Could a large Yellowstone eruption significantly change the climate?
If another catastrophic, caldera-forming Yellowstone eruption were to occur, it would probably alter global weather patterns and have enormous impacts on human activity (especially agricultural production) for many years. At this time, however, scientists do not have the ability to predict specific consequences or durations of possible global impacts from such large eruptions.
The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines was about 1,000 times smaller than Yellowstone’s largest known eruption; it caused temporary, yet measurable, changes in global temperatures. The sulfur dioxide emitted from the volcano interacted with the atmosphere, which cooled the Earth’s surface for three years following the eruption. At the height of the impact, global temperatures dropped by 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit (0.7 degrees Celsius).
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Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone
Old Faithful Geyser erupts on a clear winter day in Yellowstone National Park
Ash and Lightning Above the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in 2010
Plume lightning during the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland in 2010.
MIdway Geyser Basin at Sunset
Midway Geyser Basin at Sunset, Yellowstone National Park
Ash Coating from Rabaul Volcanic Eruption
Ash buries cars and buildings after the 1984 eruption of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. Credit: USGS
Forecasting Ashfall Impacts from a Yellowstone Supereruption
- Yellowstone is one of a few dozen volcanoes on earth capable of "supereruptions" that expel more than 1,000 cubic km of ash and debris.
- The plumes from such eruptions can rise 30 to 50 km into the atmosphere, three to five times as high as most jets fly.
- Yellowstone has produced three supereruptions in the past 2.1 million years. The most recent was
Hot springs in Yellowstone.
Garden Wall Weather Station, MT
The Garden Wall Weather Station is situated below the Garden Wall and adjacent to the Haystack Creek avalanche path in Glacier National Park. It provides meteorological data for avalanche forecasting and research, including wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, and net radiation measurements.
Satellite image of eruption cloud from Pavlof Volcano in November 2014
Satellite image from the USGS/NASA Landsat-8 satellite showing the eruption cloud at Pavlof Volcano on November 15 at 12:46 pm AKST (21:46 UTC). This is just a portion of the eruption cloud, which extended for more than 250 miles to the northwest at the time this image was collected. In this image, the distance from the erupting vent to the upper left corner of the image
...The Yellowstone Volcano: Past, Present and Future
Public Lecture on Yellowstone Volcano by Jake Lowenstern at Menlo Park, CA on January 23, 2014. The Q&A at the end of the talk can be found on the original source video (Source URL).
Volcano Hazards
The United States has 169 active volcanoes. More than half of them could erupt explosively, sending ash up to 20,000 or 30,000 feet where commercial air traffic flies. USGS scientists are working to improve our understanding of volcano hazards to help protect communities and reduce the risks.
Video Sections:
- Volcanoes: Monitoring Volcanoes
Giant ash cloud from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, 1991
Giant ash cloud from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, 1991 towering above farms and agricultural lands in the Philippines.