Volcano fears stalk Yellowstone

Videos of lines of bison and other animals 'fleeing' Yellowstone National Park in US have raised fears that the supervolcano underneath the park is preparing to erupt, but how much truth — if any — is there to this claim? The clip in question was uploaded to YouTube with the title "ALERT! Yellowstone Buffalo Running for Their Lives!" and quickly circulated around online blogs with one commentator, a survivalist named Tom Lupshu, offering a typical assessment that the animals had detected "something vast and deadly." "The Yellowstone supervolcano is the only thing there that would fit the bill," says Lupshu.

But is the supervolcano really that scary? Well, in theory, yes. After asteroid strikes, supervolcanoes are the "second most globally cataclysmic event" that can affect the Earth, and in the past they've been responsible for mass extinctions and 'volcanic winters' lasting for year. The Yellowstone supervolcano itself is an active hotspot, it has a massive magma chamber (scientists estimated last December that it was 2.5 times bigger than previously thought) and given what we know about its history, it erupts on a roughly 700,000 year cycle — with the last major eruption occurring some 640,000 years ago. A cataclysmic eruption from the supervolcano some 2.1 million years ago is thought to have killed off thousands of prehistoric animals and covered nearly half of North America with ash and dust. In a nut-shell , the fear is that Yellowstone is overdue — and that the bison are the first to figure it out.

However, Yellowstone Park authorities have stepped into the breach to clear up the muddle, with public affairs chief Al Nash calmly pointing out that the video of the bison 'fleeing' actually shows normal migration patterns. He said, "We do have bison, elk and other animals that have moved outside the park recently, but they're doing that because it's the depth of winter. Food is a little hard to find in places inside Yellowstone and they tend to migrate at this time to where they think there might be something to eat that's easier to get at." For online rumour-mongers though, the fact that the bisons' 'flight' occurred at the same time as the earthquake is extra evidence that Yellowstone is about to blow.

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