Research debunks Yellowstone Caldera myths
The Yellowstone Caldera is less of a threat than depicted in disaster movies, according to a USU alumnus and scientist.
Jaime Farrell, a doctoral candidate at the University of Utah, spoke at last Friday’s edition of Science Unwrapped, sponsored by the College of Science.
The most recent program, titled “Yellowstone Supervolcano: Myths and Realities,” focused mainly on the destructive geothermal activity of earthquakes and supervolcanoes. Farrell spoke concerning research on geothermal activity in Yellowstone National Park, focusing heavily on the legendary supervolcano, or caldera, that lies beneath the park.
“There’s a lot of information and a lot of misinformation about Yellowstone, particularly the supervolcano part of it,” Farrell said.
Beneath the surface of Yellowstone sits a large, active volcano, Farrell said. This supervolcano erupted once 640,000 years ago, once 1.3 million years ago and once 2.1 million years ago. One of the volcanic explosions was 2500 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
Farrell addressed the myths surrounding the volcano, including the common notion that it’s overdue for another large eruption.
“They’re taking the dates of the last three eruptions, they’re taking the interval times and they’re averaging them,” Farrell said. “If you actually use that technique … we’re still 50,000 years in the clear – if you use that technique.”
However, looking at the intervals between the last three eruptions is not scientific and an oversimplification of the factors involved, Farrell said.
“This is three numbers,” Farrell said. “Volcanoes are very unpredictable. You can not use three numbers to get a meaningful statistic on when this is going to erupt next. The bottom line is, we don’t know.”
Also, there would be evidence enough from the sensors placed around Yellowstone to know if an explosion of that magnitude was going to happen, and evacuation would be an option, Farrell said.
After Farrell’s lecture, there was a Q-and-A session. He described what would happen in Logan if the volcano exploded. Most damage would not be from lava, as many would think, but would come from the snow-like ash that would cover the ground in a 3-foot-thick blanket, he said. Ash would ruin car engines, air conditioners and other machines and would turn into a cement-like substance if breathed in by human lungs.
Ash from previous eruptions of the Yellowstone supervolcano has been found in many locations across the U.S., Farrell said.
“There are ash beds in Nebraska, where they find big concentrations of dead rhinoceros – rhinos that died from the ash falling and them breathing it in from this last Yellowstone eruption,” he said.
The event was the third part in the four-part series, entitled “The End of the World as We Know It,” focusing on disasters that could take place and have a large impact on mankind. The program looks at disasters from scientific as well as sometimes humorous angles.
Scientists from the community set up more than 15 different booths to further explore the subject through various demonstrations.
One of those booths was run by Michael Strange, a geology major and a senior at USU. Strange was bringing awareness to a group of creatures known as hyolithids, found only in fossils. He said much about the creatures is unknown.
“They are not as well studied as trilobites,” Strange said.
Strange said the turnout impressed him and made him grateful to see the interest in science.
Michelle Larson is a vice provost at USU, an astrophysicist and a member of the committee that organizes Science Unwrapped. She said the program is 3 years old and has had more than 8,000 attendees over its course.
“We’ve involved all the colleges at USU in Science Unwrapped,” Larson said. “We’ve had presenters and people out in the hallway from all the colleges.”
Larson said about one-third of those who come are from USU, and the other two-thirds comprise K-12 students and people from the community.
Science Unwrapped is becoming a family event, though there is no target audience the committee has focused on, Larson said. Most in attendance Friday had been to one of the other presentations and keep coming back, she said.
Science Unwrapped will finish the year April 27, featuring Philip Plait, an astronomer who writes the blog, Bad Astronomy, for Discover Magazine. Plait will present about asteroid impacts on the earth to go with the program’s theme.
– keithjjackman@gmail.com