Mount St. Helens Institute "Volcano Views and Brews Lecture Series - What's Brewing at Yellowstone"

Description

Yellowstone often makes the news as a "supervolcano" threatening to unleash a global catastrophe that will end civilization as we know it. The real story, it turns out, is slightly more nuanced. It's true that Yellowstone is among the most dynamic caldera systems on Earth, and it has produced some of the largest eruptions known, large enough to make a considerable dent in modern civilization if one were to occur today. But it's important to keep in mind the timescale of those eruptions when assessing the hazard. The most recent "super eruption" at Yellowstone occurred 640,000 years ago and the youngest lava flow in the caldera is about 70,000 years old. What's happening today at Yellowstone and will likely continue for the foreseeable future is what happens between eruptions: lots of small earthquakes, spectacular hydrothermal activity, and (most interesting of all) plenty of ground deformation. The story that?s emerging from recent research is one of nearly continuous but changing movements attributed to several interconnected sources, including Yellowstone?s deep magmatic roots, crustal magma reservoirs, and restive hydrothermal system. As this is written, the floor of Yellowstone caldera is going up and the north rim area is going down. Stay tuned for further developments!