The Yellowstone volcano gets its chilling label as a supervolcano due to its ability to inflict devastation on a global level. Pinned between the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, the volcano is constantly monitored by the USGS (United States Geological Survey) for signs that a supereruption is on its way. However, Ms Roland, who is a Park Ranger for the National Park Service, revealed how the volcanic system below Yellowstone goes through cycles.
During a podcast in 2017, Ms Roland was asked when Yellowstone will next erupt.
She responded: “People always ask that, every couple of years they talk about how the volcano is going to erupt and it’s going to be catacamostijc affair.
“But actually, a lot of Bob Smith’s work and a lot of other scientist’s work shows that it didn’t really affect the eastern half of the US anyway.
“I mean it had a huge ash cloud and covered most of the western US hundreds of thousands of years ago
“The last supereruption of Yellowstone volcano was 640,000 years ago.”
Ms Roland claimed the warning signs are always there and scientists can determine the severity of an eruption based on where it occurs.
She added: “As Bob said you go through volcanic cycles – the geysers, the hot springs, those are evidence of the heat underneath and the end of a volcanic cycle.
“So what most likely would happen is something like a hydrothermal explosion rather than an eruption.
“Hydrothermal explosions occur when steam and pressure builds up under a thermal feature.
“Several times over the last 15 years it has built up and all of a sudden you get huge steam bubbles forming and pushing up on the Earth.
“It just blows – it is very violent and the last one erupted was in 2009 and it was about 75 feet high.”
The USGS website gives more information on what we can expect in the future.
It reads: “The most likely type of volcanic eruption at Yellowstone would produce lava flows of either rhyolite or basalt.
“These would be significant but all of these would most certainly remain within the boundary of Yellowstone National Park.
“Since Yellowstone’s last caldera-forming eruption 640,000 years ago, about 30 eruptions of rhyolitic lava flows have nearly filled the Yellowstone Caldera.
“Other flows of rhyolite and basalt (a more fluid variety of lava) also have been extruded outside the caldera.”
The site went on to reveal that, while an event of this nature would cause panic inside Yellowstone National Park, it would not have the devastating effects of a supereruption.
It continued: “An eruption of lava could cause widespread havoc in the park, including fires and the loss of roads and facilities, but more distant areas would probably remain largely unaffected.
“If rhyolitic lava flows do erupt, they could also include explosive phases that might produce significant volumes of volcanic ash and pumice.
“Such eruptions could range in size from smaller than the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens through much larger than the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.”