What Would Happen If The Yellowstone Super-Volcano Erupts?!

Yellowstone Park is a huge National Park which lies within Northern Wyoming and stretches over to some of its neighbouring states making it one of the biggest in the US. It is known for its wildlife and the most popular tourist spot, the Old Faithful Geyser. You can catch a live-stream of a Geyser erupt here. But this isn't just your average park, it's actually directly above a Super-Volcano, awaiting to erupt...

This Volcano is active and we know this due to the mass amounts of geysers* and hydro-thermal activity. The reason for its 'Super-Volcano' name is because it must have had previous eruptions covering over 240mi3 (cubic miles).

In the past 2.1 million years, it's had 3 major eruptions and last went off at an estimated 170,000 years ago - but will it erupt any time soon? We don't know for sure but it could happen now, tomorrow, next week or another couple thousand years from now.

Earthquakes can be a contributing factor to increased volcanic activity and due to around 1,200 earthquakes that have happened within the park, it could eventually build up and trigger it to erupt. Most of the previous quakes have had a magnitude of around zero so they're very little indeed.

Researchers and scientists say that these are unlikely to set of the Super-Volcano and they should know how close it is to eruption due to its volcanic activity in which they keep an eye on.

So what actually would happen if it erupted?

If you are in the park at the time of an eruption, the chances are that you and anyone in the surrounding area will be gone almost within an instant. Yellowstone National Park would blow-up and become instantly eradicated with magma flowing all across the park.

Experts say up to 90,000 people could be killed as a result of an explosion. Not only that, up to several-feet of ash would spread over the US covering around 1,000 miles outwith the volcano, the US would be covered in ash. Food, water, life-stock and crops would be affected and causing shortages of our basic needs.

A simulation of the possible distribution of ash from a Yellowstone Super-Eruption - United States Geological Survey

This ash is highly toxic and breathing it in could result in respiratory burns, irritation to the skin due to its minerals as well as causing abrasions in the eyes and the respiratory system. The pileup of ash on rooftops could also force buildings to collapse and a build-up on the roads making it hard to drive. It would disrupt air travel and block any visibility whilst interfering with electronics.

Millions of people would be trapped in their homes with no fresh supply of Oxygen for days due to sealing off any ways in which air could travel into their homes. They would have no water or any fresh food. A few years ago, a Volcano in Iceland erupted which caused massive travel chaos bringing flights to a halt. If that much chaos comes with one Volcano in Iceland, imagine the impact of a Super-Volcano in the US.

Researchers and Scientists are constantly watching this volcano and should be able to warn us of a potential eruption resulting in thousands of people being evacuated from their homes. They say the chances of this happening in the next 1,000 years is 1 in 1,700...not the best odds but better than 'its happening tomorrow', right?

To give you a better idea, take a look at this video by Josh (Joshledore) . He explains it so well and show you a few scenes that look like a pretty similar scenario...although in reallife maybe not the best situation! This is really what inspired me to write this post, including the Panspermia theory! 

Do you think it will erupt anytime soon? Will you be affected and what do you think your reaction would be?

* Geyser -  A hot spring that intermittently sends up fountain like jets of water and steam into the air (as shown below).

©Stephan Pauli

Sources:
Joshledore - What Happens If The Yellowstone Supervolcano Erupts?! - Credit to Josh as most of my info came from this video.

Volcanic Erruption 1

Volcanic Erruption 2