Though we can rest assured that the Yellowstone “supervolcano” isn’t going to be spewing lava any time in the near future, we are finding out that it’s a LOT more active than we previously thought. The volcano, which has been around for quite a few million years, has apparently done a lot more damage than scientists ever estimated.
- The volcano has completely evacuated all of its lava 3 times (2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 630,000 years ago).
- Evidence from dredging seafloor sediment found densely patched layers of ash that dated about 630,000 years ago.
- Further analysis figured out that these were actually from two separate volcanic events that were only 170 years apart!
- This means that the last super eruption that created the 72-km wide cauldron that can be seen today was actually created with two separate events.
- While this information is a little scary, there is still no reason to believe that we should expect such an event anytime soon.
(h/t IFLS)
