The Yellowstone Caldera is a supervolcano that lies below Yellowstone National Park in the US. It sits between the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho and is constantly monitored by the USGS (United States Geological Survey) due to its capability to inflict disaster on a global scale if a supereruption occurs. An eruption of this kind has not occurred for more than 630,000 years, yet scientists are still concerned over the effects it could have on the Earth.
Larry Mastin, a USGS Hydrologist, worked with fellow colleague Jacob Lowenstern in 2016 to produce a paper on the ash-fall impacts in the event of another supereruption.
Speaking during a public lecture the same year, he explained why Yellowstone is rated the highest on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI).
He said: “Volcanologists look at eruptions at a range of sizes and try to tank them and have developed this ranking scheme.
“This was developed for explosive eruptions – those that produce ash and tephra.
Yellowstone volcano's ash cloud could rise above 10,000m (Image: GETTY/USGS)
Yellowstone volcano poses a threat to the US (Image: GETTY)
If you were flying when Pinatubo erupted, you would be looking up at a plume that would look almost as high as it did from the ground
Larry Mastin
“I guess it is kind of like the richter scale for earthquakes, except they are some measure of the earthquake, this scale is a measure both of the eruption size in terms of volume and also intensity.
“So there is really two criteria they use – the plume height, which is a proxy for intensity and the volume of the magma."
Dr Mastin went on to rank some of the most famous large eruptions to have occurred in the last century, and where Yellowstone would sit in comparison.
He added:
