Yellowstone “supervolcano.”
A few years ago, the BBC did a program on the world’s largest volcanoes. It termed them “supervolcanoes.” (*) One of its subjects was the volcanic system at Yellowstone National Park, USA. Since then, a number of alternative news sources have played up the possibility that the Yellowstone supervolcano could go at off any time, killing millions. (†) This dovetails nicely with apocalyptic prophecy and the “America has it coming” line of argument. Among their claims is that Yellowstone has recently seen a higher than normal level of volcanic activity. (‡)
The US Geological Survey, however, actively studies volcanic activity at Yellowstone (§), and reports that there is nothing unusual going on. (**)
We have no reason to believe that the Yellowstone volcano (††) will go off any time soon.
Update: 24 March 2004. The bulge in the lake has earned a special section on the USGS web site. The diagnosis is that it is “very unlikely” that this is an indication of a volcanic eruption . (‡‡)
Update: 12 June 2005. The USGS Yellowstone volcano site is online. (§§) Two separate (***) interviews with scientists (†††) are available.
Case closed. No need to panic.
April 2nd, 2004 at 12:57
Where are your sources, have you been to yellowstone? If you had been to yellowstone,
you would know that people have quit because of the activity and animals have been
dropping dead there and fish are seen floating to the top of the lakes on a regular
basis there.
April 4th, 2004 at 23:28
Maybe that was due to natural causes, if it even happened.
April 13th, 2004 at 12:42
Yeah natural causes. Like a volcano.
April 13th, 2004 at 13:34
yea but none of us know for sure right now. i live near it so i should be the one to worry.
April 23rd, 2004 at 12:25
I think it is important equally to be skeptical and open to speculations and what appears to be some recent activity in the place. It does no good to completely dismiss this. There are a few comments posted here about the park: http://www.earthside.com/yellowstone.html