Yellowstone Super Volcano Worse Than We Thought. We’re So Boned.
It seems like the last few years the world has been on fire. Now come to find out the supervolcano in Yellowstone has more magma than we thought, and if it blows, the world will be on fire.
I'll admit it. I'm a bit of a negative, worst-case-scenario, kind of person. I will do my best not to freak you out with this news. As I understand, it's nowhere near as bad as I'm thinking, but it's not good.
Here's the deal. In Yellowstone National Park sits a ticking time bomb. A supervolcano so massive that if it blows, it will take out about half of the U.S. The rest will be covered in ash for years. Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho will be plagued with Pyroclastic flows. That's the massive river of hellfire lava you see when a volcano pops its top.
Now scientists from the University of Illinois have announced that this massive death pimple in the ground contains even more magma than previously thought. This is a very important discovery for a few reasons. The first being they have a better idea of the distance and damage the volcano would cause if it did erupt. The second reason is it gives them a better estimation of when the Yellowstone volcano could erupt.
No Need To Panic
The good news is, that even with more magma in the depths of this death hole of fire, it doesn't make an imminent eruption more likely.
Sciencealert.com has written a terrific article explaining how this data was gathered, and more important information if you would like to dig deeper.
As it stands right now, we know there have been 3 eruptions in the past 2.1 million years. Cross your fingers It at least holds out until we get at least one more Tool album.