The infamous yellowstone hotspot located in the USA has kept the world on edge for many years now. The volcanic hotspot is responsible for large-scale volcanism in several states including Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming. The hotspot formed when the North American Tectonic Plate moved over it and through a succession of caldera-forming eruptions it formed the Eastern Snake River Plane.
This also resulted in the formation of calderas including Island Park Caldera, Henry’s Fork Caldera, and the Bruneau-Jarbidge caldera. Currently the hotspot lies under the Yellowston caldera.
The most recent caldera-forming super eruption rocked the region almost six hundred and forty thousand years ago. It is now called the Lava Creek Eruption and it resulted in the formation of the Lava Creek Tuff and the most recent yellowstone caldera.
Though, it doesn’t mean the supervolcano isn’t a ticking time bomb that
could erupt any day and cause unimaginable destruction in the region. Scientists might not be able to pinpoint when the catastrophic events might occur or what might set them off but the
recent studies and data obtained from the caldera suggests that we may have been underestimating the risk it poses.
The Yellowstone caldera is located in the Yellowstone National Park in Western United States.
