Supervolcano eruption mystery solved
Interesting article. I'd always thought earthquake swarms were precursors to potential eruptions. Good news is, according to the study, it would taker a 50% partial melt to trigger such a supervolcano eruption and Yellowstone is at about 10-30%. Of course, that's just Yellowstone...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25598050
Supervolcano eruption mystery solved
By James Morgan
Science reporter, BBC News, Grenoble
Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone can explode without an earthquake or other external trigger, experts have found.
The sheer volume of liquid magma is enough to cause a catastrophic super-eruption, according to an experiment at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble...
..."Magma penetrating into the cracks will eventually reach the Earth's surface. And as it rises, it will expand violently - causing an explosion," said Carmen Sanchez-Valle, also of ETH Zurich.
But if Yellowstone happened to be on the brink of an eruption, the good news is that we will still see a warning, Dr Malfait told BBC News.... MORE
