Prepography

CNN recently ran a great video article on the  Yellowstone Supervolcano.  Watch the (under 7 minute) article if you have time but here are the highlights:

• The Yellowstone area often experiences hundreds of earthquakes per day and thousands per year
• The Yellowstone Caldera (crater) covers an area of 3,000 square kilometers.  It’s so large that it doesn’t appear at all similar to the volcanic craters we keep in our mind’s eye
• The most recent Yellowstone eruption expelled an estimated 650 cubic Kilometers of molten material.  That eruption was estimated to be 10,000 times more damaging than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption that I remember that eruption dropping ash on our neighborhood half a continent away.  Incidentally, that Mount St. Helens eruption also leveled everything within a 4,000 square kilometer area. Continue reading →