- Feb 5, 2002
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...in Ages Past
Visitors to the treasured American National Park that features the geyser ‘Old Faithful’ may never see the kind of extinction-level volcanic eruptions that were depicted in the disaster film 2012.
A recent geological analysis conducted surrounding the super-volcano’s past eruptions demonstrate a slowing down and a weakening of the volcanic force that draws millions of tourists to Yellowstone National Park every year.
The analysis was described as “exhaustive,” by Dr. Trevor Nace who holds a Ph.D. in geology and climate from Duke University, who traveled thousands of miles conducting isotope dating and collecting magnetic data and chemical sampling on the states surrounding this Yellowstone hotspot.
The data showed that the two most significant eruption events occurred around 9 million and 8.7 million years ago—a short amount of time between each other geologically-speaking. The earliest is considered one of the 5 largest volcanic eruptions in earth’s history, and “sterilized” much of Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana with white-hot volcanic glass before spreading to affect more than 9,000 square miles (23,000 square kilometers) of the United States.
300,000 years later, another eruption — albeit smaller, battered the midwest once again, after which the giant boiler room of the North American continent began to fall to a simmer, erupting only twice in the last 3 million years, and increasing by three-fold, the time span between regular eruption events.
Continued below.
That’s a Relief: Scientists Now Say Future Yellowstone Eruptions Are Likely to be Much Weaker Than in Ages Past
Visitors to the treasured American National Park that features the geyser ‘Old Faithful’ may never see the kind of extinction-level volcanic eruptions that were depicted in the disaster film 2012.
A recent geological analysis conducted surrounding the super-volcano’s past eruptions demonstrate a slowing down and a weakening of the volcanic force that draws millions of tourists to Yellowstone National Park every year.
The analysis was described as “exhaustive,” by Dr. Trevor Nace who holds a Ph.D. in geology and climate from Duke University, who traveled thousands of miles conducting isotope dating and collecting magnetic data and chemical sampling on the states surrounding this Yellowstone hotspot.
The data showed that the two most significant eruption events occurred around 9 million and 8.7 million years ago—a short amount of time between each other geologically-speaking. The earliest is considered one of the 5 largest volcanic eruptions in earth’s history, and “sterilized” much of Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana with white-hot volcanic glass before spreading to affect more than 9,000 square miles (23,000 square kilometers) of the United States.
300,000 years later, another eruption — albeit smaller, battered the midwest once again, after which the giant boiler room of the North American continent began to fall to a simmer, erupting only twice in the last 3 million years, and increasing by three-fold, the time span between regular eruption events.
Continued below.
That’s a Relief: Scientists Now Say Future Yellowstone Eruptions Are Likely to be Much Weaker Than in Ages Past
