https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Around 631,000 years ago—a geological blink of an eye—catastrophe unfolded in what is now northwestern Wyoming, U.S. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometers of the blasts was shattered. Ash was dispersed across much of North America, and the effects were felt worldwide. This was a super-eruption of the massive volcanic system located in what is now Yellowstone National Park. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-humanity-blowbyblow-account-yellowstone-supervolcano.html Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:40:06 EDT news709205583 Volcanoes emit smoke. Beneath a volcano lies a huge chamber filled with liquid magma. A series of earthquakes means an eruption is imminent. And if a "supervolcano" like Yellowstone were to awaken, a global catastrophe would be upon us. These are images and ideas that regularly crop up in news reports, documentaries and on social media. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-volcano-myths-unravel-plumes-yellowstone.html Earth Sciences Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:00:05 EDT news706348561 How can magma buried 5, 10, or even 15 km underground be detected without any surface indicators? The answer lies in ambient noise tomography, a technique that analyzes natural ground vibrations with high precision. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (CNR-IGG), and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) has identified a vast reservoir containing approximately 6,000 km3 of magma beneath Tuscany. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-super-magma-reservoirs-beneath-tuscany.html Earth Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:40:03 EDT news695377589 A lot of research goes into determining how to best predict the next eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Part of this involves pinning down how the magma migration system functions and evolves over time. The exact mechanism driving Yellowstone's volcanism and how magma travels from deep within Earth to the surface is still debated, but a new study, published in Science, offers up evidence that Yellowstone's underground magma system is largely driven by tectonics. This is in contrast with some previous theories which posit that a deep mantle plume is the main source of magma. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-yellowstone-magma-plumbing-tectonic-deep.html Earth Sciences Fri, 10 Apr 2026 13:20:01 EDT news695041316 Supereruptions are extremely large volcanic eruptions that eject more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma, rock and ash. They are among the most hazardous geological events on Earth and have profound impacts on the environment, climate, and human society. For this reason, understanding the subsurface processes behind supereruptions is essential for improving volcanic hazard assessments and mitigating risks. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-yellowstone-magma-source-closer-thought.html Earth Sciences Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:40:01 EDT news695039043 The magma reservoir of the largest volcanic eruption of the Holocene is refilling. This Kobe University insight on the Kikai caldera in Japan allows us to understand giant caldera volcanoes like Yellowstone or Toba more generally and gets us closer to predicting their behavior, too. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-japan-giant-caldera-volcano-refilling.html Earth Sciences Fri, 27 Mar 2026 06:00:08 EDT news693739024 Rhinos that flourished across much of North America 12 million years ago gathered in huge herds, according to a new study by the University of Cincinnati. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-evidence-prehistoric-rhinos-huge-herds.html Ecology Tue, 08 Apr 2025 14:37:03 EDT news663341821 Some 252 million years ago the world was going through a tumultuous period of rapid global warming. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-volcanic-bombardment-ancient-australia-world.html Earth Sciences Tue, 10 May 2022 09:38:57 EDT news571394331 When geologist Elizabeth Miller started mapping a fault system in Death Valley, she questioned the origin of some sedimentary rocks previously assumed to be locally derived. Now, analysis has revealed where they really came from: central Nevada, indicating that part of today's Great Basin was the highest land in North America some 40 million to 20 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-sierra-nevada-shown-geologic-birthdays.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Nov 2021 10:20:10 EST news556194002 Scientists say it is extremely challenging to try and predict when a supervolcano might erupt again due to the sheer diversity of events that have gone before. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-eruption-supervolcanoes.html Earth Sciences Tue, 27 Jul 2021 08:58:15 EDT news546595087 A swarm of more than 141 earthquakes is rattling Yellowstone National Park, geologists said. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-yellowstone-rattled-swarm-earthquakes-day.html Earth Sciences Mon, 19 Jul 2021 11:10:16 EDT news545911810 Mass extinctions are times in Earth's past when large proportions of life suddenly and catastrophically died. These have occurred periodically over the past 550 million years. The exact causes of these extinctions are not fully understood, but there appears to be a remarkable coincidence between mass extinctions and huge volcanic eruptions that form large igneous provinces (LIPs). https://phys.org/news/2021-03-huge-volcanic-eruption-didnt-climate.html Earth Sciences Wed, 31 Mar 2021 08:49:37 EDT news536399375 The question of what happens in the atmosphere when a supervolcano erupts, has concerned scientists in atmospheric chemistry and meteorology for a while. Now, a research team from UiO, GEOMAR, NCAR, and MPI-M have worked together and come closer to an answer. They present their new findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-supervolcano-eruption-periodic-tropical-stratosphere.html Earth Sciences Mon, 29 Mar 2021 09:02:18 EDT news536227336 A swarm of 91 earthquakes rattled the Yellowstone National Park region in just 24 hours on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey. The quakes trembled southwest of Yellowstone Lake between Heart Lake and West Thumb. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-earthquakes-swarm-yellowstone-hours-experts.html Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:01:16 EDT news519318071 Yellowstone National Park in the USA, with its geysers and hot springs, is a major attraction for tourists. However, especially in times of little news, the media often focuses on the Yellowstone supervolcano, which last erupted about 630,000 years ago. Inevitably then, the question of the underlying geological structures will be posed. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-yellowstone-volcano.html Earth Sciences Thu, 17 Oct 2019 12:12:30 EDT news490533130 Supervolcanoes are one of Mother Nature's deadliest phenomena, and when they erupt, they can change the climate of the entire planet. https://phys.org/news/2018-07-platinum-evidence-ancient-volcanic-related-climate.html Earth Sciences Tue, 31 Jul 2018 07:04:49 EDT news452239462 Researchers at Washington State University and the University of Idaho have found a new way to estimate how fast magma is recharging beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano. While their findings offer no help in predicting if the volcano will erupt, they can now get a better understanding of a key factor—a pool of basalt magma recharging the system—in how it works. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-magma-beneath-yellowstone-supervolcano.html Earth Sciences Mon, 04 Jun 2018 15:46:18 EDT news447345970 Researchers can't predict when the next cataclysmic natural disaster is going to occur, but Adam Bourassa can give you a good idea of how it could affect us. https://phys.org/news/2018-05-earthquakes-eruptions.html Earth Sciences Mon, 14 May 2018 07:30:02 EDT news445499144 Concern over the potential imminent eruptions of Earth's supervolcanoes, like Taupo in New Zealand or Yellowstone in the United States, may be quelled by the results of a new study suggesting that geological signs pointing to a catastrophic eruption would be clear far in advance. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-ample-supervolcano-eruptions.html Earth Sciences Mon, 30 Apr 2018 12:43:08 EDT news444310967 Using supercomputer modeling, University of Oregon scientists have unveiled a new explanation for the geology underlying recent seismic imaging of magma bodies below Yellowstone National Park. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-scientists-decipher-magma-bodies-yellowstone.html Earth Sciences Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:26:32 EDT news443118373 A new geological record of the Yellowstone supervolcano's last catastrophic eruption is rewriting the story of what happened 630,000 years ago and how it affected Earth's climate. This eruption formed the vast Yellowstone caldera observed today, the second largest on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2017-10-yellowstone-spawned-twin-super-eruptions-global.html Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Oct 2017 03:34:47 EDT news428207671 Zircon crystals in igneous rocks must be carefully examined and not relied upon solely to predict future volcanic eruptions and other tectonic events, QUT researchers have shown. https://phys.org/news/2017-10-zircon-earth-timekeeper-clock.html Earth Sciences Mon, 23 Oct 2017 09:47:38 EDT news427970846 ETH researchers show that magma chambers under supervolcanoes are more like soggy sponges than reservoirs of molten rock. Before a volcano of this kind erupts, such mush must slowly be reactivated by heat input following deep magma recharge ultimately derived from the Earth's mantle. https://phys.org/news/2017-10-magma-chambers-sponge-like.html Earth Sciences Thu, 05 Oct 2017 08:00:06 EDT news426408655 Most of the lithium used to make the lithium-ion batteries that power modern electronics comes from Australia and Chile. But Stanford scientists say there are large deposits in sources right here in America: supervolcanoes. https://phys.org/news/2017-08-supervolcanoes-key-america-electric-future.html Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Aug 2017 05:00:05 EDT news422077410 New study shows the importance of large reservoirs in creating Earth's most powerful volcanic eruptions and explains why they are so rare https://phys.org/news/2017-06-magma-reservoirs-key-volcanic-eruptions.html Earth Sciences Fri, 02 Jun 2017 09:45:20 EDT news415615509 The rare but spectacular eruptions of supervolcanoes can cause massive destruction and affect climate patterns on a global scale for decades - and a new study has found that these sites also may experience ongoing, albeit smaller eruptions for tens of thousands of years after. https://phys.org/news/2017-05-documents-aftermath-supereruption-size-toba.html Earth Sciences Tue, 16 May 2017 14:49:42 EDT news414164971 Researchers have now found an explanation for what triggered the largest volcanic eruption witnessed by mankind. The volcano's secret was revealed by geochemical clues hidden inside volcanic quartz crystals. https://phys.org/news/2017-01-triggered-largest-volcanic-eruption-witnessed.html Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Jan 2017 08:19:31 EST news404641165 Geophysical monitoring of the ground above active supervolcanoes shows that it rises and falls as magma moves beneath the surface of the Earth. Silica-rich magmas like those in the Yellowstone region and along the western margin of North and South America can erupt violently and explosively, throwing vast quantities of ash into the air, followed by slower flows of glassy, viscous magma. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-scientists-gain-supervolcano-insights-wyoming.html Earth Sciences Thu, 02 Jun 2016 08:43:39 EDT news384075809 Understanding the complex geological processes that form supervolcanoes could ultimately help geologists determine what triggers their eruptions. A new study using an advanced computer model casts doubt on previously held theories about the Yellowstone supervolcano's origins, adding to the mystery of Yellowstone's formation. https://phys.org/news/2016-02-widely-theory-yellowstone-formation.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Feb 2016 13:25:54 EST news374333143 Supervolcanoes, massive eruptions with potential global consequences, appear not to follow the conventional volcano mechanics of internal pressure building until the volcano blows. Instead, a new study finds, such massive magma chambers might erupt when the roof above them cracks or collapses. https://phys.org/news/2015-11-supervolcanoes-triggered-externally.html Earth Sciences Wed, 04 Nov 2015 14:16:30 EST news365868968