Earthquake near Yellowstone’s dormant super volcano
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A 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit the area surrounding Yellowstone’s dormant super volcano, on Thursday, awakening residents in Montana.
A sizeable Earthquake awoke residents, in Helena and Lincoln, in Montana. It was recorded as reaching a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale. No reports of injuries or fatalities have been recorded. However, AOL.com advised that a gas leak required attention in Helena and Lincoln briefly lost power, as a result of the earthquake (AOL.com, 2017).
Although Yellowstone makes rumblings from time to time, as a result of massive pressures building underneath the earth’s surface, it is thought that another supermassive eruption has a 1 in 700000 chance. It has been identified by scientists that the volcano has had 3 massive eruptions in the past 2.1 million years – the last of which happened over 600000 years ago. However, the dormant volcano makes frequent and small rumblings over time, meaning as many as 400 seismic readings can be recorded in one week.
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Scientist have recently discovered just how massive the Yellowstone Supervolcano is. A new magma chamber has been discovered which is 44 miles wide and 11 miles deep and it lies beneath Yellowstone park, exerting huge pressures on the earth’s crust. This magma chamber contains enough molten rock to fill the Grand Canyon 11 times over (AOL.com, 2017).
Although Yellowstone and its geysers are sometimes shaken by underground pressures. It is unlikely that ‘old faithful’ will blow its top anytime soon, but such an occurrence would have devastating effects on our ecosystem, potentially threatening the existence of mankind.
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