photo taken by Daniel Mayer and released under terms of the GNU FDL. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Photo taken by Daniel Mayer and released under terms of the GNU FDL. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Volcanic hazard A full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone caldera could result in millions of deaths locally and catastrophic climatic effects globally. Fortunately, there is little indication that such an eruption is imminent, although study of Yellowstone is ongoing and the system is not yet completely understood. Geologists are closely monitoring the rise and fall of the Yellowstone Plateau, which averages 1.5 cm yearly, as an indication of changes in magma chamber pressure.
Occasionally proposals are suggested for ways to safely relieve the buildup of dissolved gas in the Yellowstone magma chamber, usually involving drilling holes or using explosives to release small amounts of pressure in a controlled manner. However, none of these ideas are likely to have a noticeable impact. The magma beneath Yellowstone is not very mobile, so release of dissolved gases from any given point will not do much to the chamber as a whole, and in any event, the scale of the problem is far too large for current engineering capabilities to handle.
Earthquakes In addition to the volcanic activity, several pre-existing, active geologic faults run through and near the caldera. The combination of these tectonic faults with the movement of magma and hot water results in numerous small earthquakes; in 2002 about 2,300 earthquakes were recorded in Yellowstone park. Most of these were too small to be felt by humans. Occasional large earthquakes occur as well, the most recent being the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake (magnitude 7.5) and the 1975 Norris earthquake (magnitude 6.1). Earthquakes probably present the most immediate threat to human life in Yellowstone. Old fault exposed by roadcut near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. ...
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Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998 An earthquake is a trembling or a shaking movement of the Earths surface. ...
The moment magnitude scale (a successor to the Richter scale), was introduced in 1979 by Tom Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori and is used by seismologists to compare the energy released by earthquakes. ...
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