Download Yellowstone Super Volcano - Yellowstone Teacher Project

Yellowstone Supervolcano
By: Jackson Smith
Type of Volcano
• The Yellowstone caldera is a SUPERVOLCANO!
• The Yellowstone Supervolcano is still very
active, but is not shooting out lava.
• It’s considered a Supervolcano because there
is a much larger amount of magma in the
magma chamber.
• The magma chamber is 40 by 80 kilometers
and it sits in the middle of a continental plate.
• This is called a Hot Spot.
Instead,
Yellowstone’s
magma chamber
heats the water and
rock above it
causing pressure to
build. This pressure
is released in the
form of thermal
features such as
hot springs, mud
pots, fumaroles,
(steam vents) and
geysers!
Size of the
Yellowstone Caldera
• The caldera formed when the explosive blast from the
magma chamber caused the surface of the earth to
collapse in on itself. Magma was blown out and the earth
collapsed.
caldera rim
• The caldera is about the size of Rhode Island measuring 65
km wide, 80 km long, and hundreds of kilometers deep.
Geographic Location
• Yellowstone is located inside Yellowstone
National Park.
• The caldera rim
is located in Wyoming
with only a small
portion in Idaho and
Montana.
Nearest Cities to
Yellowstone
• Since the caldera sits inside a national park,
permanent homes are not located nearby.
• West Yellowstone, MT is the nearest city to
the rim. It is approximately 18 -20 miles from
the caldera’s edge.
• Other major towns are all outside the park.
(Gardiner, MT; Cooke City, WY)
Population
• West Yellowstone is a small gateway
community with only about 1,271 people
living there. (data 2010)
Most Recent and Most Destructive
Eruption Information
• Yellowstone has been erupting for 2.1 million years.
• The first eruption was 2,500 times MORE powerful
than Mt. St. Helens.
• Scientist believe it could possibly be the largest, most
violent eruption in history.
• Debris from the first eruption covered a large portion
of the U.S. in 4 feet of ash. (Huckleberry ridge ash bed)
• Three cataclysmic eruptions have occurred since.
• Yellowstone’s most recent eruption was around 640
thousand years ago.
Ash Fall Compared with
Long Valley and Mt. St. Helens
• The most recent explosive eruption from
Yellowstone was 640 thousand years ago.
• The three major eruptions spewed enough
ash and debris to fill the grand canyon!
• About 80 smaller non-explosive eruptions
have taken place since then.
Many were small basalt and rhyolite lava flows
(see pictures on the next slide)
Basalt columns were created during
the last explosive eruption. Here, you
can see evidence from two explosive
eruptions.
One eruption
left columns.
Another
eruption left a
layer of smaller
debris.
Sheepeater’s Cliff was formed by
steady flow of basalt in a nonexplosive lava flow.
Obsidian Cliff
This area inside
the caldera is a
two mile long
rocky hillside
made almost
entirely of
obsidian. It was
formed when
hot lava came in
contact with a
glacier.
Events Associated with Past
Eruptions
Past eruptions have caused:
 About 650 cubic miles of ash and debris was thrown
into the air after the first eruption.
 Made huge ash clouds that stretched all the way to
Oklahoma
 Buried the state of Wyoming in 3 feet of ash
 One possible cause of the Ice Age
Earthquakes of the Region
•
The Hebgen Lake Earthquake of 1959
was 7.3 on the Richter scale.
 It killed 28 people and did $11 million
in damage to roads and timber in an
area north of West Yellowstone.
 An avalanche with a huge amount of
rocks, soil, and trees, fell into the
Madison River.
• After this earthquake, the park
service noticed swelling in the
ground inside the caldera.
• New geysers began to erupt as
well.
• This was evidence that the
volcano is not dormant.
Facts about the
Yellowstone Supervolcano
• There are about 10,000 thermal features in
Yellowstone and most of them are inside the
rim.
• Magma is usually 40 miles below the surface
but the magma under Yellowstone is
approximately 2 miles below the surface.
• 86% of rock in Yellowstone is volcanic and the
rest is sedimentary
Facts about the Yellowstone supervolcano
• Magma
Chamber
Crust above
Magma
chamber
Websites and Resources
Websites:
•
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/yellowstone_sub_page_54.html
•
http://www.city-data.com/city/West-Yellowstone-Montana.html
Other Resources:
•
•
•
•
Brad Bulin, Instructor for the Yellowstone Association Institute
Zack Pennington, Geologist and Instructor for the Yellowstone Association Institute
Dr. Charles Amlaner, Kennesaw State University
Hope Smith, Kennesaw State University’s Yellowstone Teacher Project