The past volcanic activity has had
a drastic effect on the current landscape of Yellowstone .
Passed eruptions of the volcano underneath Yellowstone
have created a large crater that most of the park lies in. According to Richard
A. Lovett author of Yellowstone Eruptions more Numerous then Thought? “…a
roughly 40-mile-wide crater formed by the collapse of a massive volcanic cone
during the area’s most recent super- eruption some 640,000 years ago”(Yellowstone Eruptions more numerous then
Thought?).
 |
| (Image shows the outlines of several calderas in the Yellowstone area. Image from Google Images). |
When the magma chamber of a volcano
empties in an eruption, the empty chamber can no longer support all the heavy
material above it and collapses.
(Video shows how a caldera is formed using flour and a balloon to represent the crust of the Earth and a magma chamber. Video from Youtube.com)
As the video shows, the flour or
crust of the Earth stretches as the caldera is formed. This stretching makes
the crust thinner around the edges of the caldera, this means that the magma
under the park is closer to the surface and can heat any water that is between
the magma chamber and the crust. This is how geysers such as Old Faithful are
created, as well as, hot springs
(Image shows how a caldera is formed, and how the caldera leads to the formation of geysers, hot springs, and mud pots. Image from Google Images).
(Video shows several different volcanic forms in Yellowstone. Video from Youtube.com)
Yellowstone 1,000 Years in the Future
There have been dozens of articles
and documentaries created in the last few years saying that the Yellowstone volcano may explode soon. While an eruption
of a volcano is always possible, it is highly unlikely that Yellowstone will
have a large eruption such as the one that formed the Yellowstone
caldera. It is much more likely that Yellowstone
will continue to have small eruptions; not the famed “super volcano eruptions”
which are believed to have the power to plunge the entire earth into a volcanic
winter. This is because according to Bob Christiansen in the article When Yellowstone Explodes by Joel
Achenbach, the Yellowstone hotspot that is responsible for the volcano is now
under the thicker crust that is at the base of the Rocky Mountains. This makes
an eruption much less likely (When
Yellowstone Explodes). A thousand
years in the future it is much more likely that other geographic phenomenon
will affect Yellowstone ’s appearance, such as small earthquakes or small volcanic eruptions.
The global climate change our planet is currently experiencing will have a drastic change on the landscape ofYellowstone . According to a Yellowstone Wiki article about vegetation, Yellowstone ’s forests are primarily made up of Lodgepole
pine trees, along with the Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, Subalpine fir, and
Limber pine (Vegetation). All of the species of pine
trees rely on the colder temperatures that occur from the higher elevations
within the park. According to the Glacial Forms and Processes Lecture, there
has been a pattern of pine trees migrating northward as the temperature of the
planet increases (Glacial Forms and Processes Lecture). As our planet’s
temperature continues to rise in the next thousand years, the large pine tree
forests that cover the park will begin to migrate to colder areas, leaving the
landscape open for new types of vegetation to live in the area once dominated
by pine trees.
The global climate change our planet is currently experiencing will have a drastic change on the landscape of
(Image shows pine forest near a geothermal feature in Yellowstone. Image from Google Images).
Yellowstone 100,000 Years in the Future
The landscape of Yellowstone
is likely to experience a large volcanic eruption within the next hundred thousand
years. The reason the eruption is more likely further into the future is
because of plate tectonics. Currently the hot spot is under the thick crust of
the Rocky Mountains, since the plates under the Earth’s crust are in a constant
state of slow motion the hotspot will not stay under Wyoming
(The map above shows the calderas made by the hot spot. By tracking the path of the calderas, it appears that the tectonic plate is roughly moving
in a south west direction. Eventually, the hotspot will move out from under the
thick crust of the Rocky Mountains; to an area
where the crust is thinner. Image from Google Images).
(Image shows a map of the Rocky Mountains with Yellowstone in the bottom right corner. Image from Google Images).
Once, the hotspot has moved from under the thicker crust,a large volcanic eruption is likely to occur. During the time the hotspot is under the crust of the Rockies the magma chamber is becoming larger, when it is
no longer under the thicker crust; it will erupt, and the volume of magma
release will be significant. Once the magma has been released, the empty
chamber will collapse forming another caldera.
The beautiful geothermal features, and the large pine
forests that Yellowstone
National Park
Sources
Achenbah, Joel. "When Yellowstone Explodes". National Geographic. August, 2009. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/08/yellowstone/achenbach-text/1
Caldera Demostration video from Youtube.com
Geothermal Features of Yellowstone video from Youtube.com
Glacial forms and Processes Lecture
Lovett, A, Richard. "Yellowstone Eruptions more Numerous then Thought?". National Geographic. May, 2011. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120501-yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption-science-ellis/
Yellowstone Wiki. "Vegetation". http://www.yellowstonewiki.com/wiki/Vegetation
