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Hot spring by Lake Yellowstone. Photo by Teresa Gire.
The U.S. Geological Survey experts on Yellowstone have an excellent homepage that describes the volcanic system. They state that Yellowstone will erupt again but at the present level of activity there is no need for immediate concern about eruptions.
Yellowstone is the result of three very large eruptions. The first was about 2.1 million years ago and erupted 600 cubic miles (2,500 cubic km) of ash. It created the Island Park caldera about 45 miles (75 km) long. The second eruption was about 1.3 million years ago. It produced the Henrys Fork caldera in the west end of the older (2.1 million year) caldera. About 600,000 years ago an eruption produced about 250 cubic miles (1,000 cubic km) of ash and the present-day Yellowstone caldera. Since then there have been large volume (250 cubic miles; 1,000 cubic km) rhyolitic lava flows between 150,000 and 70,000 years ago. Yellowstone is still an active volcano. It sits above a hot spot and will erupt again. To learn more about hot spots.
Sources of Information:
Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, v. 20, no. 10, October 1995.
Wood, C.A., and Kienle, J., 1993, Volcanoes of North America: Cambridge University Press, New York, 354 p
Steve Mattox
Click here to find out about Yellowstone National Park.
North Dakota's volcanic future
Yellowstone is not coming to us. We are going towards Yellowstone (no
offense to North Dakotans but this sounds good to me). The location of
the Yellowstone hot spot is fixed within the Earth. The North American
plate is moving about 2.3 cm to the southwest each year. Assuming plate
motions remain constant, the North Dakota-Montana state line will be over
the hotspot in 22 million years. The town of Bismarck will be over the
hotspot in 33 million years. Fargo will be over the hotspot in 44
million years. Duluth will have to wait 59 million years before it basks
in the warmth of geothermal splendor.
Steve Mattox
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