Get unlimited access to everything VICE has to offer.

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

A New Yellowstone Supervolcano Study Just Dropped. Should We Be Worried?

The last supereruption occurred some 630,000 years ago.

Share on X (Opens in new window)X

Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook

Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard

Beneath Yellowstone National Park, there is a massive supervolcano… and that’s kind of all we know about it. Scientists have never fully understood its mechanics and what, exactly, is powering it. The most prominent theory held that Yellowstone was fueled by a deep mantle plume, a kind of vertical column of superheated material rising from deep within the earth. There’s a logic to it. But didn’t fully explain how seemingly the entire park is one giant bubbling cauldron of heat.

New research published in Science, compiled by a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters, suggests Yellowstone’s heat may come from much shallower depth than previously thought, and is largely driven by tectonic movement that’s stretching and stretching the Earth’s outer shell.

The researchers believe that instead of a single upward blast of heat providing the volcanic system with its energy, the system is likely a tangled web of underground magma highways that distribute the heat across the park, powering its geysers and hot springs alike.

The Yellowstone Supervolcano Is Exceedingly Rare

Scientists built a 3D model of the region, including the Yellowstone Caldera and the nearby Eastern Snake River Plain, to simulate how magma forms and moves. If you imagined a giant underground bubbling cauldron with what essentially amounts to a series of straws sticking into it that lead to the surface, it’s not quite that. It’s actually closer to an ant farm’s winding network of tunnels.

Magma seems to originate in the upper mantle, in the asthenosphere, then migrates through cracks and reservoirs created by tectonic stress before eventually fueling volcanic activity at the surface.

As Yellowstone is one of about only 20 known and active supervolcanoes on Earth, researchers need to understand its deeper machinations so we can better predict an eruption. We already know that the Yellowstone supervolcano is capable of eruptions that can make even the most violent we’ve seen in our lifetimes look like a baby’s temper tantrum. It’s the last supereruption, the one that formed its massive 30-by-45-mile-wide Caldera, which happened around 630,000 years ago. Luckily, researchers don’t think we’re due for another one anytime soon.

Share on X (Opens in new window)X

Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook

Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard

Photo: Riishede / Getty Images A New Yellowstone Supervolcano Study Just Dropped. Should We Be Worried? 13 minutes ago By Luis Prada

A New Yellowstone Supervolcano Study Just Dropped. Should We Be Worried?

Photo: proud_natalia / Getty Images 5 Signs You’ve Found Your Twin Flame (and Why That Might Be a Bad Thing) 13 minutes ago By Ashley Fike

5 Signs You’ve Found Your Twin Flame (and Why That Might Be a Bad Thing)

Photo: Azad Azahar Adnan / Getty Images I Stayed in the World’s Largest Hotel. It Has 7,351 Rooms and a Lot Going On. 43 minutes ago By Ashley Fike

I Stayed in the World’s Largest Hotel. It Has 7,351 Rooms and a Lot Going On.

Photo: master1305 / Getty Images The Strangest Non-Food Items Doctors Have Seen People Eat 1 hour ago By Ashley Fike

The Strangest Non-Food Items Doctors Have Seen People Eat

Photo: Sytnyk, Peters, et al., courtesy of Cell Reports Physical Science The Unexpected Use Scientists Found for 16th-Century Bullets 2 hours ago By Luis Prada

The Unexpected Use Scientists Found for 16th-Century Bullets

Photo: Andreas Furil / Getty Images Octopus Mating Is Way Stranger Than You Think 2 hours ago By Luis Prada

Octopus Mating Is Way Stranger Than You Think

Picture Alliance/Contributor/Getty Images Why Cambodia Built a Giant Rat Statue Wearing a Medal of Honor 8 hours ago By Luis Prada

Why Cambodia Built a Giant Rat Statue Wearing a Medal of Honor

Bruce Yuanyue Bi/Getty Images Chicago Found a Shockingly Simple Way to Improve the Lives of 315,000 Kids 8 hours ago By Luis Prada

Chicago Found a Shockingly Simple Way to Improve the Lives of 315,000 Kids

Liudmila Chernetska/Getty Images You Can Make $1,000 an Hour Smelling Dog Breath 8 hours ago By Ashley Fike

You Can Make $1,000 an Hour Smelling Dog Breath

UCG/Contributor/Getty Images A Massive Chimp Community Collapsed Into Civil War, and the Details Are Horrifying 8 hours ago By Luis Prada

A Massive Chimp Community Collapsed Into Civil War, and the Details Are Horrifying

Kill the ads for just $2 a month

VICE membership also gives you access to our very best writing and exclusive new documentaries.

Add your account details

© Vice