Many people visit Yellowstone National Park to see the huge bison and the colorful Grand Prismatic Spring. But did you know the park is actually sitting on top of a giant supervolcano? Supervolcanoes have erupted in places where they released massive amounts of volcanic material—at least 1,000 cubic kilometers! The Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field covers a big area of the park and spills into parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
Last summer, while driving south from Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris Geyser Basin, a park scientist spotted a big plume of steam rising through the trees and across a marshy area. The scientists at Yellowstone, Jefferson Hungerford and Kiernan Folz-Donahue, shared this exciting news in a blog post.
Even though the last lava flow happened over 70,000 years ago, Yellowstone is still one of the hottest places on Earth. It has more than 10,000 geysers, hot springs, and steam vents! The team noted that the activity at these hydrothermal features is less intense now than it was when they were first formed.
On March 17, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced that geologists discovered a new volcanic vent in Yellowstone. This vent, which constantly releases steam, was found at the base of an ancient lava flow. It has a temperature of 171 degrees Fahrenheit (77 degrees Celsius) and has been active for several months. When scientists looked closer, they confirmed that this was a new feature. There’s also a theory that this vent might be connected to some geothermal activity found in the same area back in March 2003.
According to Hungerford and Folz-Donahue, if you draw a line through the old area of activity, it intersects the new vent. This line also follows the direction of faults that move from Norris Geyser Basin to Mammoth Hot Springs and beyond.
Leave a Reply