Beneath Yellowstone National Park lies a supervolcano, a behemoth far more powerful than your average volcano.
It has the ability to expel more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock and ash at once — 2,500 times more material than erupted from Mount St. Helens in 1980, which killed 57 people. That could blanket most of the United States in a thick layer of ash and even plunge the Earth into a volcanic winter.
Yellowstone’s last supereruption occurred 631,000 years ago. And it’s not the planet’s only buried supervolcano. Scientists suspect that a supereruption scars the planet every 100,000 years, causing many to ask when we can next expect such an explosive planet-changing event.
In latest buzz, walking purposefully across the brittle October grass, Philip Zemke was searching for what he called “our settling place.” Behind him strode a group of 25 individuals, dressed warmly against a cool fall breeze despite the sunshine.
“So my dear friends, you can make a pretty good-sized circle here,” Zemke said, gesturing around him as he dropped a fringed leather satchel loaded with braided sweet grass that would be gifts to those attending. Read more at Half Moon Bay Review.