Yellowstone National Park is a National Park that is located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho that welcomes three million visitors every year. In the past, there has been volcanic eruptions there that have been incredibly destructive and rank as some of the most astonishing volcanic eruptions in history. There is also steaming ground water moving beneath yellowstone national park's surface, this is called hydrothermal activity which results in the landscape being active with geysers, hot springs, and steam vents. Although the description of Yellowstone National Park sounds dangerous, Hank Heasler, one of the parks geologists at Yellowstone reassures us that the National park is a safe place to visit. Yellowstones National Park has three Volcanos …show more content…
This shows that the Volcano eruptions in the past at Yellowstone National Park must have been very dangerous and destructive and could still be today. How these volcanoes have occurred is below Yellowstone's Volcanos in the earth's upper mantle there is a hot spot that is melting the mantle and as the melted mantle rises it melts the continental crust above it. When the crust above the magma chamber can no longer withhold the pressure, it fractures and magma erupts. This has repeatedly led to three very explosive volcanic eruptions in the past. The first explosion was 2.1 million years ago, the second was 1.3 million years ago and the third happened 640,000 years ago, this leads to a cycle of the volcano erupting every 600,00 to 800,000 years. The damage done by these volcanoes have resulted in volcanic ash spreading a cloud all the way from the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted in the sun rays being blocked, cooling the earth's atmosphere. This took years to recover …show more content…
The only thing the parks officials would have to do to keep park guests safe is block off the areas where there is lava flow. An example from the text, “Lava erupting from existing or new cracks at Yellowstone would likely be thick and viscous and have little gas left in it” (American Museum of National History). This quote explains why it wouldn't be very dangerous if there were lava flows since there is very little gas left in the lava. Another danger that there is in Yellowstone National Park is how there is over 10,000 hydrothermal features and more could pop up without notification severely hurting visitors. In the text it states, “The water also collects in pools, some of which are acidic, near boiling, blue-green with minerals and microbes, and reeking of rotten-eggy hydrogen sulfide” (American Museum of Natural History). This shows that the hydrothermal features can be dangerous to visitors. These dangers are nothing compared to what it would be like if the magma chamber was refilling, moving up, or if there was a sudden increase in earthquake activity which could mean the magma chamber was cracking the rock above it. Overall, Yellowstone National Park is a place where geologic things change each and every day and we are here to witness it. When we monitor