Yellowstone Super-Eruptions More Numerous Than Thought?

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120501-yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption-science-ellis/


Great Fountain Geyser, fueled by vast magma stores below Yellowstone National Park.

The huge volcanic crater that makes up much of Yellowstone may have seen more so-called super-eruptions than previously thought, a new study says.


What's more, Yellowstone's super eruptions may be slightly less super than suspected—but still strong enough to destroy all of Yellowstone and more, researchers say.

Much of Yellowstone National Park—which covers parts of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming—lies in a roughly 40-mile-wide (70-kilometer-wide) crater formed by the collapse of a massive volcanic cone during the area's most recent super-eruption, some 640,000 years ago.

Before then, Yellowstone had seen two other super-eruptions: one about a million years ago and another about two million years ago. Now, however, it seems the earliest blast might actually have been two cataclysmic explosions, thousands of years apart.