Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Bogabam. Here A Yellowstone isn't just an American treasure.
Speaker 1: It's the world's oldest national park. Established in eighteen seventy two,
Speaker 1: Yellowstone stretches across three thousand, four hundred and seventy two
Speaker 1: square miles that's eight thousand, nine and eighty seven square
Speaker 1: kilometers in three states. The park welcomes around three million
Speaker 1: visitors a year, who flocked to the area to take
Speaker 1: in a stunning natural landscape that includes the Old Faithful
Speaker 1: Geyser and a plethora of hiking trails, mountain peaks, and
Speaker 1: hot springs. And that's not even to mention the variety
Speaker 1: of wildlife that calls the park home, including grizzly bears, moose, elk, beavers,
Speaker 1: and bighorn sheep. Below the surface of this outdoor paradise
Speaker 1: lurks another natural wonder, however, one that has the potential
Speaker 1: to wipe the park off the map. The Yellowstone Supervolcano
Speaker 1: is a massive source of granitic magma that rests miles
Speaker 1: under the park's surface. Although it's not likely to erupt
Speaker 1: anytime soon, a full explosion would be bad news for
Speaker 1: nature enthusiasts and a slew of folks anywhere near the park.
Speaker 1: If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to erupt, it would happen
Speaker 1: like this. The heat rising from deep within the planet's
Speaker 1: core would begin to melt the molten rock just below
Speaker 1: the ground surface. That would create a mixture of magma, rocks, vapor,
Speaker 1: carbon dioxide, and other gases. As the mix amast and
Speaker 1: rose over the course of thousands of years, the pressure
Speaker 1: would eventually push the ground up into a dome shape
Speaker 1: and create cracks along the edges. As that pressure was
Speaker 1: released through the cracks, the dissolved gases would explode, emptying
Speaker 1: the magma across the park. The eruption could be expected
Speaker 1: to kill as many as ninety thou people immediately and
Speaker 1: spread a ten foot that's three meter layer of molten
Speaker 1: ash as far as a thousand miles from the park.
Speaker 1: That's about six kilometers and far enough to cover from
Speaker 1: the California coast all the way to Dallas, Texas and Minneapolis, Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and north to Edmonton, Canada. Rescuers would probably have a
Speaker 1: tough time getting in there. The ash would block off
Speaker 1: all points of entry from the ground and The spread
Speaker 1: of ash and gases into the atmosphere would stop most
Speaker 1: air travel, just as it did when a much smaller
Speaker 1: volcano erupted in Iceland. Equally frightening would be the winter
Speaker 1: that some experts say could blanket the United States and
Speaker 1: other parts of the world. If Yellowstone were to blow,
Speaker 1: Sulfur gases released from the volcano would spring into the
Speaker 1: atmosphere and mix with the planet's water vapor. The haze
Speaker 1: of gas that could drape various areas wouldn't just in
Speaker 1: the sunlight. It would also cool temperatures. Falling temperatures and
Speaker 1: a dimmed sun would do a number on our food supply,
Speaker 1: decimating crops and throwing the whole food chain out of whack.
Speaker 1: After all, if sun dependent plants and microorganisms can't grow,
Speaker 1: then larger organisms can't eat them. In fact, that's what
Speaker 1: many climate scientists believe happened in five C after a
Speaker 1: supervolcano erupted in what's now Java. The good news is
Speaker 1: that an eruption of this scale isn't likely in any
Speaker 1: of our lifetimes. Yellowstone last erupted about sixty thousand years ago,
Speaker 1: and the U S Geological Survey says that the probability
Speaker 1: that it'll blow its top again is about zero point
Speaker 1: zero zero zero one each year. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article what of the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupted? On
Speaker 1: how Stuff Work stock Com, written by John Donovan. Brain
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