Many Fear the Day That the Volcano at Yellowstone Erupts, but Will It Ever Happen?

Yellowstone National Park is known for its beauty and natural elements — like geysers and thermal pools — which bring millions of people to the park each year. But, those people owe all the majesty of Yellowstone to the supervolcano beneath it. That's because the hotspot under Yellowstone is part of the reason the region has created most of the unique things the park has to offer.

Called the Yellowstone Caldera, or the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field, this area spans three different states.

The sheer size of the supervolcano, and the activity, has long had experts saying that an eruption could kick off a global extinction event that could end humanity as we know it.

Will Yellowstone ever erupt? Well, that's the million-dollar question, and it's one that those living in the area closest to the park would like to have answered sooner rather than later. You can find out what the experts have to say about the Yellowstone Caldera below.

It sounds like anyone who has been kept awake at night by fears of a humanity-ending eruption from Yellowstone's volcano can sleep a little easier. That's because experts believe that a massive eruption from Yellowstone's Caldera just isn't in the cards for the park. Instead, the lead scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory has a different theory, and he shared it with Cowboy State Daily.

“A lava flow is the most likely form of any future activity,” Mike Poland told the publication.

But, don't start watching for signs that the lava is flowing quite yet, because Poland followed up that statement with another, saying, "and even that's really unlikely."

Previously, many experts have said that an explosion from Yellowstone would certainly be deadly for those located within the blast zone, and the gas and ash spewed from the volcano would be what would get those who weren't taken out by the lava.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), unless you were alive some 70,000 years ago, you may have missed your chance to witness the supervolcano in all her glory.

That's because the USGS says that the volcano likely last erupted between 70,000 and 180,000 years ago. When that happened, they believe that there were large lava flows coming out of the caldera that could've spanned as wide as 144 miles.

It sounds like they base these estimations on what Yellowstone looks like currently, and then use different formations and collapses to recreate what the eruption likely looked like at the time.

They are also able to use this information to detect eruptions that have taken place prior, which the USGS says likely happened 2.08, 1.3, and .631 million years ago. That means that the eruptions happen an average of every 725,000 years.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that we still have hundreds of thousands of years to go before we see another eruption, since the volcano isn't exactly predictable. However, it does give those living in the region directly surrounding Yellowstone a little more peace of mind knowing just how far apart these eruptions typically are.