Yellowstone Supervolcano Eruption Unlikely; Could Be Worldwide Disaster

COMMENTARY | Many people, even some visitors, don't realize that Yellowstone National Park is sitting on top of a massive supervolcano. Fortunately for us, it has erupted just three times in the past 2 million years, the most recent eruption having occurred about 642,000 years ago. If it were to erupt today, it would surely destroy everything within hundreds of miles and cover the United States in ash.

Past studies led scientists to believe the plume of underground molten rock that makes up the supervolcano extended from about 150 miles to the west-northwest to about 410 miles to the Montana-Idaho border. New studies show that the volcano actually stretches 400 miles to the east and west, and maybe even further. The new imaging study used to learn about the actual size of the supervolcano is only capable of "seeing" out 400 miles in each direction.

What would happen if it erupted? An eruption at Yellowstone would be devastating, causing much more damage than eruptions we've seen in the last few hundred years. Scientists predict that an eruption would affect the world's agriculture to the point of threatening civilization as we know it as a result of a giant cloud of sulphuric acid that would block out the sun after being shot into the atmosphere.

The crater left from the last Yellowstone eruption is about 53 miles long and 28 miles wide. To give this some perspective, the crater is big enough to swallow the largest city on Earth, Tokyo. It's an area 10 million times the size of the area affected by 9/11.

Those living closest to the eruption would probably not make it. The gases and ash would be so hot that the lungs of anyone breathing it in would be severely burned. Homes would be covered in so much ash that the roofs would likely collapse. Outside of the eruption zone, sunlight could be blocked out for several years until the millions of pound of dust, debris, and ash expelled from the supervolcano come to rest.

Luckily for us, Yellowstone has erupted just once every 600,000 years or so. It's a bit worrisome that the last eruption was 640,000 years ago, making it 40,000 years overdue, but it does not erupt according to some sort of schedule or on regular intervals. The truth is, we know Yellowstone will erupt again at some point, but we don't know when. Hopefully, the next eruption is so far into the future that mankind will have the technology to easily handle the aftermath.