No, Yellowstone ’s Supervolcano Isn’t Going to Wipe Out Life on Earth Anytime Soon

If you’re worried a supervolcano lying beneath Yellowstone National Park could erupt and plunge the planet into a volcanic winter, you shouldn’t be. While a future eruption — a prospect widely reported this week after new research — is possible, geologists say it’s incredibly unlikely. The odds that Yellowstone’s sleeping supervolcano will erupt within a century and cause massive devastation are one in 10,000, which is about as likely as a very large asteroid hitting Earth, according to Jacob Lowenstern, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). “It’s not impossible to rule out, but it’s a remote possibility,” said Lowenstern, who used to run the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, which monitors volcanic activity. Supervolcanoes have the power to spew more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of debris and hot ash into the air when they erupt, which would have catastrophic consequences, including changes to global climate and agricultural devastation, according to the USGS. They get labeled supervolcanoes only after they’ve already erupted to that magnitude. There are between five and 10 active supervolcanoes in the world, Lowenstern said. The most recent supereruption happened about 27,000 years ago in New Zealand. Long before that, there were two supereruptions at Yellowstone — the first happened 2.1 million years ago and the second occurred 631,000 years ago, according to the USGS. Many American...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized onetime Yellowstone National Park Source Type: news