The expected future super-eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano (USA) is “cancelled” by the pleistocene glaciation and by the inversion of Caldera Complex development
https://doi.org/10.31857/S0435-42812019218-36
Abstract
The review of the reconstructions of the eruptive activity of the Yellowstone Caldera Complex (YCC) in the USA allows to suggests three groups of arguments supporting that the “volcanic super-eruption of Yellowstone” is not likely to occur in the coming hundreds or thousands of years. First is the gradual weakening of the volcanic potential of the magmatic source (which is the frontal lobe of the magmatic super-flow, and not the mantle plume) during the last 2 million yeats. Second is the impact of the repeated occurrence of ice sheets in the YCC area during the past 640 thousand years. Finally, the equivalent supereruption, in terms of energy released and the mass of exploded material, had already occurred at about 70 thousand years ago, and since that time, the YCC has passed from the volcanic to the hydrothermal evolutionary stage.
Keywords
Supporting agencies: The author is grateful to his colleagues L. I. Bazanova, I. F. Delemen, T. P. Kirsanova — for the discussion of this publication; to D. V. Melnikov — for his help in the selection of materials, to R. R. Kurmashova — for the assistance in preparing the manuscript.
About the Author
I. V. Melekestsev
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology FEB RAS
Russian Federation
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Russian Federation
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
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Review
For citations:
Melekestsev I.V. The expected future super-eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano (USA) is “cancelled” by the pleistocene glaciation and by the inversion of Caldera Complex development. Geomorfologiya. 2019;(2):18-36. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31857/S0435-42812019218-36
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