Yellowstone is famous for having a deadly caldera below the states of Idaho, Montana, and Utah. Still, a discovery speaks of another supervolcano about 30 times bigger below the western area of the United States.
Yellowstone – Not So Big In Comparison
The Yellowstone volcano got its supervolcano status thanks to its potential of inflicting global devastation if it ever super erupts.
Yellowstone has previously super erupted three times – once 2.1 million years ago, once 1.3 million years ago, and one last time 630,000 years ago. Some believe that it’s overdue another.
The USGS is keeping careful track of Yellowstone National Park with the help of various seismograph stations placed in critical locations, analyzing the evolution of the supervolcano, and determining whether an eruption is on its way.
However, the discovery makes Yellowstone look tiny in comparison.
The New Colossus
Geologists discovered another supervolcano on the continent of North America. The fact that it’s thirty times bigger than Yellowstone is unsettling to say, at least.
The discovery was made by a team of researchers from Brigham Young University. They discovered what it’s believed to be the biggest volcano on Earth.
They determined that the supervolcano has collapsed and exploded in western Utah about 30 million years ago. The result? 5,500 cubic kilometers of magma erupted near Wah Wah Springs.
Professor Eric Christiansen started a few years ago that, as far as it’s known, “the Wah Wah Springs eruption is the largest known explosive volcanic eruption.”
It’s almost impossible to observe what has happened so many million years ago today, but the evidence lies way beneath Earth’s crust.
Myron Best, the author of the study, stated that the sky “would have been darkened for days, perhaps weeks, because the ash, so much ash in the atmosphere would have completely blocked out the Sun, just penetrating the darkness.”
Nature is impressive, isn’t it?
