Yellowstone Supervolcanic Eruption Could Kill 90,000 And Lead To A Nuclear Winter, Study

There is one supervolcano bang in the middle of America's northwest. And it might "blanket the US in a nuclear winter". If it erupts, the Yellowstone supervolcano would be a thousand times as powerful as the Mount St Helens overflow in 1980, experts claim in a paper, according to dailymail.

It is on a volcano in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana. For 70,000 years it has been dormant. Yet it might erupt some day. It rests on a huge reserve of molten rock and last erupted 640,000 years ago. This is among the "largest active continental silicic volcanic fields in the world".

The most recent supervolcano in the world erupted 27,000 years ago in New Zealand., according to sputniknews.

If it blows, a blend of magma, rocks, vapour, carbon dioxide and other gases would gush out and form a dome with some cracks on it. The gases would erupt and spew the magma wildly across the park.

About 90,000 would die, while a 10-foot layer of ash would fly a thousand miles away.

"The ash would block off all points of entry from the ground, and the spread of ash and gases into the atmosphere would stop most air travel, just as it did when a much smaller volcano erupted in Iceland in 2010," says howstuffworks. "Sulphuric gases released from the volcano would spring into the atmosphere and mix with the planet's water vapour. The haze of gas that could drape the country wouldn't just dim the sunlight - it also would cool temperatures."

If the temperature falls, our food supply and crops would be damaged, leading to a food crisis.

Last year, a study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that an eruption would cover cities across the US with ash and block off air travel and communications.

Still, it would not be the end of the US. Scientists found that "cities up to 300 miles from the park would be covered by up to three feet of ash".

It would create and 'umbrella cloud' of ash all over the country.

"In essence, the eruption makes its own winds that can overcome the prevailing westerlies, which normally dominate weather patterns in the US," said Larry Mastin, the lead author of the new paper. Even such a spread would be a "disaster", cutting off electronic communication and air travel all over the nation and creating a winter throughout the year.

So far, the Yellowstone volcano has seen just three super eruptions, generating over 240 cubic miles of ash so far.

One was 2.1 million years ago, another 1.3 million years ago and a third 640,000 years ago. The last volcanic activity was 70,000 years ago.