Thanks rdl6989.
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Posted on 09/14/2015 8:45:54 PM PDT by JimSEA
April 23, 2015 – University of Utah seismologists discovered and made images of a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock 12 to 28 miles beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano, and it is 4.4 times larger than the shallower, long-known magma chamber.
The hot rock in the newly discovered, deeper magma reservoir would fill the 1,000-cubic-mile Grand Canyon 11.2 times, while the previously known magma chamber would fill the Grand Canyon 2.5 times, says postdoctoral researcher Jamie Farrell, a co-author of the study published online today in the journal Science.
“For the first time, we have imaged the continuous volcanic plumbing system under Yellowstone,” says first author Hsin-Hua Huang, also a postdoctoral researcher in geology and geophysics. “That includes the upper crustal magma chamber we have seen previously plus a lower crustal magma reservoir that has never been imaged before and that connects the upper chamber to the Yellowstone hotspot plume below.”
Contrary to popular perception, the magma chamber and magma reservoir are not full of molten rock. Instead, the rock is hot, mostly solid and spongelike, with pockets of molten rock within it. Huang says the new study indicates the upper magma chamber averages about 9 percent molten rock – consistent with earlier estimates of 5 percent to 15 percent melt – and the lower magma reservoir is about 2 percent melt.
So there is about one-quarter of a Grand Canyon worth of molten rock within the much larger volumes of either the magma chamber or the magma reservoir, Farrell says.
(Excerpt) Read more at archive.unews.utah.edu ...
“I see. Given my proximity to it, and the even closer proximity of one of my kids... I’d really rather it didn’t blow. But then I guess if it goes big, we’re all screwed”.
I have family in Evanston, WY, south of Yellowstone.
I remember seeing the map of affected areas and most of us on the west coast should be ok...other than the catastrophic disaster nearby. The fallout curves down to a little bit of southern California but as I recall that was it.
However, none of us would ever be the same.
No air quotes?
Yes, it would be bad. I’ve seen those maps and it’s scary.
Earth crust is between 20 and 30 miles typically. I would say this is a narrow area of the crust or could easily say it’s part of the plume that is connected to the mantel.
I read about this several months ago, but a different article, Same story though.
Scary stuff. If and when it blows, and it seems to be overdue, it can cover at least half the US in a layer of ash several feet thick and create an ash cloud capable of blocking sunlight for months, if not years.
Mt St Helens was a small burp compared to this thing. I’m probably not safe here in Texas...
yeah we already know it will blow and cut America in half and kill 2/3rd of the population and damage the climate...and cause global freezing and cause revolutions galore... SO WHAT
its 1/4th the size of the Grand Canyon.... good put it to use..
FILL UP 1/4TH OF THE GRAND CANYON WITH IT....
ok whcih is going to happen first...
the giant tidal wave coming from the azores with a 200 foot sunami like effect or yellowstone blow its top...
There is a brittle solid portion of the mantle that, together with the crust, makes up the lithosphere. These mantle plumes are semi liquid and originate a lot deeper into the mantle and rise into the lithosphere and eventually into the crust. What you are seeing in this article is a plume in the lithosphere. If you look at the depth of many earthquakes you will see that the deep ones are in the brittle portion of the upper mantle. So it’s more complicated than crust-mantle-core.
Maybe both at once and we get a giant sauna.
Thank you for that information
Part of the plume, I would think. Isostacy would have the crust generally thicker in the vicinity of Yellowstone—just to ‘float’ the mountains in the area on the mantle.
Thank you
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