Colossal Yellowstone volcano eruption not of greatest concern as US warns of forgotten danger

Volcanologist and Yellowstone volcano expert Clive Oppenheimer has argued that a super eruption is unlikely. In an interview with Express.co.uk, he said steam explosions, large and small, pose a worrying danger. He said these were much more common than a massive rash.

Mr Oppenheimer said, “Well, there are many potential scenarios for a future eruption on the Yellowstone volcano.

“The one that gets people excited is the possibility of a colossal eruption, what we might call a super eruption, but it’s a very rare event.

“The likelihood of this is extremely low, probably less than 1 in a million per year.

“But what is more likely is smaller events because there is a whole range of things volcanoes can do.”

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Mr Oppenheimer reflected on other dangers the Yellowstone volcano can cause and things people should be more concerned about.

He said: “One of the most likely scenarios in Yellowstone is small steam explosions.

“We all know the famous geysers there and sometimes when that water starts to smoke more violently, it can explode rocks and form a crater tens or hundreds of meters in diameter.

“These are much more likely events than things at the far end of the scale.”

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“We have many ways of monitoring volcanoes.

“Many basic methods use the seismometer to measure earthquakes.

“And you can imagine a volcano that has been silent for a long period of time, the crust will cool and a lot of rocks will have healed and sealed.

“If you start building a large magma chamber again, the magma rises, it creates earthquakes and it can be detected.”

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“It is almost beyond the concern of the hazard assessment unless there is any indication that the volcano is preparing for a very big event in the future.”

Mr. Oppenheimer also noted some of the ways volcanologists measure the dangers associated with the volcano.

However, regarding a super eruption, he insisted that there was not a significant amount of data to accurately predict when a large eruption would occur.