Scientists have long thought that Yellowstone Caldera, part of the Rocky Mountains and located mostly in Wyoming, is powered by heat from the Earth’s core, similar to most volcanoes such as the recently active Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. However, new research published in Nature Geoscience by Ying Zhou, an associate professor with the Virginia Tech College of Science’s Department of Geosciences, shows a different past.
“In this research, there was no evidence of heat coming directly up from the Earth’s core to power the surface volcano at Yellowstone,” Zhou said. “Instead, the underground images we captured suggest that Yellowstone volcanoes were produced by a gigantic ancient oceanic plate that dove under the Western United States about 30 million years ago. This ancient oceanic plate broke into pieces, resulting in perturbations of unusual rocks in the mantle which led to volcanic eruptions in the past 16 million years.”
Via Joe Carter.
Originally shared by Geology Page
Yellowstone super-volcano has a different history than previously thought | #Geology #GeologyPage
The long-dormant Yellowstone super-volcano in the American West has a different history than previously thought, according to a new study by a Virginia Tech geoscientist.
Read more : http://www.geologypage.com/2018/07/yellowstone-super-volcano-has-a-different-history-than-previously-thought.html
http://www.geologypage.com/2018/07/yellowstone-super-volcano-has-a-different-history-than-previously-thought.html
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