The U.S. Government Knows When the Giant Volcano Under Yellowstone National Park Will Erupt
In case you didn’t know, besides offering splendid views of nature, Yellowstone National Park is home to a massive volcano. Beneath the park is a chamber that contains magma and is responsible for many of the park’s geysers and hot springs.
Yellowstone has experienced three eruptions in the last 2 million years, the most recent one being approximately 631,000 years ago. It has only had one “supereruption,” or an eruption with a magnitude of 8, the largest possible eruption, on the Volcano Explosivity Index. Here’s where the conspiracy theory comes in: Some people believe that Yellowstone is overdue for a disastrous eruption, and that the U.S. government knows when it will erupt.
Scientists say this is just not true. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, even if you were to average the amount of time between Yellowstone’s eruptions, there would still be 100,000 years to go. But even that is meaningless because volcanoes do not “work in predictable ways and their eruptions do not follow predictable schedules,” the USGS explains. The USGS also asserts that scientists are not convinced that Yellowstone will ever experience a catastrophic eruption again. If it does erupt again, “it need not be a large eruption,” the agency states.
