Yellowstone is a Volcano (more specifically, a Supervolcano)

Firehole River with Riverside Geyser. Photo by Jeff Vanuga

At least 1,299 episodes of unrest have occurred at 138 calderas greater than 5 km in diameter during historical time.

BBC Science and Discovery Channel produced the docudrama called “Super-Volcano,” followed by the documentary, “Supervolcano: The Truth About Yellowstone.”

The Yellowstone area has seen tremendous volcanic activity in its past. 3 giant eruptions have occurred between 2.1 million and 640,000 years ago.

The Yellowstone caldera was formed after an explosion of magma nearly 600,000 years ago.

As long as there's been a National Park seated on a super volcano, there's been erroneous reports of impending doom.

Documentaries aside, movies about Yellowstone National Park tend to focus on fiery natural disasters.

Crust waves of a geyser at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone’s plumbing system is no larger - nor closer to erupting - than before but now we have advanced techniques to map the system. See animation of magma chamber.

Geothermic Hotspots In (Yellow) and Near Yellowstone

Using thermal satellite images, scientists take the earth’s temperature hundreds of miles away from a destination to hopefully predict volcano eruptions.

The odds that the Yellowstone supervolcano will erupt are roughly the same as the chances you'll be struck by lightning: 1 in 10,000

Yellowstone Clypsydra Geyser in the Lower Geyser Basin

Scientists have discovered that the Yellowstone magma pocket is close to the size when the supervolcano last erupted, 640,000 years ago.

One scientist tests the theory of mantle plumes by using 200 gallons of corn syrup to represent the Earth's mantle.

The Yellowstone region has produced three exceedingly large volcanic eruptions in the past 2.1 million years

Seismic activity is monitored around the clock by staff of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory with help from the University of Utah. No eruption soon.

Geyser in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin

Yellowstone is releasing a about 60 tons of helium from underground stores each year, an amount hundreds, possibly thousands, of times more than expected.