Researchers Discover The ‘Lid’ That is Holding Back the Eruption of Yellowstone Supervolcano

A team of expert researchers from Rice University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Utah, and the University of Texas has made a breakthrough discovery that reveals the long-standing mystery behind one of the world’s most closely observed natural wonders — the Yellowstone super volcano. While people have always been afraid of its potential catastrophic eruption, the volcano has remained calm for hundreds of years. The team of researchers claims to have identified the 'lid' that is probably holding the volcano from erupting.

The findings of the study titled "A sharp volatile-rich cap to the Yellowstone magmatic system" were published by Nature. It shows that scientists have discovered a huge layer of molten rock sitting roughly 2.4 miles under Yellowstone. This layer acts like a lid, holding in the heat and pressure below the Earth's surface. Under the leadership of Earth scientist Brandon Schmandt and his co-author for the study, Chenglong Duan, researchers studied Yellowstone’s underground structure using seismic imaging and powerful computer models, revealing new details about how deep its magma system runs.

Schmandt spoke about this and said, "For decades, we’ve known there’s magma beneath Yellowstone, but the exact depth and structure of its upper boundary has been a big question." He added, “What we’ve found is that this reservoir hasn’t shut down − it’s been sitting there for a couple of million years, but it’s still dynamic.” Schmandt first got to know about the magma cap with a detailed seismic survey. As reported by USA Today, using a 53,000-pound vibroseis truck to send vibrations into the ground, the team created small quakes and tracked the echoes to identify what was lying below.

The study also showed that about half the magma cap is filled with gas bubbles, and below this lies superheated water and rhyolite magma, known for its explosive eruptions. However, researchers say Yellowstone is safe for now as it steadily releases gas through porous rock, which helps relieve pressure and lowers eruption risk. As reported by Science Alert, Schmandt also said, "It looks like the system is efficiently venting gas through cracks and channels between mineral crystals, which makes sense to me given Yellowstone's abundant hydrothermal features emitting magmatic gases."

The team also faced major challenges as they worked during the COVID-19 pandemic and coordinated their study in the busy park. Not just this, the data processing part of the research was tough too. This is because Yellowstone has a tricky geology that scatters the seismic waves and makes the results hard to read initially. “The challenge was that the raw data made it almost impossible to visualize any reflection signals,” Duan said. However, he added, “When you see noisy, challenging data, don’t give up. After we realized that the standard processing was not going to work, that’s when we got creative and adapted our approach.”

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