Jacob Lowenstern is a researcher with the US Geological Survey in Vancouver, Washington, who spent 15 years in charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. The supervolcano, located in Yellowstone National Park, has erupted three times in history, 2.1 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago and 640,000 years ago. However, Dr Lowenstern has detailed how a fourth eruption could happen in just a matter of weeks.
He revealed during the 2015 BBC documentary “Supervolcano” that a sudden rise of magma could be fatal.
He said: “Typically when these eruptions begin, they begin from a certain event, then they get larger as they move along the fracture system.
“The entire sequence that formed the last Yellowstone eruption may have taken as little as two weeks.
“Humans haven’t seen another eruption of this magnitude, so we are challenged as to whether the same could happen