Yellowstone's Plumbing Goes Down 410 Miles

[HuskyCaucasian]

sciencedaily.com-

The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup.

 

A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.

 

The study's of Yellowstone's plume also suggests the same "hotspot" that feeds Yellowstone volcanism also triggered the Columbia River "flood basalts" that buried parts of Oregon, Washington state and Idaho with lava starting 17 million years ago.

 

Those are key findings in four National Science Foundation-funded studies in the latest issue of the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. The studies were led by Robert B. Smith, research professor and professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Utah and coordinating scientist for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

 

"We have a clear image, using seismic waves from earthquakes, showing a mantle plume that extends from beneath Yellowstone,'' Smith says.

 

The plume angles downward 150 miles to the west-northwest of Yellowstone and reaches a depth of at least 410 miles, Smith says. The study estimates the plume is mostly hot rock, with 1 percent to 2 percent molten rock in sponge-like voids within the hot rock.

 

Some researchers have doubted the existence of a mantle plume feeding Yellowstone, arguing instead that the area's volcanic and hydrothermal features are fed by convection -- the boiling-like rising of hot rock and sinking of cooler rock -- from relatively shallow depths of only 185 miles to 250 miles.

 

(much more at the link)

[FlaSoxxJim]

Crazy cool (hot) stuff.

[Heads22]

Derka derka supervolcano.

[southsider2k5]

Its the floating turd of mass destruction!

[GoSox05]

You know what happens when this thing goes.

 

 

Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria. -Peter Venkman

[Texsox]

looking for Balta's post? Why the hell do we keep him around?

[Balta1701]

looking for Balta's post? Why the hell do we keep him around?

I'm at a conference, I've been in talks and poster sessions all morning.

 

Anyway...what's interesting here is that for decades it's been really difficult to image the upwellings under places like Hawaii or Yellowstone that we think are there. But as our data quality improves, we're now suddenly able to see it.

 

THere are still people out there who don't think that what we consider to be Mantle Plumes actually exist because its been so hard to image them. But the seismologists and modelers are starting to get there and its really interesting.

 

The Yellowstone plume in particular is really cool, because it happens to come up right next to a subducting plate (the cascadia subduction zone, the Juan De Fuca plate is subducting below Washington and Oregon). And it certainly looks in some images like the Yellowstone plume has literally punched its way through the downngoing plate and given rise to a whole set of volcanic rocks in the western U.S. because of that interaction.

 

I'd also, in the end, be surprised if the Yellowstone plume doesn't extend much farther down than just the 670 km discontinuity, which is I think where these guys are putting it; we just can't image that far yet. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it rooted very close to the core mantle boundary, about 4 times as deep.

[iamshack]

Yeah, I was about to say that too.

 

Balta beat me to it...

[HuskyCaucasian]

I'm at a conference, I've been in talks and poster sessions all morning.

 

Anyway...what's interesting here is that for decades it's been really difficult to image the upwellings under places like Hawaii or Yellowstone that we think are there. But as our data quality improves, we're now suddenly able to see it.

 

THere are still people out there who don't think that what we consider to be Mantle Plumes actually exist because its been so hard to image them. But the seismologists and modelers are starting to get there and its really interesting.

 

The Yellowstone plume in particular is really cool, because it happens to come up right next to a subducting plate (the cascadia subduction zone, the Juan De Fuca plate is subducting below Washington and Oregon). And it certainly looks in some images like the Yellowstone plume has literally punched its way through the downngoing plate and given rise to a whole set of volcanic rocks in the western U.S. because of that interaction.

 

I'd also, in the end, be surprised if the Yellowstone plume doesn't extend much farther down than just the 670 km discontinuity, which is I think where these guys are putting it; we just can't image that far yet. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it rooted very close to the core mantle boundary, about 4 times as deep.

You rock (pun intended).

I think I understood about 3/4 of that.

[CanOfCorn]

Wake me when I'm on fire.

[NorthSideSox72]

I'm at a conference, I've been in talks and poster sessions all morning.

 

Anyway...what's interesting here is that for decades it's been really difficult to image the upwellings under places like Hawaii or Yellowstone that we think are there. But as our data quality improves, we're now suddenly able to see it.

 

THere are still people out there who don't think that what we consider to be Mantle Plumes actually exist because its been so hard to image them. But the seismologists and modelers are starting to get there and its really interesting.

 

The Yellowstone plume in particular is really cool, because it happens to come up right next to a subducting plate (the cascadia subduction zone, the Juan De Fuca plate is subducting below Washington and Oregon). And it certainly looks in some images like the Yellowstone plume has literally punched its way through the downngoing plate and given rise to a whole set of volcanic rocks in the western U.S. because of that interaction.

 

I'd also, in the end, be surprised if the Yellowstone plume doesn't extend much farther down than just the 670 km discontinuity, which is I think where these guys are putting it; we just can't image that far yet. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it rooted very close to the core mantle boundary, about 4 times as deep.

 

As I understood it, Hawaii was always a nice illustration of what I think you are getting at. These deep plumes, that bring material and heat up from very low, don't move the same way the crust does - so you get the image of trailing "dots" that is the Hawaiian Islands. The Yellowstone plume also, if I get this right, has a trail of volcanoes left behind, as the crust moved over it. Same with other super-volcanic systems, like Jemez/Taylor, which I know a little more about.

 

And using that trail of dots, you can sort of predict where the next one would be, and further, based on the location of the plume and what not, probably get a vague idea of WHEN they'd go off again. Couldn't you?

 

[Balta1701]

And using that trail of dots, you can sort of predict where the next one would be, and further, based on the location of the plume and what not, probably get a vague idea of WHEN they'd go off again. Couldn't you?

To within an error of a million years or so, sure.

 

The 1st eruption on the Yellowstone site was 2 million years ago, the 2nd was 1.2 million years ago, the 3rd was 640,000 years ago. That would imply a 600,000 or so year recurrence interval if things were that simple. They aren't. Lots of other things are necessary to build up a big eruption; certian cooling conditions and mineralogical conditions in the crust.

 

Good example is the hydrothermals in Yellowstone right now. They've been extra, extra active for the last 100,000 years or so. They're pumping out so much heat right now that if they kept going at this rate, within the next 500,000 years they'd probably cool the whole magma chamber. Can't say we know why it's so active of a system right now.

[Heads22]

To within an error of a million years or so, sure.

 

The 1st eruption on the Yellowstone site was 2 million years ago, the 2nd was 1.2 million years ago, the 3rd was 640,000 years ago. That would imply a 600,000 or so year recurrence interval if things were that simple. They aren't. Lots of other things are necessary to build up a big eruption; certian cooling conditions and mineralogical conditions in the crust.

 

Good example is the hydrothermals in Yellowstone right now. They've been extra, extra active for the last 100,000 years or so. They're pumping out so much heat right now that if they kept going at this rate, within the next 500,000 years they'd probably cool the whole magma chamber. Can't say we know why it's so active of a system right now.

 

 

So.....give us a day to watch out for.

[SoxAce]

Meh.. were all gonna die in 2012 anyways so...

[Balta1701]

So.....give us a day to watch out for.

When a lot of earthquakes start happening there.

[bmags]

I'm at a conference, I've been in talks and poster sessions all morning.

 

Anyway...what's interesting here is that for decades it's been really difficult to image the upwellings under places like Hawaii or Yellowstone that we think are there. But as our data quality improves, we're now suddenly able to see it.

 

THere are still people out there who don't think that what we consider to be Mantle Plumes actually exist because its been so hard to image them. But the seismologists and modelers are starting to get there and its really interesting.

 

In other words you've started using "Tricks" and "lies" to create the images you wanted to see! I want emails!

[Balta1701]

In other words you've started using "Tricks" and "lies" to create the images you wanted to see! I want emails!

Processing seismic signals = a very, very complicated trick.