A supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park is expected to erupt sooner than was previously thought. Experts also think it might erupt with less warning than they thought as well.
The volcano last erupted 600,000 years ago, and the problem with it erupting again is that it could spread ash all over the entire United States. It’s estimated that 1,000 cubic kilometers of debris could go flying through the air.
In the past researchers thought that the magma would start flowing for centuries or millennia before the eruption, but now they think it might only be a decade or so. It is currently being monitored and there is no perceived threat of eruption at the moment.
Michael Poland, a scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory for the U.S. Geological Survey spoke out about its current state.
“We see interesting things all the time…but we haven’t seen anything that would lead us to believe that the sort of magmatic event described by the researchers is happening.”
