The Yellowstone Caldera is a supervolcano located below Yellowstone National Park in the Western US. It sits between the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho and is constantly monitored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) due to its capability to inflict disaster on a global scale if a supereruption occurs. The last event of this kind has not happened for more than 630,000 years and any serious eruption in 70,000 – which reportedly makes another supereruption overdue.
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 lecture the same year, Dr Mastin revealed how USGS scientists have three previous Yellowstone eruptions on record they can use to predict future incidents.
He said: “There have been three major events identified at Yellowstone in the last two million years.
“The largest was Huckleberry Ridge 2.1 million years ago, a volume of about 2,500 cubic metres of magma.
Larry Mastin revealed how ash was found in California (Image: USGS)
Yellowstone volcano is a supervolcano (Image: GETTY)
This adds a real puzzle because it is significantly upwind from Yellowstone
Larry Mastin
“Then Mesa Falls 1.3 million years ago and Lava Creek – the second of the two Lava Creek eruptions about 600,000 years ago.
“So these are volumes estimated just from these deposits and not including the tephra-fall deposits that may have been transported over 1,000km (620 miles) in distance.
“The duration of these eruptions is not really well constrained, but the experts
