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Michelle Garcia
02/01/12
Humanities
A Sleeping Giant
The Earth is an incredibly beautiful place filled with amazing sights. One of its most
amazing sights is its volcanoes. Some famous and well know volcanoes are Mount Vesuvius,
Pompeii, Mount St. Helens, and Yellowstone National Park. All of these volcanoes are known
for their amazing beauty and scenery but also for the havoc they once released upon the Earth.
An interesting thing about volcanoes is that, like earthquakes, they are uncontrollable and
unpredictable. There is one type of volcano that causes an amount of devastation that is unlike
any other called a supervolcano. There is no actual scientific name for a “supervolcano”, most
are caldera volcanos. An example of a currently very active caldera or “supervolcano” is
America’s own beloved Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is a dangerous volcano that
threatens humanity with possible hydrothermal eruptions, small volcanic eruptions, large caldera
eruptions, and the ecological threats they all present.
Although Yellowstone is thundering with activity and danger some believe that the risk it
creates is not very considerable at all. Because of all of Yellowstone’s activity and its history it is
closely monitored by many high ranking scientists for signs of an eruption like unusual tremors,
temperature rises, and land level rising. Although all of these things are common within
Yellowstone most scientific research has found nothing troubling or unusual to suggest a
possible eruption. Geologist Jake Lowenstern of the USGS even stated “No, we certainly don't
expect an eruption in 2012, or that matter, anytime in the next thousand years. Nevertheless, it's
always possible.” The most likely cause for any eruption in Yellowstone would be a large
earthquake and scientists predict that this too is unlikely.
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Despite these contradictions there is one type of eruption in Yellowstone that people
witness everyday on a small scale, but it’s not volcanic, it hydrothermal. A hydrothermal
eruption has nothing to do with lava but is caused when water is heated up by magma stored
beneath the Earth’s surface. The water becomes so boiling hot that it explodes out of the ground.
These eruptions are normally smaller in scale although it is possible for them to grow (Gates and
David). Of all kinds of eruptions this is one of the less dangerous. Nothing catches on fire and
there’s no ash or lava to avoid. Hydrothermal eruptions are more dangerous to nearby
unsuspecting life in the water. Most hydrothermal eruptions happen about 2000 to 5000 meters
below sea level in the mid-oceanic ridge system. This is where the tectonic plates meet at the
ocean floor creating ridges. These hydrothermal eruptions are called hydrothermal vents because
the magma creates cracks or vents in the earth’s crust (NeMO Explorer). These hydrothermal
vents can be as simple as magma creating hot water or the magma releasing deadly black
chemicals, making toxic vents called “black smokers”. These are incredibly deadly to all life
forms large and small that come in contact with the water. Fish and other animals are supposed
to breathe or drink cold, clean water, not boiling hot poison. Yellowstone is full of hydrothermal
eruptions and events. The most well know example is the geyser Old Faithful. Others include
Yellowstone’s many hot springs, lakes, and other geysers in the park. Of course these are very
small and controlled examples of a hydrothermal eruption (Gates and David). Even hydrothermal
vents have a small scale impact compared to if Yellowstone were to have an immense
hydrothermal eruption. If a full size hydrothermal eruption were to break out, the blast could
create a shallow crater about one kilometer wide such as in the northern Yellowstone Lake Basin
(USGS). Also depending on what comes out Yellowstone would have to recover from tons of
gallons of boiling hot water or tons of gallons of boiling hot deadly black chemicals. The most
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certain effects of this would be dangerous burns on wild life, water contamination, and a part of
Yellowstone precious habitat would be lost. There are already plenty of hydrothermal events
going on in Yellowstone to make any person nervous, all that needs to happen is a quick rise in
temperature and a little pressure and things could take a sharp turn for the worst.
Another dangerous situation is the threat of a smaller volcanic eruption, bigger and more
violent than any hydrothermal eruption. A “smaller” volcanic eruption would look like any other
volcanic eruption that humanity has witnessed. Human society has never experienced a truly
horrific eruption. A smaller eruption would normally be caused by an earthquake or a flare-up in
the magma plume beneath the volcano, resulting in an explosive fit of lava. The term “small
eruption” is used in comparison to a supervolcano or a caldera eruption (USGS). Small
represents more of a normal sized volcano or an eruption that modern people have been exposed
to. An example of a recent volcanic eruption is Mount St. Helens which erupted in 1980, creating
hundreds of square miles of wasteland and an 80,000 feet eruption column (Tilling, Topinka, and
Swanson). Mount St. Helens volcanic history is quite unlike that of Yellowstone Nation Park.
Yellowstone has had a very active volcanic history with many small eruptions leading to larger
ones. Yellowstone undertook three periods of major eruptions which also must have included
smaller, more normal sized eruptions. A small eruption for Yellowstone could range anywhere
between smaller than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, or greater (USGS). If this were
to happen some of the volcanic hazards would include fire, landslides, loss of habitat, volcanic
ash and plumice. All of these things would make it very hard for anything to live in the park, but
the reality is that other volcanic hazards would come into play, turning something once very
beautiful into a horrendous scene of death (Gates and David). This is what is expected for any
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normal eruption; unfortunately this modern society hasn’t been around long enough to predict
what may happen in the event of a major caldera eruption.
Truth be told, hydrothermal and normal volcanic eruptions are not what has everyone
scared stiff but it is the likely hood, and the possible results of the Yellowstone caldera erupting.
Calderas are the result of a volcanic eruption that is strong enough that the top of the volcano
collapses. Depending on what exactly happened during that eruption the caldera could become
dormant or could remain very active (USGS). Most calderas, like Yellowstone remain active.
Calderas can be miles long with a large magma plume just beneath the surface building up
pressure. When viewing Yellowstone National Park from space the caldera is clearly seen and
looks almost like a big crater in the Earth (BBC - Science & Nature). This is because
Yellowstone’s past eruptions have covered it with volcanic soil making things grow, but
underneath lay the sleeping giant. The earth’s most recent super volcano or caldera eruption was
the eruption of Toba about 69,000 to 77,000 years ago. The eruption of Toba is believed to have
put the Earth into a 6 to 10 year volcanic winter and possibly a 1,000 year cooling period.
(NOVA). These are just some of the long term effects; they’re merely the results of the volcanic
hazards that were caused by the actual eruption itself. The initial eruption would have been
absolutely cut throat deadly with no chance of clearing the blast zone alive. Yellowstone’s past
super eruptions happened 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago. Yellowstone’s
volcanic history is one of the main reasons it is so dangerous today (USGS). Because it has
already erupted multiple times, scientist can see that it is completely possible for it to erupt again
just as it did so many years ago. If a caldera eruption of Yellowstone were to happen the results
would be much like that of the Toba eruption. Weather patterns would change, ash and volcanic
chemicals would completely dominate the Earth, and all life would practically be wiped out. It
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would be like the events of Pompeii’s eruption only ten times greater. The possibility of a
caldera eruption of Yellowstone is very real and very concerning because the signs of an
eruption are not enough to stay informed, the history and the current activity levels play a large
role as well. Volcanoes are like time bombs, it’s unsure where or when they will go off until it’s
too late.
No one can predict the level of death that will occur from the possible eruptions of
Yellowstone National Park. To add to the eruptions the volcanic hazards they present would be
far worse than the actual explosion them self’s. Even top scientist that follow Yellowstone’s
every move and say an eruption won’t happen admit that no one can know for sure because it is
such an unpredictable phenomenon. History shows us the importance of being aware of eruption
like this and the consequences of ignorance. History compared to the present also shows us that
life always survives. The Earth is a beautiful and complicated place that has been re-born,
survived, and endured even through the most unconceivable of disasters.
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Works Cited
"BBC - Science & Nature - Horizon - Supervolcanoes." BBC - Homepage. British Broadcasting
Corporation. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/1999/supervolcanoes_script.shtml>.
Gates, Alexander E., and David Ritchie. "Yellowstone National Park." Science Online. Facts On
File, Inc. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE40&SID=5&iPin=EEV1069&Sing
leRecord=True>.
"Hydrothermal Vents." NOAA/PMEL Is a Leader in Developing Ocean Observational Systems.
NeMO Explorer. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/nemo/explorer/concepts/hydrothermal.html>.
"Lessons From A Supervolcano." Pbs.org. NOVA, 26 Sept. 2006. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/lessons-supervolcano.html>.
"Questions About Future Volcanic Activity at Yellowstone." Volcano Hazards Program. United
States Geological Survey. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
<http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/about/faq/faqactivity.php>.
Tilling, Robert I., Lyn Topinka, and Donald A. Swanson. "Eruptions of Mount St. Helens: Past,
Present, and Future." USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO). United States
Geological Survey, 1990. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
<http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Publications/MSHPPF/MSH_past_present_f
uture.html>.
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"VHP Photo Glossary: Caldera." Volcano Hazards Program. United States Geological Survey.
Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/images/pglossary/caldera.php>.
"Yellowstone magma plume studied." Science Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE40&SID=5&iPin=UPI-120091215-125630-bc-us-yellowstone&SingleRecord=True>.