Science

Yellowstone volcano alert as Steamboat Geyser bursts into life with mystery eruption


The Steamboat Geyser erupted twice in quick succession, which had some worried. Scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported an eruption on June 12, and just three days later on June 15 it blew again. Volcanologist Janine Krippner tweeted: “Yellowstone has an incredible geyser system that is unrelated to magmatic activity – other than the magmatic system basically providing heat.”

Geysers like Old Faithful and Steamboat erupt whenever water and steam get trapped in a tight spot deep below the geyser’s blowhole.

The mix of water and steam builds in pressure until it finds its way to the surface where a tall stream of scorching hot water blasts hundreds of feet in the sky.

Steamboat Geyser roared back into life in April 2017, with the first triple eruption in 15 years, sparking interest from the scientific community.

Experts will continue to analyse the geyser to see if they indicate any sort of impending eruption for Yellowstone.

But the USGS claims geyser eruptions like this are not uncommon.

The agency wrote: “Geysers are supposed to erupt, and most are erratic, like Steamboat.”

If the Wyoming volcano were to erupt an estimated 87,000 people would be killed immediately and two-thirds of the USA would immediately be made uninhabitable.

The large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter”.

The massive eruption could be a staggering 6,000 times as powerful as the one from Washington’s Mount St Helens in 1980 which killed 57 people and deposited ash in 11 different states and five Canadian provinces.

If the volcano explodes, a climate shift would ensue as the volcano would spew massive amounts of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, which can form a sulphur aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight.



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