Yellowstone volcano: how a USGS scientist warned the eruption could BURY Texas | Science | New



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The Yellowstone volcano has broke out three times in history – 2.1 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago and 640,000 years ago. Experts have previously revealed that in the event of an earthquake, the onset of a catastrophic reaction could take less than two weeks. As a result, scientists from the USGS constantly monitor the volcano.

In April 2018, lead scientist Mike Poland and Deputy Chief Scientist Wendy Steel hosted a Facebook Live event, where they answered questions from the public.

During the show, Dr. Steel made a shocking revelation about the power of a supervolcan like Yellowstone and its ability to perform ground flights.

She said, "And if there was an eruption? Well, the ashes would go very high in the atmosphere.

"It would cover a lot of areas.

"A super-eruption must represent 1,000 cubic kilometers of ash.

"Just so you know, that would be enough to cover the state of Texas with five feet of ash.

"So nice a lot.

"Closer to the park, we would see a lot of ashes [and] the planes would be immobilized during the eruption. "

On the same show, Dr. Steel then explained how they calculated the next volcano eruption.

She told viewers: "Yellowstone is a hotspot volcano and you can see, on the map, the state of Idaho and the current volcanic field.

"What we can see are numbers next to these volcanic centers, which represent millions of years since their eruption.

"Now, if you take into account the last six million years, the average recurrence interval is about 996,000 years.

"If you only look at the Yellowstone volcanic field, many people calculate that it breaks out every 600,000 years, but it's actually an interval of 740,000 years."

Dr. Steel then gave her prediction: "She added," You can not get exact statistics by looking at just two intervals.

"The way it works is that this volcanic field will go through cycles of eruptions, then lava flows will fill the caldera."

Holding the card in front of the camera, she adds, "Here are the Yellowstone lava flows that have erupted since the last super-eruption 600,000 years ago.

"So, if this interval is correct for 740,000 years and that it was 600,000, we are at 140,000 years of an eruption."

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