Researchers from Arizona State University have recently analyzed minerals around Yellowstone National Park and came to a terrifying realization. According to the data collected, the supervolcano could erupt much sooner than anyone ever imagined. It has the potential to wipe out life as we know it.
According to National Geographic, the researchers, Hannah Shamloo and Christy Till, analyzed minerals in fossilized ash from the most recent eruption. What they discovered surprised them – the changes in temperature and composition only took a few decades, much faster than the centuries previously thought.
“We expected that there might be processes happening over thousands of years preceding the eruption,” said Till said in an interview with the New York Times.
The supervolcano last erupted about 630,000 years ago, according to National Geographic. Prior to that, it was 1.3 million years ago, per a report from ZME Science.
If another eruption were to take place, the researchers found that the supervolcano would spare almost nothing in its wrath. It would shoot 2,500 times more material than Mount St. Helen did in 1980 and could cover most of the contiguous U.S. in ash, possibly putting the planet into a volcanic winter.
H/T SpaceCoastDaily
