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Svetlana Ekimenko
Svetlana Ekimenko
Svetlana Ekimenko is a Moscow-based Sputnik correspondent specialising in foreign affairs, social issues and science and previously worked as host for live broadcasts of Radio Sputnik.

A Fiery Monster Lump is Bubbling Beneath Yellowstone’s Supervolcano, Reveals Study

Yellowstone Supervolcano news

The 3,472-square-mile Yellowstone Park, known for its geothermal features, is located in the western United States and sits on a supervolcano – Yellowstone Caldera.

A colossal lump of molten carbonates is bubbling hundreds of kilometers underneath Yellowstone Park’s supervolcano, and the discovery has changed scientists’ understanding of the carbon cycle.

About 1.8 million square kilometers (700,000 square miles) in size, the liquidized, carbon-infused material lurks in the upper region of the mantle, a research published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters has revealed.

Planet Earth is composed of four layers: the inner core, the outer core, the mantle and the crust. The predominantly-solid mantle lies between Earth’s dense, super-heated core and its thin outer layer, the crust.

A huge network of seismic sensors was used by a team from London’s Royal Holloway, University of London, to discover the carbonate mass. The study used seismic waves, able to travel at different speeds and angles through materials, to probe the mantle.

“Under the western US is a huge underground partially-molten reservoir of liquid carbonate. It is a result of one of the tectonic plates of the Pacific Ocean forced underneath the western USA, undergoing partial melting thanks to gasses like CO2 and H2O contained in the minerals dissolved in it,” lead co-author Sash Hier-Majumder, a senior lecturer in geophysics at Royal Holloway, said.

Furthermore, the research said the newly-discovered cauldron points to the fact that Earth’s upper mantle contains 10,000 times the amount of carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide gas, than was, for example, released into the atmosphere in 2011 predominantly via human activity.

“Releasing only 1% of this CO2 into the atmosphere will be the equivalent of burning 2.3 trillion barrels of oil,” Sash Hier-Majumder added.

For those worried about the impact from the release of this discovered carbon to the surface by way of volcanic eruptions, the scientific team allayed fears. It might have a negligible effect on the rate of climate change, added the research, while also emphasizing that there was no evidence of any carbonatite volcanoes appearing at the surface in Yellowstone Park.

Image credit: Piccinng

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2 COMMENTS

  1. The Russians have targeted and scheduled a 50KT nuke to hit the Yellowstone Caldera / Super-Volcano in the event Moscow is attacked or a nuclear first strike is initiated by the West.
    Imagine the hell on Earth that would cause; perfect for yet another apocalyptic horror movie titled ‘Nuclear Super-Volcano’, where the pyroclastic flows, laharres and the ash are all radioactive, with lava that glows twice as bright…
    Taupo is vulnerable as well, and this potential weaponised hazard was discussed 4 years ago by a radio talk show host who was recently found guilty of exercising his civil rights by protesting in front of TVNZ, getting arrested, and appearing before a single judge, and denied a jury trial!
    Solar Photon activity is at an all time high, so have a grab bag and 7 days worth of mobile portable food on hand! Not that it would help much, as WHEN Taupo blows, all of North Island is toast!

  2. According to some scientist we’re due/experiencing a pole shift (it’s definitely moving). Things to expect during a pole shift: Massive costal flooding, earthquakes, volcanic activity. Glta

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