Is Yellowstone Park really a volcano, and will it erupt again?

Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, and it has some 10,000 geysers or hot springs, and has had several major earthquakes in historic time. All that hydrothermal (geysers and hot springs) activity, the big quakes, and the thousands of small earthquakes every year are actually the signs of a active hot spot under the North American crust that heats the Yellowstone volcanic system. The system has a very long time period between eruptions. The last eruption was 650,000 years ago, and dumped ash over much of North America. While it will likely erupt on a large scale again in geologic time-perhaps within a million years?--It is not expected to erupt in the forseeable future. However, we should continue to expect large (magnitudes 6-8) earthquakes every few decades, and a continuation of the hydrothermal activity. Both activities are signs of the system's continued life, and geologists monitor it to provide warning if the current level of unrest increases.

LINKS:

Landsat 7 Images of Yellowstone National Park:

http://www.kars.ukans.edu/forest/landsat7.html

Space Shuttle Image showing Yellowstone Lake and Park boundaries

USGC Cascade Volcano Observatory Yellowstone Site:

This week's question is provided by Susan Sakimoto, a research scientist employed through the Goddard Earth Science and Technology (GEST) Center at UMBC. She has been a member of the Geodynamics Branch for about 5 years, is an expert on Earth and planetary volcanism, and has been extensively involved in both the analysis of Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data and field studies of small volcanic constructs in the Eastern Snake River region (likely analogs for small volcanoes on Mars). Susan teaches a course for secondary school teachers at Johns Hopkins ("Teaching the Solar System") and has been greatly involved in mentoring activities for students ranging from high school to graduate school.