Old Faithful Geyser erupts in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. (Photo: AP)
Posted on 03/24/2004 3:14:50 PM PST by Momaw Nadon
(CBS) For years, CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, scientists have tried to understand the dynamic nature of Yellowstone National Park.
"It's beautiful up here, everybody should see this at one time or another," says one appreciative observer.
Scientist Lisa Morgan may have unlocked one piece in the puzzle, deep below the park's biggest lake.
"It is kind of the last unmapped frontier in Yellowstone National Park," says Morgan.
What she found looks more like the surface of the moon. Using sonar she's identified a massive bulging dome the size of seven football fields. The only other underwater dome in Yellowstone was the site of a major explosion.
"The most extreme event, which occurred 13,800 years ago, went about as far as five miles away from source," says Morgan.
It spewed boiling water, steam and rocks, and the fear of it happening again started another explosion of sorts: this one on the Internet. Online doomsday scenarios are swirling all over chat rooms telling visitors to stay away. Yellowstone, they warn, could blow.
Yellowstone National Park sits on top of one of the most active volcanoes in the world with more than 10,000 vents, geysers and bubbling hot springs. That's part of the reason more than 3 million people come here each year.
So for Morgan it is important to clarify. She doesn't think the big dome is ready to explode, but park ranger Hank Heasler says Yellowstone is unpredictable.
"The bottom line is we still don't know all that much about what's going on at Yellowstone," says Heasler.
So he takes the job of keeping visitors safe seriously, constantly monitoring temperatures.
And that's not always easy. A trail near the Norris Geyser was closed last summer and is still boiling hot enough to burn through shoes.
"If the temperatures here gets above boiling, then we know that there's a potential for the water to just rapidly flash to steam and cause one of these hydrothermal explosions," says Heasler.
Which is exactly what Old Faithful and her companion geysers do almost daily and that's why scientists from around the world are watching this latest discovery and wondering what nature has planned next.
Related threads:
Scientists closely monitoring Yellowstone. 200 degree ground temperatures reported.
Frequently asked questions about recent findings at Yellowstone Lake
In Yellowstone, a Subterranean Volcano Exerts Its Influence
Its Time to Cast a Worried Eye Toward Yellowstone
Earthquake felt in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone Lake Hints at Buildup to Hugh Blast.
Thermal activity closes part of Yellowstone
Alaska quake shakes Yellowstone park, too
Yellowstone More Volcanically Active than Previously Estimated
Super Volcano In Yellowstone National Park
Women and minorities hit hardest.
If it blows, everyone needs to back up at least half the continent.
As the links above show, the Yellowstone CALDERA is a SUPERVOLCANO and if it blows, the best bet will be to BE ON MARS.
A HUGH part of the park sits on top of a caldera, and when that thing blows, it will be BAD NEWS for the western part of the US, and not so good news for us in the East either. The map of the park has the caldera boundaries clearly marked, and you can see the differences in vegetation from inside and outside the lines. The stuff on top of the caldera is sparse and scrubby, while outside the lines it is green and lush.
It is really a gorgeous place, and we had a great time.
Yellowstone will stay
just fine if everyone goes
to see The Passion.
Sounds series. Let's hope
all the moose don't freak out and
start biting people . . .
Last time I was at Yellowstone there was a massive earthquake right after I left. I deny all responsibility, but I also haven't been back and don't intend to go back.
No, like most of the clueless hypemongers that totally misunderstand this story, you fail to understand that there's a vast difference between the underwater lake dome exploding, and the caldera exploding, and have confused the two.
Calderas have a WIDE VARIETY of eruption modes. For every time an entire caldera explodes, there will be hundreds or thousands of small cinder cone eruptions, bursts in geyser activity, phreatic explosions, lava flows, etc. over tens of thousands of years.
The bulge in the lake exploding IS NOT THE ENTIRE CALDERA exploding.
If the bulge in the lake explodes it's no danger to anyone that isn't in the park near the lake. And it won't trigger the caldera exploding or really be any sort of sign the caldera might explode.
And caldera explosions are so rare on the grand scheme of geological things to worry about in the US it's very low on the list....a collapse of Mt. Rainer, the Hayward fault going in Oakland and Berkeley, a hidden thrust fault in LA going, New Madrid...those are all things that realistically could happen in someone's lifetime.
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