If you’ve ever set foot in Yellowstone National Park, you’ll know why this place is world famous.

Not only is the National Park home to some incredibly diverse and iconic animals – with some of the 67 species of mammals that call the park home including grizzly bears, bison, elk, lynx, moose and bobcats – it also holds vast expanses of mesmerising terrain.

Central to much of the Park’s geographic and geological appeal is the volcanic activity there.

That’s because Yellowstone National Park is actually on the site of a supervolcano, with its enormous crater situated in the centre-west of the Park.

This crater, known as the Yellowstone Caldera, is the result of one of three earth-shattering eruptions of the volcano, the most recent of which happened around 70,000 years ago.

And its volcanic activity is not confined to the past. Though the volcano lives quietly under the surface of the National Park, its geothermal activity results in numerous hot springs and geysers throughout the park.

In fact, Yellowstone National Park is home to more geysers and hot springs than any other place on Earth. However, recent research from teams at Oregon State University and the US Geological Survey may begin to change the way that we look at Yellowstone.

That’s because their data, recently published in the academic journal Nature, demonstrates a significant change to the volcanic activity occurring beneath the National Park.

The scientists observed electromagnetic activity in the region of the Yellowstone Caldera to determine both the recent level of activity and overall likelihood of upcoming eruptions.

The Caldera was of particular interest since it was a site of previous seismic activity. As the scientists explain in their paper, eruptions often follow a pattern, and Yellowstone would be no exception:

Indeed, the researchers did find volcanic activity at the Caldera: what they discovered was an intricate maze of magma reservoirs deep under the Earth’s crust. Located between 3 and 30 miles below the surface, these magma reservoirs may sound alarming but they are actually quite the opposite.

That’s because the chambers, which are segregated from one another, lack the factors required to cause a massive eruption, as the scientists explain:

“We utilized magnetotelluric data to model the resistivity structure of Yellowstone Caldera’s crustal magma reservoir and constrain the region’s potential for producing major volcanic eruptions. We find that rhyolitic melts are stored in segregated regions beneath the caldera with low melt fractions, indicating that the reservoirs are not eruptible. Typically, these regions have melt volumes equivalent to small-volume post-caldera Yellowstone eruptions.”

So, not only is the magma confined to the storage chambers, it is cut off from the basalt required to cause the temperature and pressure for a massive eruption at the site of the Yellowstone Caldera.

However, it is not quite the same story in other parts of the park.

In fact, in their exploration of the National Park, they found that to the north-east of the Caldera there was a significant reservoir of magma that was being fed the basalt required for eruptions. In feeding the magma chamber, the basalt from deep inside the Earth is providing the magma and heat required for an eruption. In fact, the reservoir is both active and increasing in its intensity, as the researchers continued:

“The largest region of rhyolitic melt storage, concentrated beneath northeast Yellowstone Caldera, has a storage volume similar to the eruptive volume of Yellowstone’s smallest caldera- forming eruption. We identify regions of basalt migrating from the lower crust, merging with and supplying heat to the northeast region of rhyolitic melt storage.”

So what does this mean for us?

Well, probably not much – at least in the near future. That’s because volcanoes take time to build up and erupt, and though – as the scientists write – there is an increase in volcanic activity in the northeast of the Caldera, this is matched by a decrease in other areas:

“On the basis of our analysis, we suggest that the locus of future rhyolitic volcanism has shifted to northeast Yellowstone Caldera.”

This kind of equilibrium shows no signs of imminent threat – something that geologists and experts at the National Park monitor closely.

Rather, we can just marvel at the incredible power of nature, and the giant who is churning below our feet.

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