Scientists Find 4X Magma Under Yellowstone's Supervolcano

April 23, 2015 – University of Utah seismologists discovered and made images of a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock 12 to 28 miles beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano, and it is 4.4 times larger than the shallower, long-known magma chamber.

The hot rock in the newly discovered, deeper magma reservoir would fill the 1,000-cubic-mile Grand Canyon 11.2 times, while the previously known magma chamber would fill the Grand Canyon 2.5 times, says postdoctoral researcher Jamie Farrell, a co-author of the study published online today in the journal Science.

This animation shows the underground volcanic plumbing system beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming, as revealed by a new University of Utah seismic imaging study. The green lines represent the boundary of Yellowstone National Park.

“For the first time, we have imaged the continuous volcanic plumbing system under Yellowstone,” says first author Hsin-Hua Huang, also a postdoctoral researcher in geology and geophysics. “That includes the upper crustal magma chamber we have seen previously plus a lower crustal magma reservoir that has never been imaged before and that connects the upper chamber to the Yellowstone hotspot plume below.”

Contrary to popular perception, the magma chamber and magma reservoir are not full of molten rock. Instead, the rock is hot, mostly solid and spongelike, with pockets of molten rock within it.

Yellowstone Has No Increase in Danger

The researchers emphasize that Yellowstone’s plumbing system is no larger – nor closer to erupting – than before, only that they now have used advanced techniques to make a complete image of the system that carries hot and partly molten rock upward from the top of the Yellowstone hotspot plume – about 40 miles beneath the surface – to the magma reservoir and the magma chamber above it.

“The magma chamber and reservoir are not getting any bigger than they have been, it’s just that we can see them better now using new techniques,” Farrell says.

Study co-author Fan-Chi Lin, an assistant professor of geology and geophysics, says: “It gives us a better understanding the Yellowstone magmatic system. We can now use these new models to better estimate the potential seismic and volcanic hazards.”

The study focused on Earth’s crust, shows the previously known magma chamber (orange) about 3 to 9 miles beneath the surface, and reveals a previously unknown magma reservoir (red) at a depth of 12 to 28 miles. Beneath that is the Yellowstone hotspot plume (yellow) which brings hot rock up from deep within Earth’s mantle.

For full news release, see: http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/scientists-see-deeper-yellowstone-magma/

Video by Hsin-Hua Huang, University of Utah Department of Geology and Geophysics.