Horrible Today: Live Footage of Yellowstone volcano eruption Threatens Millions Many Lives Worldwide
Yellowstone is located at the northeastern tip of the Snake River Plain, a flat, striking corridor that cuts through the mountainous region. This scar was created by a hot spot in the Earth's mantle that is the geological equivalent of a gas burner on a stove that was slowly replaced by the North American tectonic plate, triggering a series of major northeast-trending volcanic eruptions over the past 17 million.
The most recent supereruption occurred 640,000 years ago, spewing enough lava to build several Mount Rainiers. The explosion emptied a huge underground chamber, which then collapsed and caused the landscape to plummet into an oval-shaped caldera, the size of Rhode Island and surrounded by faults.
A magma chamber still lies beneath Yellowstone, a remnant of that massive eruption. It is estimated that there are 10,000 cubic kilometers of magma in it. But the chamber is only 15 to 20 percent liquid, so it is too thick to erupt anytime soon. Although magma underlies most of the park, it is closest to the surface, within five kilometers, beneath the north shore of Yellowstone Lake.
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