Yellowstone Supervolcano May Have Had More Eruptions Than Thought

yahoo ^ | 05/02/2012 | Charles Q. Choi

[george76]

The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park might have erupted less powerfully but more frequently than previously thought...

In the ancient past, the supervolcano at Yellowstone led to some of the largest-known continental eruptions in Earth's history. Each of the world's roughly one dozen supervolcanoes is capable of spewing up to thousands of times more magma and ash than any eruption ever recorded in human history.

Scientists now find that the biggest Yellowstone eruption — the fourth-largest known to science, which created the 2-million-year-old Huckleberry Ridge deposit — was actually at least two different eruptions that occurred about 6,000 years apart.

...

he new ages for each Huckleberry Ridge eruption reduce the volume of the first event to about 530 cubic miles (2,200 cubic kilometers), roughly 12 percent less than previously thought. A second eruption of about 70 cubic miles (290 cubic km) took place more than 6,000 years later. In comparison, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens produced just about a quarter of a cubic mile (1 cubic km) of ash.

The first Huckleberry Ridge eruption still deserves to be called "super." By itself, it is the fourth-largest known to have occurred on Earth

[KoRn]

Wish it would go off big again. Get this mess over with....

[BenLurkin]

Yikes!

[bicyclerepair]

None of us will make it out alive.

[SamAdams76]

I intend to survive the great Yellowstone eruption - among many other calamities. I am a survivor and I may even outlive the cockroaches.

[hinckley buzzard]

On a scale of a couple million years, separating one eruption into two phases 6000 years apart isn't very significant. I guess if there were people around it would make a difference at the margins but no practical difference for the most part.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I think I’m sitting pretty here in South Florida. We do have hurricane risk, to be sure. Just none of that big boom risk. Wouldn’t want to be in the Dakotas or MN/WI/MI, etc.

[Cyber Liberty]

That’s a relief! Oh wait....

[albionin]

The number of eruptions has been revised up “unexpectedly”. I wonder what the real number is. Seriously though, they found volcanic bombs from the last eruption in Kansas. We are pretty much screwed here in southern Colorado. We are about 500 miles to the south/southeast.

[Gertie]

Nobody lives forever. Jesus walked among, and healed the sick, but they still all died.

[Don Corleone]

I intend to survive the great Yellowstone eruption - among many other calamities. I am a survivor and I may even outlive the cockroaches.

But not the lawyers....

[ken5050]

Then you can write the environmental impact statement..

[aruanan]

Scientists now find that the biggest Yellowstone eruption — the fourth-largest known to science, which created the 2-million-year-old Huckleberry Ridge deposit — was actually at least two different eruptions that occurred about 6,000 years apart.

Given the length of time between major eruptions, 6000 years is practically the second part of a burp.

[MCH]

I am a survivor and I may even outlive the cockroaches. But not the lawyers....

There's a difference?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks KoRn.

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