Where is the Yellowstone volcano located? A disaster that could destroy America: the largest volcano

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Yellowstone is a supervolcano in the United States. For several years now, the world has been disturbed by the news that it is about to wake up, a catastrophe will happen, America will come to an end, and the world will plunge into nuclear winter. While the supervolcano is sleeping.

Worst case scenario

The most pessimistic scenario for the awakening of a supervolcano is this: it will be an explosion comparable to the explosion of 1000 atomic bombs. The ground part of the supervolcano will collapse into a crater with a diameter of fifty kilometers. On Earth will happen ecological catastrophy. For the United States, the eruption of Yellowstone would mean the end of existence.

The saddest thing is that not only alarmists, but also experts talk about such consequences. Jacob Löwenstern from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (USA) said that during all previous eruptions of the supervolcano (there were three), more than 1 thousand km³ of magma fell out. This is enough to cover most of North America with a layer of ash up to 30 cm (at the epicenter of the disaster). Löwenstern also noted that the air temperature throughout the Earth will drop by 21 degrees, visibility for several years will become no more than half a meter. An era similar to nuclear winter will come.

Hurricane Katrina showed that the US civil defense system is not prepared for such large-scale disasters - and no country’s defense system can prepare for them.

Domestic scientists never tire of predicting the eruption of a supervolcano. Nikolai Koronovsky, head of the Department of Dynamic Geology, Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University, in an interview with Vesti, told what would happen after the eruption:

“Winds are predominantly westerly, so everything will go to the eastern United States. Will cover them. Solar radiation will decrease, which means the temperature will have to drop. The famous eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait in 1873 lowered the temperature by about 2 degrees in the equatorial region for a year and a half until the ash dissipated.”

Supervolcano

Such forecasts are not surprising if we remember that we are facing a supervolcano. What is it? Supervolcanoes can be called the most dangerous zones on the globe.

Yellowstone is a huge caldera hidden underground. Its area is 4000 km 2. For comparison: the area of Moscow is 2500 km 2, that is, Yellowstone is one and a half times larger than the capital of Russia, twice larger than Tokyo, and four times larger than New York.

Scientists did not know about the existence of supervolcanoes until the first geosatellites were launched. Yellowstone is so huge that it doesn't even form a cone, so it doesn't look like a typical volcano.

The threat is near

Alarming predictions of an imminent eruption come from the scientific community. Geology professor Bill McGuire, who constantly monitors the park, assesses the situation this way: “America is literally living on a powder keg. Satellite images and movements of the earth's crust indicate that active processes are taking place deep in the depths. There are other signs that he may wake up. The surface of Yellowstone Park emits 30 to 40 times more thermal energy than the rest of the continent."

The peak of panic came last spring. Since the beginning of 2014, 60 tremors have been recorded in the area of the volcano. The strongest - on the morning of March 30 - its magnitude was 4.8 - a record since 1980.

The Internet community did not stand aside either. A video of bison rushing away from the park has received millions of views on YouTube. However, the reserve workers immediately stated that this was seasonal migration and there was nothing to worry about.

Casey says

The prediction of the legendary Edgar Cayce, one of the most prominent predictors of the 20th century, who in his time predicted both world wars, the discovery of the Qumran scrolls and the rise of China, does not bring peace of mind.

He also predicted a catastrophe that could destroy the United States during the reign of America's 44th president. Barack Obama is 44th.

Is it all that serious?

What is happening now in the Yellowstone National Park? Apparently, everything is relatively calm. CBS News, citing the National Park Service and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, reported in March 2014 that the probability of a super eruption at that time was 0.00014%. That is, it “almost certainly will not happen.”

As it was before

Yellowstone's last major eruption occurred approximately 640 thousand years ago. Its force was 2,500 times greater than that of the largest eruptions of Mount Etna, and as a result, the ocean coastline changed and the Mediterranean Sea froze.

It’s difficult to visualize, but for the Earth it was a disaster.

The build-up of information noise around Yellowstone is becoming seasonal and started quite deliberately. So, in the 80s in the USSR and Eastern Europe It was common to say that the USA was about to be destroyed by the AIDS epidemic. Meanwhile, there is still controversy in medicine about whether HIV is the infectious agent of AIDS.

In the case of Yellowstone, the situation is similar. As we know, the objective probability of a catastrophe is calculated in tiny percentages, but every time the media starts their “Yellowstone Campaign,” sales in stores increase, and newspapers with fresh news about the supervolcano are taken off the shelves in entire circulations.

According to American volcanologists, the eruption of the largest volcano in the world, the Yellowstone Caldera, which is located in Yellowstone National Park, could begin at any minute. The volcano has not erupted for about 600 thousand years and its eruption can destroy two-thirds of the US territory, which could even begin a world catastrophe.

The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US state of Wyoming has begun to grow at a record rate since 2004 and will explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state on May 18, 1980.

According to volcanologists, lava will rise high into the sky, and ash will cover nearby areas with a layer of 3 meters and a distance of 1,600 kilometers.

Two-thirds of the US could become uninhabitable due to toxic air - thousands of flights would have to be canceled and millions of people would have to leave their homes.

Experts predict that the volcano will erupt in the near future and will be no less powerful than all three times the volcano has erupted over the past 2.1 million years.

Robert B. Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, noted that the magma came so close to the earth's crust in Yellowstone Park that it literally emanated heat, which cannot be explained by anything other than the impending eruption of a huge volcano.

Sometimes it seems that stopping the United States in its desire to impose “freedom and democracy” on the world through carpet bombing, unleashing civil wars and only heavenly punishment can cause revolutions. Those who believe in the evil doom hanging over America have a very serious argument. In the very center of this country, in its most fertile corner, a natural disaster. Yellowstone National Park, known for its forests, grizzly bears and hot springs, is actually a bomb that will explode in the coming years.

If this happens, the entire North American continent may perish. And the rest of the world will not find it enough. But the world won't end, don't worry.

And it all started with joy. In 2002, several new geysers with healing properties were simultaneously released in the Yellowstone Nature Reserve. hot water. Local tourism companies immediately began to promote this phenomenon, and the number of visitors to the park, which usually amounts to about three million people a year, increased even more.

However, strange things soon began to happen. In 2004, the US government tightened the regime for visiting the reserve. The number of security guards on its territory has sharply increased, and some areas have been declared closed to visitors. But seismologists and volcanologists frequented them.

They had worked in Yellowstone before, because the entire reserve with its unique nature is nothing more than a huge patch on the crater of an extinct supervolcano. Actually, this is where the hot geysers come from. On their way to the surface of the earth, they are heated by the magma rustling and gurgling under the earth's crust. All local sources were known back in the days when white colonizers recaptured Yellowstone from the Indians, and here you have three new ones! Why did it happen?

Scientists became worried. One after another, commissions to study volcanic activity began to visit the park. What they dug up there was not reported to the general public, but it is known that in 2007, a Scientific Council with emergency powers was created under the Office of the President of the United States. It included several of the country's leading geophysicists and seismologists, as well as members of the National Security Council, including the secretary of defense and intelligence officials.

George W. Bush personally chaired the monthly meetings of this body.

That same year, Yellowstone National Park moved from departmental subordination to the Department of the Interior under the direct control of the Scientific Council. Why would the American authorities pay so much attention to a simple resort?

And the whole point is that the ancient and, as it was believed, safe supervolcano, on which the Paradise Valley is located, suddenly showed signs of activity. The miraculously clogged springs became its first manifestation.

Further more. Seismologists discovered a sharp rise in soil under the reserve. Over the past four years, she has swollen by 178 centimeters. This is despite the fact that over the previous twenty-five years the ground rise was no more than 10 centimeters.

Seismologists were joined by mathematicians. Based on information about previous eruptions of the Yellowstone volcano, they developed an algorithm for its life activity. The result was shocking.

The fact that the intervals between eruptions are constantly decreasing was known to scientists before. However, given the astronomical duration of such intervals, this information is of no use practical significance for humanity did not have. Well, in fact, the volcano erupted 2 million years ago, then 1.3 million years ago and the last time 630 thousand years ago.

The Geological Society of America expected his awakening no earlier than 21 thousand years later. But based on new data, computers produced an unexpected result. The next catastrophe should be expected in 2075. However, after some time it became clear that events were developing much faster. The result had to be adjusted again.

The terrible date has approached. Now it looms between 2014 and 2016, with the first figure looking more likely.

It would seem, just think, an eruption, especially since it is known in advance. Well, the Americans will evacuate the population from a dangerous area, and then they will spend money on restoring the destroyed infrastructure...

Alas, only those who are not familiar with supervolcanoes can argue this way.

A typical volcano, as we imagine it, is a cone-shaped hill with a crater from which lava, ash and gases erupt. It is formed like this.

Deep in the bowels of our planet, magma is constantly boiling, which from time to time bursts upward through cracks, faults and other “defects” in the earth’s crust. As the magma rises, it releases gases, turning into volcanic lava, and flows through top part a fault, usually called a vent. Solidifying around the vent, the products of the eruption build up the cone of the volcano.

Supervolcanoes have a feature that, until recently, no one even suspected of their existence. They are not at all similar to the cone-shaped “caps” with a vent inside that are familiar to us. These are vast areas of thinned earth's crust, under which hot magma pulsates. A simple volcano looks like a pimple, a supervolcano looks like a huge inflammation. Several ordinary volcanoes may be located on the territory of a supervolcano. They may erupt from time to time, but these emissions can be compared to the release of steam from an overheated boiler. But imagine that the boiler itself will explode! After all, supervolcanoes do not erupt, but explode.

What do these explosions look like?

From below, the pressure of magma on the thin surface of the earth gradually increases. A hump several hundred meters high and 15–20 kilometers in diameter is formed. Numerous vents and cracks appear along the perimeter of the hump, and then its entire central part collapses down into the fiery abyss.

The collapsed rocks, like a piston, sharply squeeze out gigantic fountains of lava and ash from the depths.

The force of this explosion exceeds the charge of the most powerful nuclear bomb. According to geophysicists, if the Yellowstone mine explodes, the effect will exceed a hundred Hiroshimas. The calculations, of course, are purely theoretical. During its existence, homo sapiens has never encountered such a phenomenon. The last time it boomed was during the time of the dinosaurs. Perhaps this is why they became extinct.

A few days before the explosion, the earth's crust above the supervolcano will rise several meters. At the same time, the soil will heat up to 60–70 degrees. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide and helium in the atmosphere will increase sharply.

The first thing we will see is a cloud of volcanic ash, which will rise into the atmosphere to a height of 40–50 kilometers. The pieces will be thrown to great heights. As they fall, they will cover a gigantic area. In the first hours of a new eruption in Yellowstone, an area within a radius of 1000 kilometers around the epicenter will be destroyed. Here, residents of almost the entire American northwest (Seattle) and parts of Canada (Calgary, Vancouver) are in immediate danger.

Streams of hot mud will rage over an area of 10 thousand square kilometers, the so-called pyroclastic wave - the deadliest product of the eruption. They will arise when the pressure of lava shooting high into the atmosphere weakens and part of the column collapses on the surrounding area in a huge avalanche, burning everything in its path. It will be impossible to survive in pyroclastic flows of such magnitude. At temperatures above 400 degrees, human bodies will simply cook, the flesh will separate from the bones.

The hot liquid will kill about 200 thousand people in the first minutes after the eruption begins.

But these are very minor losses compared to those that America will suffer as a result of a series of earthquakes and tsunamis that the explosion will provoke. They will already claim tens of millions of lives. This is provided that the North American continent does not go under water at all, like Atlantis.

Then the ash cloud from the volcano will begin to spread wider. Within 24 hours, the entire territory of the United States up to the Mississippi will be in the disaster zone. Volcanic ash - it just sounds harmless, but in fact it’s the most dangerous phenomenon during an eruption. Ash particles are so small that neither gauze bandages nor respirators protect against them. Once in the lungs, the ash mixes with mucus, hardens and turns into cement...

Territories located thousands of kilometers from the volcano may be most at risk. When the layer of volcanic ash reaches a thickness of 15 centimeters, the load on the roofs will become too great and buildings will begin to collapse. It is estimated that between one and fifty people in each home will be killed or seriously injured. This will be the main cause of death in the areas around Yellowstone bypassed by the pyroclastic wave, where the ash layer will be no less than 60 centimeters.

Other deaths will follow from poisoning. After all, the precipitation will be extremely toxic. To cross the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, the clouds of ash and ash will take two to three weeks, and after a month they will cover the Sun across the entire Earth.

Soviet scientists once predicted that the most terrible consequence of a global nuclear conflict would be the so-called “nuclear winter.” The same thing will happen as a result of the explosion of a supervolcano.

Two weeks after the sun disappears into dust clouds, the air temperature on the earth's surface will drop in various areas globe from –15 degrees to –50 degrees or more. The average temperature on the Earth's surface will be about –25 degrees.

Winter will last for at least a year and a half. This is enough to forever change the natural balance on the planet. Due to long frosts and lack of light, vegetation will die. Since plants are involved in the production of oxygen, very soon it will become difficult for everyone living on the planet to breathe. Animal world The earth will die painfully from cold, hunger and epidemics. The human race will have to move from the surface of the earth underground for at least three years, and then who knows...

But, in general, this sad forecast mainly concerns residents of the Western Hemisphere. Residents of other parts of the world, including Russians, have a much higher chance of survival. And the consequences will apparently not be so catastrophic. But for the population of North America, the chances of survival are minimal.

But if the American authorities are aware of the problem, why are they not doing anything to prevent it? Why hasn’t information about the upcoming catastrophe reached the general public yet?

The first question is not difficult to answer: neither the States themselves nor humanity as a whole can prevent the impending explosion. Therefore, the White House is preparing for the worst-case scenario. According to CIA analysts, “As a result of the disaster, two thirds of the population will die, the economy will be destroyed, transport and communications will be disorganized. In the context of an almost complete cessation of supplies, the military potential remaining at our disposal will decrease to a level sufficient only to maintain order in the country.”.

As for notifying the population, the authorities recognized such actions as inappropriate. Well, in fact, it is possible to escape from a sinking ship, and even then not always. Where to run from the broken and burning continent?

The US population is now approaching the three hundred million mark. In principle, there is nowhere to put this biomass, especially since after the disaster there will be no safe places left on the planet. Each state will have big problems, and no one wants to aggravate them by accepting millions of refugees.

In any case, this is the conclusion reached by the Scientific Council under the President of the United States. According to its members, there is only one way out - to abandon the majority of the population to the will of fate and take care of preserving capital, military potential and the elite of American society. So, a few months before the explosion, the best scientists, military personnel, and specialists in high technology, and, of course, the rich. There is no doubt that every billionaire has a place reserved on the future ark. But you can no longer guarantee the fate of ordinary millionaires. They will save themselves.

Actually, the above information became known thanks to the efforts of the American scientist and journalist Howard Huxley, who has been working on the problems of the Yellowstone volcano since the 80s, has established connections in geophysics circles, like many famous journalists was associated with the CIA and is a recognized authority in scientific circles.

Realizing what the country was heading for, Howard and his like-minded people created the Foundation for Saving Civilization. Their goal is to warn humanity about the impending disaster and give everyone a chance to survive, not just members of the elite.

Over the course of several years, Foundation employees have accumulated a wealth of information. In particular, they calculated exactly where the cream of American society would go after the disaster.

Liberia, a small state in West Africa, traditionally following in the wake of American politics, will become an island of salvation for them. There have been massive injections of money into this country for several years now. There is a network of excellent roads, airports and, as they say, an extensive system of deep, very well-maintained bunkers. The American elite will be able to sit in this hole for several years, and then, when the situation stabilizes, begin to restore the destroyed state and its influence in the world.

In the meantime, there are still a few years left, the White House and the Science Council are trying to solve urgent military problems. There is no doubt that the coming catastrophe will be perceived by most religious people as God's punishment for America. Surely many Islamic states they will want to finish off “shaitan” while he licks his wounds. You can't think of a better reason for jihad.

Therefore, since 2003, preemptive strikes have been carried out on a number of Muslim countries with the aim of destroying their military potential. Whether the American military machine will have time to neutralize these threats before hour X, God knows.

A vicious circle has formed. Due to its aggressive policy, the United States has more and more ill-wishers, and less and less time remains to neutralize them.

There is still a danger of the destruction of our entire civilization, many scientists admit. The fact is that the inevitable processes within our planet, occurring before our eyes, are recognized by experts as a global threat that can wipe out entire continents from the face of the Earth. Seismologists say that the Yellowstone Caldera is the most destructive force on our planet.

One of the last eruptions of this magnitude occurred in Sumatra 73 thousand years ago, when the explosion of the Toba supervolcano reduced the Earth's population by about 15 times. Then only 5–10 thousand people survived. The number of animals decreased by the same amount, three quarters died flora Northern Hemisphere. At the site of that explosion, a pit with an area of 1775 square meters was formed. km, which could fit two New Yorks or Londons.

Against this background, it is difficult to imagine what could happen if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, which is twice the size of Toba! “Against the backdrop of a supervolcano eruption, everyone else seems dwarfed, and its power is a real threat to everyone living on this planet,”– noted Bill McGuire, professor of geophysics, specialist in climate change from University College London.

If an explosion occurs, then, according to scientists, the picture will be worse than the description of the Apocalypse. It will all start with a sharp rise and overheating of the earth in Yellowstone Park. And when enormous pressure breaks through the caldera, thousands of cubic kilometers of lava will pour out of the resulting vent, which will resemble a huge pillar of fire. The explosion will be accompanied by a powerful earthquake and lava flows reaching speeds of several hundred kilometers per hour.

The eruption will continue for several days, but people and animals will mostly die not from ash or lava, but due to suffocation and hydrogen sulfide poisoning. During this time, the air in the entire western United States will be poisoned so that a person will be able to survive for no more than 5–7 minutes. A thick layer of ash will cover almost the entire US territory - from Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, which will be wiped off the face of the Earth, to Iowa and the Gulf of Mexico. The ozone hole over the continent will grow to such a size that the level of radiation will approach Chernobyl. All of North America will turn into scorched earth. Southern Canada will also be seriously affected. Scientists do not deny that the Yellowstone giant will provoke the eruption of several hundred ordinary volcanoes around the world. At the same time, eruptions of ocean volcanoes will generate many tsunamis that will flood the coasts and all island states. The long-term consequences will be no less terrible than the eruption itself. And if the United States bears the brunt, the effect will be felt by the whole world.

Thousands of cubic kilometers of ash released into the atmosphere will cover sunlight- the world will plunge into darkness. This will cause a sharp drop in temperature, for example, in Canada and Norway the thermometer will drop by 15–18 degrees in a couple of days. If the temperature drops by 21 degrees, as during the last eruption of the Toba supervolcano, all territories up to the 50th parallel - Norway, Finland or Sweden - will turn into Antarctica. A “nuclear winter” will come, which will last about four years.

Continuous acid rain will destroy all crops and crops, kill livestock, dooming the surviving people to starvation. The billionaire countries - India and China - will suffer the most from hunger. Here, up to 1.5 billion people will die from starvation in the coming months after the explosion. In total, in the first months of the cataclysm, every third inhabitant of the Earth will die. The only region that can survive is the central part of Eurasia. Most people, according to scientists, will survive in Siberia and the Eastern European part of Russia, located on earthquake-resistant platforms, remote from the epicenter of the explosion and protected from the tsunami.

For many centuries, humanity has been watching with interest and concern one of the most extraordinary and threatening creations of nature - volcanoes. There is a huge diversity of them all over the planet, among which there are both dormant or extinct and active specimens. For example, in the United States alone there are about 100 volcanoes of varying degrees of activity, including the largest of them, Yellowstone.

Where is

In the northwestern part of North America, in the states of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park is an international reserve that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was created in March 1872, considered the very first national park, covering an area of about 898.3 thousand hectares. It is here that the most dangerous volcano in America is located, having simply enormous dimensions (about 72 km by 55 km), while occupying almost a third of the entire area of the park.

Yellowstone Caldera is an active volcanic system that is one of 20 supervolcanoes around the world. The power of the eruption of each of this list can provoke dramatic climate changes on planet Earth.

Caldera - pit large sizes, which looks like a circus arena, is of volcanic origin, steep walls and a flat bottom. Formed after the collapse of the crater walls during a giant ejection.

The territory of the system is located above a hot spot - a place where hot liquid mantle rock moves towards the Earth's surface; this area is covered by a plateau. Scientists' observations show that hot spot moves to the eastern and northeastern part of the continent, and the entire North American plate moves towards the west and southwest.

How it works

In the 1960-1970s, while studying satellite images of the territory of the biosphere reserve, the ruins of the Yellowstone crater were noticed. Upon further study, experts found that underneath there is a huge bubble of hot magma, and its depth is more than 8000 m. The temperature of the magma inside is 800 degrees Celsius, which allows heating thermal springs and releasing water vapor, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from under the earth’s crust.

Here is also the largest valley of geysers in the world, one of the five largest around the globe.

The power source for the volcanic system is a huge vertical plume, which is a flow of molten solid mantle rock with a temperature of about 1600 degrees Celsius.

Melting of part of the plume into magma in upper layers closer to the earth's crust contributes to the emergence of mud pots and geysers. The plume section is a 660 km long column with branches on the sides, which has a funnel-shaped expansion at the top.

Eruptions

Experts, while studying the activity of the largest volcano in the United States, came to the consensus that there have already been 3 global eruptions, which are striking in their scale and number of victims.

The ash that covers the entire surface of the earth after the explosion prevents the passage of light from the Sun, resulting in a period called “volcanic winter.”

First

The eruption, which occurred about 2.1 million years ago, created the Island Park caldera and the Huckleberry Ridge tuff formations. It is believed that it was so powerful that a fourth of the American continent was covered in ash from the explosion, the height of the magma ejection reached upper layers stratosphere (50 km above ground level), and mountain ranges were torn apart.

Second

About 1.3 million years ago, Yellowstone ejected about 280 cubic kilometers of volcanic mixture, after which the large Henrys Fork caldera formed.

Third

It happened 640,000 years ago, experts believe that it was 2 times weaker than the first. The consequence of this disaster was the collapse of the crater top and the formation of a caldera. This huge depression has a circumference of almost 150 km. The Lava Creek tuff terrain was also formed.

The eruption of a supervolcano is considered the second most powerful and damaging global cataclysm, second only to the impact of an asteroid in terms of destruction.

Earthquakes

Every year earthquakes occur in the park, their number varies between 1000-2000 times, but they are so insignificant that visitors practically do not notice them.

Despite the danger and threat of release, thousands of tourists from all over the world come to this amazing place every year to admire the beauty and bright colors nature, as there are simply incredible landscapes around.

New disasters and forecasts of seismologists

During the research, scientists determined the probability of new disasters in Yellowstone National Park to be 0.00014% per year. The calculations were based on two periods of time between three large-scale emissions. However, experts in geology and seismology unanimously argue that processes of this kind in modern world are not regular and cannot be controlled, predicted or managed. However, every year, various information appears on the Internet and periodicals that the supervolcano is waking up. A disaster that could occur in the near future could deal a powerful blow to North America, destroying life and changing the climate.

The most pessimistic forecast of experts suggests that during the subsequent eruption of Yellowstone, a release of magma in a volume equal to 1000 cubic km is possible. Such a powerful burning avalanche could destroy life at a distance of 1600 km from the center of the disaster, covering a significant part of the country (2/3) with a 3 m layer of volcanic ash.

In November 2009, director Roland Emmerich presented the world with the science-fiction film “2012,” which depicts the colossal destruction caused by the Yellowstone eruption.

Measures to prevent new disasters

Scientists believe that, even despite the calculated low probability of new catastrophic situations, Yellowstone still poses a very serious threat to the United States. In the country, at the state level, under the control of NASA, a number of measures have been developed aimed at preventing new crashes.

Scientists of this organization have established that the main lever that restrains possible emissions is water, which carries away excess energy from the magma in the form of erupting geysers. It is calculated that about 70% of the energy is spent in this way, and the remaining 30% goes to melting rocks, which will ultimately lead to a new eruption. According to experts’ calculations, this residual amount is equal to the power of several gigawatts, which can be obtained by operating 6 thermal power plants.

Experts propose to begin construction of a new geothermal power plant in Yellowstone to further extract excess energy. However, to implement such a project it is necessary to spend a colossal amount of $3.5 billion and apply horizontal drilling technology in such a way as not to affect the caldera shell. Today the project is being discussed and finalized, and perhaps in the near future experts will finally approve specifications project for its subsequent implementation.

The most pessimistic scenario for the awakening of a supervolcano is this: it will be an explosion comparable to the explosion of 1000 atomic bombs. The ground part of the supervolcano will collapse into a crater with a diameter of fifty kilometers. An environmental disaster will occur on Earth. For the United States, the eruption of Yellowstone would mean the end of existence.

Hurricane Katrina showed that the US civil defense system is not prepared for such large-scale disasters - and no country’s defense system can prepare for them.

There is a powerful and terrifying threat lurking beneath Northwest Wyoming and Southeast Montana that has been changing the landscape over the past few million years, known as the Yellowstone Supervolcano. Numerous geysers, bubbling mud pots, hot springs and evidence of long-ago eruptions make Yellowstone National Park a fascinating geological wonderland.

The official name for this region is the "Yellowstone Caldera" and it covers an area of about 72 by 55 kilometers (35 by 44 miles) in the Rocky Mountains. The caldera has been geologically active for 2.1 million years, periodically ejecting lava, clouds of gas and dust into the area, reshaping the landscape for hundreds of kilometers around.

Yellowstone on a map of the USA/Wkipedia

The Yellowstone Caldera is one of the largest in the world. The caldera, supervolcano, and underlying magma chamber help geologists understand volcanism and serve as an important site for studying the influence of hot spot geology on the Earth's surface.

History and migration of Yellowstone Caldera

The Yellowstone caldera actually serves as an "outlet" for a plume (hot mantle flow) extending hundreds of kilometers down through earth's crust. A mantle plume persists for at least 18 million years and is a region where molten rock from the Earth's mantle rises to the surface. It remains relatively stable while the North American continent passes over it. Geologists trace a series of calderas created by the mantle plume. These calderas move from east to northeast. Yellowstone Park is located right in the middle of a modern caldera.

The caldera experienced "super-eruptions" 2.1 and 1.3 million years ago, and then again around 630,000 years ago. Super-eruptions are massive, spreading clouds of ash and rock over thousands of square kilometers around. Compared to "super eruptions", smaller eruptions and Yellowstone hotspot activity today are relatively minor.

Yellowstone magma chamber

The mantle plume feeding the Yellowstone Caldera passes through a magma chamber about 80 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide. It is filled with molten rock that is currently relatively quiet beneath the Earth's surface, although from time to time the movement of lava within the chamber causes earthquakes.

The heat from the mantle plume creates geysers (shooting hot water into the air from below the earth's surface), hot springs and mud pots scattered throughout. Heat and pressure from the magma chamber are slowly increasing the height of the Yellowstone Plateau, which has been rising at a faster rate recently. However, there are no signs yet that a major volcanic eruption will occur.

Of even greater concern to scientists studying the region is the danger of hydrothermal explosions between major super-eruptions. These outbreaks occur when underground systems hot water disrupted by earthquakes. Even earthquakes at great distances can affect the magma chamber.

Will Yellowstone Volcano Erupt in 2018?

Sensational stories suggesting a devastating eruption of the Yellowstone volcano will soon occur every few years. Based on detailed observations of earthquakes that occur locally, geologists are confident that the volcano will erupt again, but probably not anytime soon. The area has been relatively inactive for the last 70,000 years and is expected to remain quiet for thousands of years to come.

According to the USGS, the odds of the Yellowstone supervolcano erupting during this year are 1 in 730,000. Here's a quick comparison: That odds are higher than your odds of winning big in the lottery and only slightly lower than your odds of getting hit lightning.

But almost no one has any doubt that sooner or later it will be strong again, and this will be a catastrophe of planetary proportions.

Consequences of the Yellowstone volcano super eruption

In the park itself, lava flows from one or more volcanic sites are likely to cover much of the local landscape, but the greater danger is a cloud of volcanic ash that will spread hundreds of kilometers. Winds will carry ash up to 500 miles (800 kilometers), eventually covering the middle of the United States in layers of ash and destroying the Central region of the country. Other states will be able to see the volcanic cloud, depending on their proximity to the eruption.

While it is unlikely that all life on Earth will be completely destroyed, it will certainly be affected by ash clouds and a massive blowout. On a planet where climate is already changing rapidly, additional emissions will likely alter the growth rates and growing seasons of plants, reducing food sources for all life.

The USGS keeps a close eye on the Yellowstone Caldera. Earthquakes, small hydrothermal events, even small changes in the eruptions of old geysers provide clues to changes deep below the Earth's surface. If magma begins to move in ways that indicate an eruption, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory will be the first to alert nearby areas.

Photos and videos of Yellowstone National Park

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