Eruption at Yellowstone Lake


Yellowstone Lake eruption, April 1, 2009

Well, after all the seismicity and uplift at Yellowstone caldera over the last few years, something finally happened. Early this morning, without much warning, an eruption occurred in Yellowstone Lake (see above) and sent steam and ash up 50,000 feet above the park. Luckily, no one was injured or killed in the event as we're well ahead tourist season, but it is unknown how this might affect access to the park for this summer.

Now, whether this eruption is really just the caldera "letting off steam" so to speak, possibly in the form of a phreatic eruption or a hydrothermal explosion, it is unclear. No samples of the ash have been collected yet to see if its juvenile, but this is the first real signs of life in the "supervolcano" in almost 70,000 years. If this is more than just a hydrothermal event, then we need to be prepared for almost anything from the eruption of new rhyolite domes in Yellowstone Lake to another Huckleberry Ridge-type eruption.

For more on the status at Yellowstone, try here and here.

(Oh yes ... and Happy April Fools Day!)

UPDATE 4/1/2009 at 3 PM Pacific: So, most people got my little April Fool's Joke about a minor Yellowstone Lake eruption that went along with a pile of other ScienceBlog pranks. Mostly, I tried to think of an eruption at which volcano would get people most "excited" and Yellowstone was at the very top of the list. Hopefully, most of you can take a joke, even on a science blog, especially one that tries to cut through the misinformation on volcanic eruptions. No worries, this is a once-a-year type entry. The other 364 days of the year, expect (mostly) reliable volcano information and analysis. Sit back, relax and chuckle, because if an eruption at Yellowstone were to actually happen, we'd have wall-to-wall coverage of that sort of event.

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hey, it's all just a government plot to wipe out Detroit without any political backlash.

I heard the boom. I live In West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. That's right, I *heard* that eruption, in Utah!

This morning, at 8:42 AM local time, another explosion occurred, this time a larger one, probably phreatomagmatic. This eruption generated a 80000-ft high ash-rich plume, and noise from it was heard as far as 50-km around. Witnesses report of a strong yellowish-red glow from the base of the column and "clouds" of water vapor expanding in all directions from the point of emission.

Early examination of the products being erupted shows them to contain juvenile basaltic scoriaceous bombs and ash, alongside with heavily-fragmented particles originating from magma-water interaction .

By volcanophile (not verified) on 01 Apr 2009 #permalink

How many times, in one month, can Bobby Jindal be made to look like a fool?

On the plus side, all that ash reflecting sunlight will diminish the whole global warming thing, right?

A really sad (strange? sick? geoperverted?) little part of me would love to see a nice eruption at Yellowstone. Maybe not a supervolcano, but a nice series of eruptions lasting, oh, the rest of my life would be nice.

AHHH!!! I just called my husband and interrupted his meeting before I read the final sentence! We were just discussing ancient phreatic events at Yellowstone this morning as my son was watching a History Channel show about Yellowstone. Wish I'd have thought of this one myself.

Good one, Erik! I passed this around to some volcanologist colleagues and they got a good chuckle out of it!

?? yellowstone eruption...... then I checked the time it was posted and come to another conclusion ...Think Mr E K needs some sleep. Its 6.30 in the morning on my side of the planet and the people in the US is still on yesterday LOL talking about jumping the gun

Good one to wake up some of the sleepy readers

By Gerhardus (not verified) on 01 Apr 2009 #permalink

I'm grabbing my bikini now, and heading down for a dip in the hot lake water. I've heard the snow monkeys are already there.

I totaly, uterly fell for it. I spent 2 hours spreading this news around util some laughed saying "Ha, good April's fool joke." and after a 2 second pause I said "Today is April's 1st?"

I hope a Yellowstone lava bomb hit this blog!

:D

If Yellowstone did go, I couldn't bear to think what it would do to the animals. I guess surviving rangers would just have to elk out a living doing something else. (I kept saying to myself "Self, why would Dr. Erik include a cartoon of Mr. T while discussing a rare event like this?") Excuse me deers, I am off to moose my hair.

I'd like to say it was funny, but given my paranoia and OCD on the subject, it wasn't.

...and on another note, Grand Prismatic Pool has turned into what is being described as a "super geyser" eructing 700 to 800 feet in the air every 15 minutes!! :)

what did the caldera look like before eruption?

Why is it that I have never heard of this eruption or of any type in the last 70,000 years before now, when I accidently stumbled onto this site. I would think somethng like this would have been mentioned on the new, after all, even here in Wisconsin we could still be under 6 to 8 inches
of ash from the big one whenever it comes.

By Robert Richards (not verified) on 16 Jul 2010 #permalink

@ #21 -
That's because eruptions of this type only happen on the first day of April, any year...

By Kultsi, Askola, FI (not verified) on 16 Jul 2010 #permalink

...and every month in the tabloid press, on-line or paper, plus continuously in the minds of certain segments of the population. To be honest, as I read it my first thought was that everyone would start thelling scientists "we told you so", so I guess I too suffer from the "Yellowstone expectansiitis" to some extent. :doh:

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 16 Jul 2010 #permalink

But it would be fun if Yellowstone actually blew on april first. Noone would ever believe and half of the US would never be evacuated on time out of thinking it was a hoax:)

The chance of that happening is about as high as 1 in 25.500.000 in a given year, obviously on the assumption that Yellowstone actually still can erupt.

@Henrik:
Still convinced I am 2 persons?

By Carl, Intl (not verified) on 17 Jul 2010 #permalink

Not any longer, thx!

Btw, which Carl am I speaking to? :mischief:

By Henrik, Swe (not verified) on 17 Jul 2010 #permalink