http://trib.com/news/state-and-regi...cle_d94b8b05-21a0-5956-a36d-3cbcab3cae60.html
Throw in Old Faithful if old.
HELENA, Mont. The hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 ½ times larger than previously estimated, meaning the park's supervolcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens, according to a new study.
By measuring seismic waves from earthquakes, scientists were able to map the magma chamber underneath the Yellowstone caldera as 55 miles long, lead author Jamie Farrell of the University of Utah said Monday.
The chamber is 18 miles wide and runs at depths from 3 to 9 miles below the earth, he added.
The largest blast the volcano's first was 2,000 times the size of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. A similar one would spew large amounts of volcanic material in the atmosphere, where it would circle the earth, he said.
"It would be a global event," Farrell said. "There would be a lot of destruction and a lot of impacts around the globe."
The last Yellowstone eruption happened 640,000 years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. For years, observers tracking earthquake swarms under Yellowstone have warned the caldera is overdue to erupt.
Farrell dismissed that notion, saying there isn't enough data to estimate the timing of the next eruption.
Throw in Old Faithful if old.