- 5 weeks ago
Yellowstone is acting strange again and scientists are trying to understand why. First, the ground across the park began to rise, slowly but steadily, as if something massive was pushing from beneath. Then, out of nowhere, a giant hole appeared overnight, filled with mysterious blue water and surrounded by blasted rock. No warnings, no recorded explosions - just a sudden and unsettling transformation in one of the most dangerous volcanic zones on Earth. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00It was April 2025 when geologists went back to Yellowstone's Norris Geyser Basin for the first
00:07time this year. And while doing their usual check, they realized that something was different this
00:13time. Where there used to be just a boring patch of ground, now there was a giant hole about 13
00:20feet wide filled with weird, milky, light blue water. Everyone was terrified. Was it the sign
00:27that the Yellowstone supervolcano was ready to erupt? If so, it would be a worldwide disaster,
00:35the kind that destroys cities. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, if such an eruption occurred,
00:41the after-effects would be felt all over the world. To start, the areas immediately surrounding
00:48Yellowstone would experience pyroclastic flows. That's the lava that erupts out of a volcano,
00:54including a high-density mix of volcanic gas, ash, pumice, and hot lava blocks. Those flows would
01:02destroy everything they touch, and an eruption of Yellowstone would send them into Wyoming,
01:08Idaho, and Montana. Areas further away from Yellowstone would escape the flows,
01:14but they would experience falling ash. It would come down heavily in the states closest to the
01:20epicenter. The ash would be especially dangerous for anyone breathing it in. The weight of the ash
01:26would also pose a serious threat. It would smother crops and collapse buildings as it piles up.
01:33Tragic consequences would be countless, but we'll talk about them later, because soon after the
01:39discovery, the weird pit surprised even experts. Geologists found rocks scattered everywhere. Some were
01:47about a foot across, and all of them were dusted with gray mud. This mud matched the walls of the
01:54new spring. It was like the place had simply exploded, but nobody had actually seen it happen.
02:00The team checked old satellite images to figure out when it appeared. In December 2024, the ground was
02:08totally normal. By January 6th, 2025, a little dip had formed. And by February 13th, that water-filled
02:17hole was finally there. But the weird thing was that the sensors that usually pick up major
02:23hydrothermal explosions didn't detect anything. There was no giant blast or warning signs. Later,
02:31it turned out that this puzzling opening in the ground hadn't just popped up in one huge explosion.
02:36Instead, it formed from a bunch of smaller bursts over time. Little explosions first threw out rocks,
02:44then mud, and eventually created the pit. With time, it filled with silica-rich water.
02:51That was a huge relief for everyone. Yellowstone sits on a supervolcano, and its big explosions are a
02:59nightmare scenario. Luckily, this time, it was just a slow-building, small-scale explosion.
03:05It was dramatic, sure, but totally manageable. You see, Yellowstone National Park is full of
03:12geysers, hot springs, and all kinds of natural landscapes. But under the surface, things get
03:19incredibly intense. All because of the supervolcano. Now, supervolcanoes are often extremely large.
03:27They often have no cone at all, since they're typically the remains of gigantic magma chambers.
03:34Once, those chambers flared up, leaving behind a caldera. They're usually located over hot spots.
03:41It's no surprise that supervolcanoes can produce supereruptions. And when they do it,
03:47they blow more than 240 cubic miles of ash, molten rock, and hot gases up into the air.
03:54In other words, four supereruptions could fill the Grand Canyon to the brim.
04:01Supervolcanoes form when huge volumes of scorching-hot magma escape from deep underground.
04:07This magma rises close to the surface but can't break through Earth's crust. So,
04:13a pressurized pool of bubbling magma gathers at a depth of only several miles. The pressure keeps
04:20growing because more and more magma is trying to get to the surface. And then, bang, a supereruption
04:27occurs. Now, back in 2015, researchers at the University of Utah mapped out the main magma chamber
04:34of the Yellowstone supervolcano and were shocked by its size. And then, they found another one below it.
04:42Together, these underground magma pools could hold enough molten rock to fill the Grand Canyon
04:4811 times. All that magma pushes up on the ground above, which is why Yellowstone rises about an inch
04:56or two every year. That slow lift might not sound like much, but combine it with the fact that Yellowstone
05:03is still an active volcano and has a volcanic explosivity index of 8, and it's enough to make
05:11you wonder what could happen if things went south. And yes, Yellowstone has indeed been a bit jumpy in
05:18recent years. In March 2023, there were 354 earthquakes in the area. Most were tiny, but the biggest hit a
05:27magnitude 3.7, part of a swarm of 106 quakes. Now, before you freak out, experts from the Yellowstone
05:36Volcano Observatory say there's no need to panic. No eruption is coming anytime soon. Volcanoes don't
05:44stick to a schedule. Just because Yellowstone hasn't erupted in a long time doesn't mean it's about to
05:50blow. The park is stable, for now. But scientists are keeping a close eye on everything underground.
05:57The quakes, the rising ground, and even temperature changes, just to be safe.
06:04The superhot plume of magma, a hotspot under Yellowstone, has been churning for 17 million
06:11years. The Earth's crust slowly moved over it, making the hotspot leave a trail of volcanoes
06:17stretching more than 450 miles along the Snake River plain. Most of those ancient ones are now buried
06:25under layers of lava and sediment. In just the past 2.1 million years, Yellowstone has unleashed
06:32three cataclysmic eruptions. So massive, they managed to reshape the land. Each explosion sent
06:39pyroclastic flows, rivers of searing hot rock, ash, and pumice racing outward for miles. The debris
06:47piled up in layers hundreds of feet thick, some forming solid, lava-like rock. When those eruptions
06:54emptied the underground magma chambers, the roof collapsed, forming the massive calderas we see
07:00today. Even after those mega-eruptions, Yellowstone didn't stop. Between 180,000 and 70,000 years ago,
07:10enormous rhyolite lava flows, sometimes over 144 cubic miles, poured out. Some flows followed north-south
07:20vent lines. The West Yellowstone flow erupted around 110,000 years ago. The Nez Perez Creek flow
07:27followed 160,000 years ago. If you stand at Madison Junction, on the caldera's northwest rim,
07:35you can see it. A cliff that formed when the Lava Creek Tough eruption collapsed the land 640,000 years ago.
07:43And inside the caldera, you'll see the hardened lava flows snaking across the floor. Figuring out when a
07:51supervolcano might blow is like being able to read nature's warning signals. Thousands of years before
07:58a massive eruption, the heat underground starts building, and the magma chambers become like
08:04ticking pressure cookers. Little signs start showing up, gas bubbles escape as the pressure shifts,
08:11and earthquakes shake the ground. The land above slowly rises. Cracks appear. Hot springs and geysers
08:19start acting up, heating even more than usual. Now, what would happen if Yellowstone erupted?
08:26Remember those pyroclastic flows we talked about before? They can contain two parts. The lower flow of
08:33the hot lava that moves at ground level, and a cloud of ash that follows above the lava level. So,
08:40the two of them would devastate huge areas. The ash would even reach Europe within three to four days
08:46of the eruption. But it wouldn't be so bad there. After that, it would only take around two to three
08:53weeks before cooler temperatures set in around the globe, all thanks to the sulfur gas that would get
08:59to the upper atmosphere after the eruption. Scientists predict that global temperatures would drop
09:05by up to 10 to 12 degrees. These consequences could last for 6 to 10 years, putting an end to
09:12monsoons, which could cause widespread famine in Asia. Scared? Well, don't be. The good news is that
09:20scientists don't believe that the sleeping giant under Yellowstone National Park will wake up in our
09:27lifetime. Experts say the next Yellowstone eruption won't likely happen for hundreds of thousands of years.
09:33And even then, it may not be that bad, because scientists have discovered that the magma lurking
09:40within Yellowstone is actually split up amongst four different chambers. Not only that, but some of
09:48the reservoirs of magma are likely to cool down and solidify, lessening the chances of an eruption.
09:55So, while an eruption does sound like it would change the landscape of the world,
09:59it's very unlikely to happen any time soon.
10:05So, you might have heard that
10:06Yellowstone National Park is sitting on top of a giant supervolcano.
10:11That's a reason why the area can boast powerful geysers and hot springs.
10:17But it also means that underneath Yellowstone, there is an enormous magma chamber.
10:22In 2015, researchers from the University of Utah found out that this chamber was much bigger than
10:29everyone had previously thought. They even found one more reservoir with magma under the top one.
10:36Apparently, the more spacious the chambers are, the more magma they contain.
10:41Together, the two reservoirs store a glob of magma that could easily fill the Grand Canyon not once,
10:47but 11 times. But, you know, the most worrying thing about the magma chambers?
10:53They tend to push against the ground above them.
10:56As a result, the land in Yellowstone rises about one to two inches a year.
11:02On top of that, Yellowstone has the status of an active volcano.
11:06And its volcanic explosivity index, yes, there is one, is eight out of eight.
11:11Such a high number means that if this volcano erupted, it would be an apocalyptic event.
11:18To put it into perspective, the eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991,
11:23which is considered the most powerful in living memory,
11:26was given a mere six on the volcanic explosivity index.
11:30Ha, loser.
11:32Now, let's figure out if there's anything to worry about.
11:35In March 2023, the University of Utah seismograph stations recorded 354 earthquakes
11:44in the entire region of Yellowstone National Park.
11:47Sounds like a lot.
11:48But keep in mind that the most impressive event of the month
11:52was a mini-earthquake of magnitude 3.7.
11:57It was part of a swarm of 106 earthquakes that began on March 29th
12:02and continued until the end of the month.
12:04Yep, earthquakes apparently also come in swarms.
12:08So, be aware.
12:11Experts say that Yellowstone seismic activity is, well,
12:14kind of more active than usual.
12:16But it's really nothing serious.
12:19A geophysicist working at Yellowstone Volcano Observatory
12:23called Michael Pollan claims that the volcano won't erupt anytime soon.
12:28For this to happen, there must be enough magma ready to erupt beneath the surface.
12:33There should also be enough pressure to cause this magma to rise.
12:37But neither of these conditions exist today.
12:42According to the expert, Yellowstone is stable now.
12:46At the same time, Pollan and his team are keeping track of all kinds of underground activity,
12:51looking for warning signs of possible eruptions.
12:54Some of them can be the frequency of earthquakes and ground deformation.
12:59Thousands of mini-earthquakes, coupled with extreme changes in the surface of the ground in that area,
13:05can be alarming.
13:07The team also monitors the temperature of the park's thermal features.
13:11That's another noteworthy sign of a potential disaster.
13:14Park-wide changes in geyser activity, as well as gas and thermal emissions.
13:19So, despite the media claims that Yellowstone is due to erupt soon
13:24because the last eruption happened 70,000 years ago,
13:28that's not how volcanoes work.
13:31Experts say that it's one of the most popular misconceptions about volcanoes.
13:35They don't follow timelines.
13:38If a super-eruption did happen, though,
13:41the most worrying thing for us would not be the lava flows,
13:44and not an earthquake that would most likely accompany the natural disaster.
13:49No, the worst consequence of such a super-eruption would be ash and ashfall.
13:55Let's have a look at what it was like when the Yellowstone volcano erupted many years ago.
14:00There have been at least three super-eruptions in the history of the volcano.
14:05The most powerful of them was 2,500 times more devastating
14:10than the terrifying eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State in 1980.
14:16As for the most recent super-eruption,
14:18it was dubbed the Lava Creek eruption.
14:22It formed the Yellowstone caldera
14:24after spewing out an insane amount of dust,
14:27volcanic ash, and rock into the air.
14:31Recently, scientists have also learned about two other
14:34previously unknown super-eruptions that happened around 9 and 8.7 million years ago.
14:40The younger of the two is now considered to be the largest recorded event
14:44of the whole Snake River Yellowstone volcanic province.
14:48Anyway, let's have a look at what was going on all those millions of years ago.
14:54Because I wasn't around then,
14:56so we're all assuming this stuff based on evidence.
14:59The first signs of the disaster appeared long before the catastrophe broke out.
15:05For thousands of years,
15:06the heat had been welling up from within the planet's insides.
15:10It had been melting rock beneath the planet's crust
15:12and leaving behind huge chambers.
15:15They were filled with a pressurized mixture
15:17of semi-solid rock, magma, water vapor, and different gases,
15:21including carbon dioxide.
15:24All this scorching underground soup was expanding
15:27since more and more magma arrived with time.
15:30The land over the volcanic system was rising upward almost unnoticeably.
15:36A year before the super-eruption,
15:38Yellowstone gave a warning.
15:40A verb, maybe?
15:41But that long ago,
15:43there was no one who could interpret these signals.
15:46Plus, those alarming processes were mostly going on underground.
15:50For example, decompression releases gas bubbles.
15:53While bursting, such bubbles can often power particular kinds of eruptions.
15:59Months before the eruption,
16:01small-scale earthquakes became more frequent and more intense.
16:05The ground in many spots all over the super-volcano
16:08got hotter than it used to be.
16:11Surface lakes and groundwater also became warmer.
16:14If people had been around at that time,
16:16they would have noticed unusual steam fogging in that area.
16:20Not long before the eruption started,
16:23the growing pressure pushed the ground over the magma chamber up.
16:27This created a dome-shaped uplift.
16:30Narrow cracks started to open along the edges of this dome.
16:34Imagine opening a bottle of soda after you've shaken it.
16:37Something like that was happening near the volcano.
16:41Eh, think Mentos and Diet Coke.
16:43The pressure was released through the fractures
16:45when gases were bursting out from under the surface.
16:48So, right before the disaster,
16:51the ground around the Yellowstone volcano lifted.
16:54Geothermal pools and geysers heated up to boiling temperatures
16:58and got more acidic than usual.
17:01The magma started to rise toward the surface.
17:04At one point, the rock roof of the magma chamber
17:06couldn't resist anymore,
17:08and the eruption kicked off.
17:11Small but constant tremors began to move the ground
17:14days before the catastrophe.
17:15But the real shaking didn't start
17:18until several minutes before the eruption.
17:21With a deafening roar,
17:22a massive column of lava and ash
17:24curled up into the air.
17:26Within several minutes,
17:28a pyroclastic flow rushed across the area
17:31at a hurricane-force speed.
17:33Such a flow is a liquid mixture of
17:36half-solid lava pieces,
17:37volcanic ash,
17:39and hot, expanding gases.
17:40It looked like an extremely hot, toxic snow avalanche.
17:44With a temperature of about 1,300 degrees,
17:47it was burning everything in its back.
17:50The volcano kept pumping ash for days on end.
17:54For all living creatures,
17:55ash fallout was one of the most dangerous consequences
17:58of the eruption.
18:00Volcanic ash turns into glassy cement
18:02within seconds of being inhaled.
18:04Most animals didn't have a chance to survive.
18:07Even thick trees started to collapse
18:10under the weight of this dense substance.
18:13It only took a couple of days
18:14until a thick layer of ash
18:16covered huge territories.
18:19After the ash got into the stratosphere,
18:22the temperatures all over the world
18:23started to drop.
18:25The eruption was rich in sulfur,
18:27which is an effective sunblocker.
18:30That's why it soon got so cold
18:32that there was no summer in the whole world
18:34for the next several years.
18:36Animals couldn't find food and clean water.
18:40This natural disaster,
18:41called the Greys Landing supereruption,
18:44was colossal.
18:45That's how researchers described it
18:47in their recent studies.
18:48It affected a huge territory.
18:51The streams of lava enameled an area
18:53as large as New Jersey
18:54in scorching hot volcanic glass.
18:58It instantly sterilized the land surface,
19:01wiping out all the plant life
19:02that had been thriving there before.
19:05Now, if such an eruption
19:07were to happen these days,
19:08it would cover Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming
19:11with almost three feet
19:13of toxic volcanic ash.
19:15Many regions would be plunged into darkness.
19:18Even the coast,
19:19where most Americans live,
19:20would experience problems
19:21with the spread of the ash cloud.
19:24It would destroy crops
19:25and contaminate pastures,
19:27ruin power lines,
19:28and electrical transformers.
19:29Well, so I'm sure you'll agree with me,
19:33it's a good thing
19:34that such a disaster
19:35isn't expected to occur
19:37anytime soon.
19:39Hey, we got enough other stuff
19:40on our plate.
19:42That's it for today.
19:43So hey,
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