About 640,000 years ago, when the North American continent was shaking due to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, a giant crater with a total area of ​​2000 km² appeared near the Rocky Mountains. Over time, it turned into a plateau, where today a seething mass bubbles, fumaroles, geysers, mud fountains and hot springs come out of the ground. This is how Yellowstone Park appeared, the photo of which is presented in this article.

A little bit of history

There is a legend that 200 years ago a hunter crossed the Rocky Mountains in search of prey and came to the Yellowstone Plateau. Now only he understood the stories of the Indians about the “land of smoke and water”, only now did he believe in them. The picture that appeared to him filled him with superstitious fear. Canyons filled with frozen lava, rocks sparkling with obsidian, petrified forests were combined with water bubbling in the craters of volcanoes, as well as foamy streams of steam rising from the crevices. The smell of rotten eggs hovered over this other world - a peculiar “aroma” of hydrogen sulfide. Subsequently, St. John's wort's story about this amazing and strange area caused ridicule and distrust among those around him. How can this happen in a world created by God? And if it can, where is Yellowstone Park located?

Only 50 years later, reports from scientific expeditions were able to confirm the stories of this unrecognized eyewitness. After that, in an area with such an amazing landscape, located on the lands of three Idaho and Wyoming, the US Congress in 1872 founded the world's first National Park, which was named Yellowstone National Park, which translates as “yellow stone”. Thus, the development of environmental ethics began in America, as well as the preservation of areas with untouched nature. Today, everyone can not only find Yellowstone Park on the map, but also visit there. In 1976, this place was given the status of a biosphere reserve. Two years later it was added to the UNESCO list.

Description

Yellowstone National Park, which has a square shape, has five roads and can be reached from any direction in the world.

In the north there are amazingly beautiful gorges, with the Madison and Yellowstone rivers flowing along their bottoms, bursting into hundreds of waterfalls in the canyons. The largest of them is the Lower Waterfall, whose height is as much as 94 m! In the same place there are also Mammoth hot springs.

Calcite

In this place the rock is rich in calcite. For thousands of years, calcium was dissolved in the hot water of the springs bubbling here. Thus, picturesque terraces sparkling with crystals were formed, whose steep slopes were decorated with cascades reminiscent of stalactites. It seems that amazing limestone figures should be white, but many of them are painted in all shades of the rainbow spectrum. This occurs due to the admixture of microorganisms and metals that live in Mammoth Springs. Their color depends on the temperature of the water, therefore, some terraces are painted in a violet-blue palette, while others shine with canary yellow and fiery scarlet shades.

In the northeastern part of the park you can find the largest petrified forest on the planet. This happened due to the fact that during an eruption that occurred a long time ago, the ash completely covered the trees, after which they mineralized, turning into idols.

West Yellowstone

Yellowstone Park is also known for its West Yellowstone village, which is located at the western gate of this reserve. From here you can get to the most famous geyser fountains, which we will talk about below.

Grand Canyon

If we needed an outline map of North America, we would mark the Grand Canyon in the eastern part of Yellowstone. Its length is 20 km, and its depth is 360 m! This is where the park got its name - the sun's rays are reflected in the yellow rocks. In the south of the park there is a mountain range completely covered with snow. He surprises with his slender, extraordinary beauty.

Geysers

Yellowstone is one of five places on the planet with huge fields of geysers (the outline map of North America of these places consists of volcanic layers). Here the magma has approached the surface, hence the temperature of the water ejected to the surface is much higher than the boiling point, more likely to be steam than liquid. It is interesting that small fountains “work” regularly, while large ones work spontaneously. There are about 3000 of them.

The steamboat, the largest geyser in the world, throws out 5000 tons of water at 50-100 m, and the frequency of this is unpredictable - from 4 days to half a century.

Another impressive geyser is Excelsior, which is located in the center of the beautiful fountain. Its height reaches 90 m, and this process is accompanied by various special effects - roar, roar and trembling of the earth.

The stunning spring, called the Eye, is the real king of this valley. Microorganisms and bacteria in hot water give it rich, bright colors. In shape it resembles a large eye. There is a feeling that someone from underground is watching what is happening on it.

Ebb and flow

Yellowstone National Park stands out on the map with another miracle - a huge lake with the same name.

It is located in the center of the plateau. In huge bodies of water there are times when the water either moves away from the shore or floods it. Yellowstone Lake doesn't follow the rules. Here the water changes the line in zigzags - on some shore there may be high tide and low tide at the same time. The plots often change their places.

The greatest scientists still cannot solve this mystery. One of the assumptions explains this behavior of the reservoir by geological activity. The quirks of the reservoir do not interfere with the fish living in it - there is a huge amount of it there, to the delight of numerous fishermen.

Plants and wolves

At the beginning of the last century, poaching led to the extermination of wolves there. Enlarged deer and elk have devastated the shores of the Lamar River, eating all the native plants in the process. Then, as if in a chain, beavers began to die out, having lost their food - trees. The reservoirs that were created by these industrious rodents dried up, since no one else built dams. The succulent plants that grizzly bears fed on began to disappear without water. Thus, Yellowstone Park was on the verge of a real environmental disaster.

After this, the American National Park Service brought wolves here from Canada. In a short period of time, they significantly reduced the populations of elk and deer. Plants appeared in the valley again, and then it began to recover.

Currently, various animals can be seen in this reserve: elk, bison, grizzly bears, deer, bighorn sheep, coyotes, beavers and wolves. Other animals also live here: lynxes, pumas. There are a lot of birds in the park - about 200 different species: pelican, trumpeter swan, etc.

Facilities for tourists

Entering Yellowstone Park, each vacationer receives a guidebook that helps him navigate the vast territory. You can drive around almost the entire area along an asphalt road, covering in a figure of eight all the interesting places: the caldera and the lake, thousands of geysers, petrified forests, waterfalls and hot springs. The park is surrounded by a highway, the total length of which is 150 km.

It should be noted that sightseeing usually takes 4 days. In this place you can rent a car, take a horse, and also walk along the trails, the total length of which is 1,770 km. One should be prepared that various wild animals will be encountered along the way - virgin nature will be revealed to the traveler in its most dangerous grandeur.

It offers excursions, boat trips, visiting caves, horse riding, fishing - for any visitor there will be something to do that will allow you to spend time with interest, as well as gain health and strength.

Arriving at Yellowstone Park, you need to be prepared for the fact that the entrance fee will depend on the total time spent there. Hotels, hunting lodges, bars, bungalows, restaurants, cafes, gas stations and shops are available for vacationers. Accommodation at this location can be booked in advance. The park is open to visitors from May to the end of September, when up to 3 million tourists come here.

Some volcanologists believe that the caldera may awaken in the coming years. This will be a catastrophe, the scale of which can be equated to the apocalypse. The predictions are that half of the US will be wiped off the planet. Europe will also suffer as volcanic ash reaches the stratosphere and blocks the sun for a long time, after which the entire Earth will experience a “volcanic winter.”

Hurry up to admire this miracle of nature while you still have the opportunity!

Many volcanologists have started talking about the fact that the Yellowstone volcano is waking up and could erupt at any moment! What then will happen to the United States and the rest of the world if this suddenly happens?

According to American volcanologists, the eruption of the largest volcano in the world, the Yellowstone Caldera, could lead to the Apocalypse.

Recently, the dormant volcano has begun to show more and more obvious signs of activity, which only further intensifies the situation around it.

Why is there black smoke coming out of the Yellowstone Volcano geyser?

So, quite recently, on the night of October 3-4, 2017, black smoke poured out of the volcano, which seriously frightened the residents of Wyoming. It turned out that the smoke was coming from Geyser "Old Faithful"- the most famous geyser of the volcano.

Usually the volcano ejects jets of hot water from the geyser as high as a 9-story building at intervals of 45 to 125 minutes, but here instead of water or at least steam, black smoke poured out.

Why is there black smoke coming out of the volcano?- unclear. Perhaps this is burning organic matter that has approached the surface.

What will happen if the Yellowstone super-volcano starts to erupt?

The first known eruption was two million years ago, the second was 1.3 million years ago, and the last earthquake occurred 630 thousand years ago.

The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park has been growing at a record rate since 2004. And it can explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than several hundred volcanoes across the earth at the same time.

At any moment, with its eruption, it can destroy the territory of the United States, which could even begin a world catastrophe - the Apocalypse, as some American scientists believe.

Experts predict that the volcanic eruption will be no less powerful than all three times the Yellowstone volcano has erupted over the past 2.1 million years.

According to volcanologists, lava will rise high into the sky, and ash will cover nearby areas with a layer of 15 meters and a distance of 5,000 kilometers.

In the very first days, the US territory may become uninhabitable due to toxic air. The dangers in North America will not end there, as the likelihood of earthquakes and tsunamis that could destroy hundreds of cities will increase.

The consequences of the explosion will affect the entire world, as the accumulation of vapors from the Yellowstone volcano will envelop the entire planet. Smoke will impede the passage of sunlight, which will trigger the onset of a long winter. Temperatures around the world will drop to -25 degrees on average.

Experts believe that the country is unlikely to be affected by the explosion itself, but the consequences will affect the entire remaining population, as there will be an acute shortage of oxygen, perhaps due to the drop in temperature, first there will be no plants left, and then animals.

For example, before the earthquake, many pet owners noticed that their animals behaved extremely strangely: dogs barked incessantly, cats rushed around the house, etc.

As for Yellowstone, animals behave strangely there too. As news of the possibility of a super-volcano erupting became increasingly alarming, videos of bison escaping from Yellowstone National Park appeared online. This caused concern among people who decided that such behavior could be a sign of an imminent eruption of a super-volcano.

And although experts claim that these are just seasonal migrations of animals in search of food, the public still does not believe in such coincidences.

Analysis of the molten rock of the Yellowstone super-volcano showed that an eruption is possible without any external influences, so a disaster can occur at any time. Well, if an asteroid falls on US territory, then the end of the world certainly cannot be avoided. By the way, read about the nearest dates of approach of dangerous asteroids and watch the video in THIS ISSUE!

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The Yellowstone volcano is awakening!

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There have been many predictions about the end of the world, and the largest volcano in America, Yellowstone, is often cited as one of the reasons for the global catastrophe. And yes, if it erupts, it can destroy the continent.

Yellowstone volcano

The caldera of the Yellowstone volcano is so gigantic that it houses a national park (by the way, of the same name). Its dimensions are approximately 55 kilometers by 72 kilometers. Moreover, its dimensions were determined recently: in 1960-1970. And this is not just a volcano, but a supervolcano. You can walk here without even suspecting that there is a volcano under your feet.

In reality, supervolcanoes are still quite difficult today; about 20 such formations are known to the world. It is quite possible that some of them have not yet been recognized, while others are considered ordinary extinct volcanoes that appeared in ring structures as a result of a cosmic body (asteroid, meteorite or comet) falling to Earth many millions of years ago.

Yellowstone is located in a so-called hot spot: under the caldera there is a huge bubble of magma, the depth of which, according to research, is about 8 thousand meters.

The temperature inside this giant bubble, according to scientists, exceeds 800 degrees. That is why there are a huge number of thermal springs in the park, as well as a valley of geysers. By the way, it is the largest in the world (there are five such valleys on the planet).

Today this volcano poses one of the greatest dangers to the Earth. From time to time, scientists make predictions in the media that an eruption may begin, which will become a real catastrophe for humanity.

The most dangerous magma bubble

Earthquakes are a regular occurrence in Yellowstone National Park. On average, they occur from 1000 to 2000 per year, however, they are very weak, and a person does not feel them. And many tourists come here to admire the amazing landscapes.

In general, supervolcanoes represent the second largest catastrophic phenomenon. Scientists put the fall of an asteroid in the first place. In the history of the planet, eruptions of such volcanoes led to mass extinctions, as well as climate change, since the ash did not allow sunlight to penetrate the Earth and a long “volcanic winter” was established on the planet.

On average, Yellowstone volcano erupts approximately every 600 thousand years: the most recent one occurred 640 thousand years ago, before that - 1.3 million years ago, and even earlier - 2.1 million years ago, so a new catastrophe is looming. The likelihood of a new eruption in the near future is quite low, but there is a risk that constant earthquakes could provoke a new tragedy on the planet.

So, in 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8 occurred here (usually a magnitude of no more than 3), some researchers predicted further more powerful tremors and said that America had only a couple of weeks to live. And even then, animals began to run away from the park en masse, which caused additional unrest among the population. Watch the buffaloes run, you would probably get excited too.

True, the authorities then reassured citizens and said that this was normal migration due to the onset of cold weather.

What could be the consequences

Scientists predict that the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano will release approximately a thousand cubic kilometers of magma into the environment. This is enough to kill everything within a 160 km radius and cover most of the continent with a layer of ash about 30 centimeters thick. The victims could be 100 thousand people, but it would also be a real disaster for the planet: volcanic ash would change the atmosphere and block sunlight for several years, maybe decades, and then the average annual temperature could drop by about 20 degrees.

By the way, in the disaster film “2012” the Yellowstone eruption occurs.

There is a powerful and terrifying threat lurking beneath Northwest Wyoming and Southeast Montana that has been changing the landscape over the past few million years, known as the Yellowstone Supervolcano. Numerous geysers, bubbling mud pots, hot springs and evidence of long-ago eruptions make Yellowstone National Park a fascinating geological wonderland.

The official name for this region is the "Yellowstone Caldera" and it covers an area of ​​about 72 by 55 kilometers (35 by 44 miles) in the Rocky Mountains. The caldera has been geologically active for 2.1 million years, periodically ejecting lava, clouds of gas and dust into the area, reshaping the landscape for hundreds of kilometers around.

Yellowstone on a map of the USA/Wkipedia

The Yellowstone Caldera is one of the largest in the world. The caldera, supervolcano, and underlying magma chamber help geologists understand volcanism and serve as an important site for studying the influence of hot spot geology on the Earth's surface.

History and migration of Yellowstone Caldera

The Yellowstone caldera actually serves as an outlet for a plume (hot mantle flow) extending hundreds of kilometers down through the earth's crust. A mantle plume persists for at least 18 million years and is a region where molten rock from the Earth's mantle rises to the surface. It remains relatively stable while the North American continent passes over it. Geologists trace a series of calderas created by the mantle plume. These calderas move from east to northeast. Yellowstone Park is located right in the middle of a modern caldera.

The caldera experienced "super-eruptions" 2.1 and 1.3 million years ago, and then again around 630,000 years ago. Super-eruptions are massive, spreading clouds of ash and rock over thousands of square kilometers around. Compared to "super eruptions", smaller eruptions and Yellowstone hotspot activity today are relatively minor.

Yellowstone magma chamber

The mantle plume feeding the Yellowstone Caldera passes through a magma chamber about 80 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide. It is filled with molten rock that is currently relatively quiet beneath the Earth's surface, although from time to time the movement of lava within the chamber causes earthquakes.

The heat from the mantle plume creates geysers (shooting hot water into the air from below the earth's surface), hot springs and mud pots scattered throughout. Heat and pressure from the magma chamber are slowly increasing the height of the Yellowstone Plateau, which has been rising at a faster rate recently. However, there are no signs yet that a major volcanic eruption will occur.

Of even greater concern to scientists studying the region is the danger of hydrothermal explosions between major super-eruptions. These outbreaks occur when underground hot water systems are disrupted by earthquakes. Even earthquakes at great distances can affect the magma chamber.

Will Yellowstone Volcano Erupt in 2018?

Sensational stories suggesting a devastating eruption of the Yellowstone volcano will soon occur every few years. Based on detailed observations of earthquakes that occur locally, geologists are confident that the volcano will erupt again, but probably not anytime soon. The area has been relatively inactive for the last 70,000 years and is expected to remain quiet for thousands of years to come.

According to the USGS, the odds of the Yellowstone supervolcano erupting during this year are 1 in 730,000. Here's a quick comparison: That odds are higher than your odds of winning big in the lottery and only slightly lower than your odds of getting hit lightning.

But almost no one has any doubt that sooner or later it will be strong again, and this will be a catastrophe of planetary proportions.

Consequences of the Yellowstone volcano super eruption

In the park itself, lava flows from one or more volcanic sites are likely to cover much of the local landscape, but the greater danger is a cloud of volcanic ash that will spread hundreds of kilometers. Winds will carry ash up to 500 miles (800 kilometers), eventually covering the middle of the United States in layers of ash and destroying the Central region of the country. Other states will be able to see the volcanic cloud, depending on their proximity to the eruption.

While it is unlikely that all life on Earth will be completely destroyed, it will certainly be affected by ash clouds and a massive blowout. On a planet where climate is already changing rapidly, additional emissions will likely alter the growth rates and growing seasons of plants, reducing food sources for all life.

The USGS keeps a close eye on the Yellowstone Caldera. Earthquakes, small hydrothermal events, even small changes in the eruptions of old geysers provide clues to changes deep below the Earth's surface. If magma begins to move in ways that indicate an eruption, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory will be the first to alert nearby areas.

Photos and videos of Yellowstone National Park

Scientists warn of an imminent cataclysm, which will be the largest in the history of human development. How will the eruption affect Russia? Is the country in danger of a catastrophe?

According to research from the University of Arizona, a supervolcano will erupt in less than a hundred years in Yellowstone. The Yellowstone volcano is a huge depression with a diameter of 80 by 40 km, formed as a result of several super-eruptions over millions of years. The last time the volcano erupted lava was 640 thousand years ago and it is possible that we will soon witness this event.

What will happen to humanity?

According to experts from the US Geological Survey, the consequences of a volcanic eruption will be comparable to a nuclear explosion. As a result of the ejection of hot magma to a height of 50 kilometers, the entire western American coast will be a dead zone, covered with a one and a half meter layer of ash. Within a radius of 500 km, nothing alive will remain, and 1200 kilometers from the eruption point, 90% of people and nature will die.

It is estimated that about one hundred thousand people will become victims of suffocation and hydrogen sulfide poisoning. In a day, acid rain will begin to fall in the United States, killing all vegetation. And in a month the Earth will be plunged into darkness, as the Sun will disappear behind clouds of ash and ash.

The climate will change dramatically, with a sharp cooling of 10-20 degrees. Because of this, oil and gas pipelines and railways will fail. The ozone hole will grow, killing remaining living organisms. Due to the awakening of the volcano in Yellowstone, other volcanoes will begin to erupt lava. Because of this, many tsunamis will arise, washing away cities along the way.

Which countries will be hit the hardest?

Not only the United States, but most countries will be affected. China, India, the Scandinavian countries and northern Russia will suffer the most. Life there will stop. The number of victims in the first year of the global catastrophe will reach two billion people. Southern Siberia will suffer the least. The period, which scientists have already called “volcanic winter,” will last four years. And humanity will have to cope with the consequences for a very long time. Over the next century, the Earth will once again return to the Middle Ages, plunging into savagery and chaos.

Is it possible to save the Earth?

The only consolation is that many serious scientists reject such a scenario and doubt that such an apocalypse is possible not only in the near future, but ever. According to the head of the laboratory of the Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexei Sobisevich, a volcanic eruption in Yellowstone is possible no earlier than in hundreds of thousands of years. And, in the end, it is not so scary, because our distant ancestors managed to survive three such super-eruptions. At the same time, scientists do not rule out that the supervolcano could wake up with the help of earthlings themselves.

An attack on a volcano is one of the methods of terror that can become the most dangerous. A volcano can be artificially detonated by detonating the lid of the magma chamber using megaton-class warheads.