A possible Yellowstone volcano eruption in 2014 has some people pointing to how animals have been spotted fleeing the national park in recent days.
In a related report by The Inquisitr, it’s claimed that the recent Yellowstone earthquakes won’t trigger a volcano, but scientists have acknowledged that if a Yellowstone volcano were to erupt the resulting supervolcano could kill everyone in the United States:
“The Yellowstone volcano erupting could release enough magma and ash to bury whole cities underneath kilometers of destruction. The good news is that the supervolcano at Yellowstone isn’t in danger of exploding any time soon. The last time it occurred was before the dawn of civilization. While it’s believed stopping an eruption is impossible, researchers say they should be able to predict an eruption by monitoring the pressure of underground magma.”
The recent earthquakes only just made the news but the entire area has been rumbling for over a week. Charts from the USGS show that earthquakes higher than 3.0 magnitude have been occurring off and on for multiple days and all of them have been coming from the region of the Yellowstone magma chamber, which, according to ground-penetrating radar, extends as far west as the Oregon state line.
Unfortunately, some conspiracy theorist are claiming the USGS are trying to hide the possibility of a Yellowstone volcano eruption occurring in a our lifetimes. For evidence they’re using videos like these that supposedly show buffaloes “running for their lives” away from Yellowstone national park:
The Yellowstone volcano conspiracy theory is described in more detail in this video:
One website is even trying to make Yellowstone earthquake predictions, claiming they will increase in number and magnitude:
“The heavy earthquake activity along the West Coast of the United States, over the past few weeks, has now translated in the craton displacement that we were expecting. The earthquakes inside the magma chamber at Yellowstone, and the earthquakes now occurring at dormant volcanic chains along South / Central California, mean we can expect further activity in the near term to INCREASE. The increase in activity along the edge of the craton will continue into the near term future due to the overall Pacific displacement occurring internationally.”
In general, most academics agree that predicting earthquakes is difficult to impossible, although it’s possible to analyze areas of the world to determine where the most damage might occur some time down the road. Aftershocks can also be somewhat predicted by considering basic plate tectonics.
The good news is that scientists are monitoring the Yellowstone magma chamber and, last we checked, no one was overly concerned about the possibility of a Yellowstone volcano eruption. The bad news is that they admit that “once you get enough melt, you can start an eruption just like that.” What do you think about the conspiracy theories suggesting the USGS is trying to hide the bad news about the Yellowstone earthquakes?