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In the new study of a computer simulation, the volcano hiding beneath Yellowstone National Park probably isn’t erupting soon, but if it did, it could blanket cover the entire United States with ash.
Despite the fact researchers aren’t expecting the Yellowstone system to become explosive for many more generations, concerns were nonetheless raised about how a volcanic event from the western region could effectively shut down transportation and pretty much everything, after an Iceland volcano back in 2010 resulted in the cancellation of most air traffic across Europe.
But a new new study by a team of experts from the United States Geological Survey, using a newly-developed 3-dimensional modeling program named Ash3D, suggests that even though the super volcano would erupt into a giant mushroom cloud similar to that of a nuclear explosion, and the force of the blast would cover the states surrounding Yellowstone National Park a blizzard of ash, the effects of the fallout would be far less on the rest of the country than the widespread devastation predicted in popular doomsday scenarios circulating on the Internet.
“In essence, the eruption makes its own winds that can overcome the prevailing westerlies that normally dominate weather patterns in the United States,” USGS geologist Larry Mastin, first author of the study manuscript and co-developer of the computer model, said in a posting on the agency’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Website. “This helps explain the distribution from large Yellowstone eruptions of the past, where considerable amounts of ash reached the West Coast.”
The researchers further note a fraction of an inch or less of ash would likely be deposited at distances further than 1500 miles from the blast site, such as on the country’s East and West coastal areas.
Agencies/Canadajournal
