What will happen when the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupts again?
Mike Szydlowski  In honor of our students participating in Columbia Public Schools Science Department trips to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park, we take a look at what might happen when this giant volcano will erupt. It has happened before and it will happen again. Yellowstone National Park sits on top of one of the Earths hot spots. The hot spot delivers molten rock and heat from deep in the earth to just below the Earths surface. All of the hot springs, geysers, steaming mud pots, and steam vents in Yellowstone National Park are caused by the massive amount of heat underground. Yellowstones steaming attractions bring in millions of visitors who enjoy the spectacular sights. But at some point, Yellowstone is going to erupt. It has erupted before and it will erupt again. Scientists have been studying the Supervolcano at Yellowstone for a long time, and piecing the studies together gives us a glimpse of what things will be like next time Yellowstone erupts. When Yellowstone does erupt, it wont be like Hawaii and it wont even be like Mount St. Helens. The pool of magma underneath Yellowstone is huge, and it will take days or weeks to empty. The explosion will be so powerful that huge amounts of ash will be ejected into the stratosphere. Some of this ash will fall to create accumulations of up to 10 feet within a couple hundred miles of Yellowstone. Geologists have been able to find a layer of ash from the last eruption in the rock layers all the way on the East Coast. Those actually in or near the park will likely not even know what happened, as a huge explosion would occur at the start of the eruption. Those farther away wont have to deal with the explosion, but the outlook might not be much better. The falling ash is not like the soft ash from a campfire. Volcanic ash is very sharp  if you look at it under a microscope, it is like shards of glass. If breathed in, the ash will cut up your lungs and will also form a cement in your body. The volcanic ash will also permanently damage all car and plane engines that try to operate in these conditions. This will kill many animals, including humans, that try to breathe it in. Sharp volcanic ash may be the most immediate concern, but the long-term impact is worse. The ash that gets caught in the stratosphere will stay suspended for months or even years. The ash, along with different volcanic gases, will block out much of the suns energy. This will create a several-year period with below-normal temperatures and below-normal energy for plants to grow. Between the ash, lack of sunlight, and colder temperatures, finding food to eat is going to be the most dangerous consequence of a super-volcanic eruption. The lack of sun will reduce the amount of photosynthesis, which plants require to obtain energy. The animals that feed on plants will go hungry, and the loss of animals will be another reason our food sources will go down. Of course it will. As was mentioned earlier, the Yellowstone volcano has erupted several times in the last couple million years and we still have life on Earth today. The biggest difference between then and now is that the Earth did not have such a huge population of humans to feed after the last eruptions. That will be a problem. However, life in general will survive and so will the human race. However, there will be losses. Yellowstone made the news recently because Steamboat Geyser, one of Yellowstones famous geysers, completely changed eruption patterns. However, rumors of an imminent major eruption had no scientific backing. Scientists are monitoring the volcano 24 hours a day, measuring everything from geyser eruptions, hot spring temperatures and ground uplift. A new study has found that before a catastrophic eruption takes place, the ground will likely begin to swell up. And the study isnt talking about a few inches  it is talking possibly several or more meters. The scientists also believe that this swelling will take place for many years prior to the next eruption  possibly as many as several hundred years. The big takeaway here is that while the next Yellowstone eruption will change life on Earth for a while, it will still exist and there will very likely be an incredible warning period to prepare. That is one thing human intelligence has going for it. The last Yellowstone eruptions would have been total surprises to the existing life on Earth. We will have time to prepare and it wont be happening anytime soon. Mike Szydlowski is science coordinator for Columbia Public Schools. TIME FOR A POP QUIZ  1. 2. 3. The United States has two hot spots. Research to find what makes these two hot spots different. 4. 5.