An astonishing article published Thursday detailed the discovery of a potentially devastating threat lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park.
No, we're not talking about supervolcanoes.
When most people think of “Yellowstone,” they think of Kevin Costner or a massive volcanic system buried beneath the American West that could plunge the Northern Hemisphere into nuclear winter with its next predicted super-eruption. Thankfully, this eruption isn't going to happen until thousands of years from now. In the meantime, scientists are keeping an eye on the explosive potential of the park's hydrothermal system, also known as phreatic eruptions. According to To science news.
Phreatic eruptions are thought to occur when a sudden heat wave within a volcanic system turns water into steam, causing it to expand in volume hundreds of times, crushing everything around it, USGS explanation“Hydrothermal explosions are extremely dangerous,” USGS volcanologist Lisa Morgan told the outlet, and Yellowstone is covered in scars from past explosions.
A “time bomb” could one day silently claim thousands of lives: Lake Kivu could claim more than 2 million lives https://t.co/XXhPova0HW pic.twitter.com/vJGrIrl5fh
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Although steam explosions don't sound as scary as traditional volcanic eruptions, they are. (Related: Bored with eclipses? Check out erupting volcanoes spewing smoke rings and other cool stuff instead)
In 1951, a once-peaceful group of hot springs in Lake City, California, exploded, spewing 300,000 tons of mud and rock and creating a crater the size of 10 football fields. The lake is home to more than 10,000 hydrothermal vents, including hot springs and geysers. YellowstoneAll of these pose a risk of steam explosion.
This creates a “dangerous pressure cooker” situation. The largest phreatic eruption in Earth's history occurred in Yellowstone's Mary Bay. New analysis of the area reveals that “the lake is hydrothermally and tectonically active in ways no one expected,” Morgan added. The lake floor is covered by a rounded dome from which superheated water seeps out, slowly solidifying minerals and depositing mud in the crust. The water eventually gets trapped and forms a ridge.
One such uplift, the North Basin Hydrothermal Dome, is roughly 750 meters (nearly half a mile) in diameter and rises seven stories above the lake floor.[I]”This is a perfect candidate site for a potential hydrothermal explosion,” Morgan said.
Boating on Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA, circa 1965. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING – AUGUST 16: Lion Geyser, located in the Upper Geyser Basin, erupted in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on August 16, 2024. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/Getty Images)
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING – MAY 27: Panoramic view of Nufah Lake in Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on May 27, 2021. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Unlike a typical volcanic eruption, which gives significant warning before an explosion, a phreatic eruption can happen suddenly. Earthquakes and tsunamis can occur without warning, along with the explosion of raw materials, Morgan explained. Past eruptions at Mary Bay have erupted 15 times the amount of material it took to build the Great Pyramids of Giza, or 50 times the amount of material from a 104-kiloton atomic bomb.
An atomic bomb-class explosion is likely throughout the park, and ongoing research is focused on predicting when the next large explosion will occur and what conditions contribute to the risk of an eruption. (Related article: Scientists uncover ancient catastrophe at popular tourist destination, and an even bigger one could be on the way.)
For now, experts say it's “too early to know” the extent of the risk, but you don't need to be an expert to know it's significant.
