Horrible Today: Live Footage of Yellowstone Volcano New Explosion, Millions People at Extreme risk

The supervolcano at Yellowstone National Park has substantially more magma reservoir under the caldera than scientists previously thought, according to new research. In addition, the newly found lava is flowing at shallow depths that fueled prior eruptions, according to a paper published Thursday in Science..

Researchers mapped the seismic wave speed below the Yellowstone volcano using a technique called seismic tomography. This 3D modeling of seismic waveforms measures the volume of the melt and makes assumptions of the distribution of how the melt is spread in the subsurface in Yellowstone's magma reservoir, We found that it's likely that Yellowstone's crustal magma reservoir holds more melt than previously was thought, Ross Maguire said, adding that there is up to 20% melt at shallow depths. Previous studies have suggested the partial melt fraction was between 5% and 15%, Maguire said..

The Yellowstone magma reservoir is not so much "a big tank of magma," with accumulation all in one body, Maguire said, but rather, more like a "snow cone," in which there is a solid component and a liquid component, Kari M. Cooper, professor and chair at the University of California Davis's department of earth and planetary sciences, The findings show it's possible there are some relatively small to moderate-size bodies of magma that are below Yellowstone that could be mobilized and expelled, Cooper said..

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