Yellowstone Caldera facts for kids
The Yellowstone Caldera is a giant, bowl-shaped area found in Yellowstone National Park in the Western United States. It's often called the Yellowstone Supervolcano because of its incredible power. Most of this huge volcanic area and the park itself are located in the northwest corner of Wyoming.
This massive caldera is about 55 km (34 miles) wide and 72 km (45 miles) long. It was formed during the last of three enormous eruptions that happened over the past 2.1 million years. Imagine a volcano so big that when it erupts, the ground above it collapses, creating a huge sunken area! That's what a caldera is.
Contents
What is a Supervolcano?
A supervolcano is a volcano that has had at least one eruption of a very large size. These eruptions are much bigger than typical volcanic eruptions. When a supervolcano erupts, it can change the climate around the world for a short time. The Yellowstone Supervolcano has had three such massive eruptions in its history.
How Yellowstone's Volcano Works
The volcanic activity at Yellowstone is quite recent in Earth's long history. The calderas sit over a special place called a hotspot. Think of a hotspot as a very hot spot deep under the Earth's surface.
The Yellowstone Hotspot
This hotspot is a plume of very hot, light magma (which is molten rock) that rises from deep within the mantle. The mantle is the layer of Earth beneath the crust. This hot magma tries to push its way up towards the surface.
Moving Plates and a Stationary Hotspot
The interesting thing about the Yellowstone hotspot is that it stays in one place. However, the North American Plate, which is the huge piece of Earth's crust that North America sits on, is slowly moving over it. The North American Plate moves towards the west-southwest. This means that over millions of years, the hotspot has created a trail of volcanic activity as the plate moves across it.
Past Eruptions
Yellowstone has had three huge eruptions over the last 2.1 million years. Each of these eruptions was powerful enough to create a caldera.
- The first major eruption happened about 2.1 million years ago.
- The second big eruption was around 1.3 million years ago.
- The most recent super-eruption occurred about 631,000 years ago. This is the one that formed the caldera we see today.
Even though there haven't been any super-eruptions recently, Yellowstone is still an active volcanic area. You can see signs of this activity everywhere, like geysers and hot springs.
Images for kids
-
Yellowstone sits on top of four overlapping calderas. (US NPS)
-
Path of the Yellowstone hotspot over the past 16 million years
See also
In Spanish: Caldera de Yellowstone para niños
