Yellowstone warning over 'hydrothermal explosions' after 'surprise' underwater discovery

While the geology of Yellowstone National Park is most notorious for its potential to produce large “supereruptions”, far more common are smaller, violent hydrothermal explosions. Caused when near-boiling water suddenly flashed into steam, these events release large amounts of energy, fracturing the rock downwards and often forming craters. The same hydrothermal systems that cause these explosions are responsible for producing Yellowstone’s iconic fumaroles, hot springs and geysers — like Old Faithful. Unlike these features, however, hydrothermal explosion craters have been far less studied, despite the Yellowstone Lake area hosting at least eight large craters, including three of the largest of their type known on the Earth.
Yellowstone warning over 'hydrothermal explosions' after 'surprise' underwater discovery.
The researchers correlated the deposits across the various cores and analysed their chemical and physical attributes, identifying those formed by hydrothermal explosions.

Dr Morgan said: “Hydrothermal explosion sediments deposited underwater have never been described in published literature.

“In analysing the cores, we made a lot of discoveries and had several surprises. Number one was how different the explosion deposits found in the cores looked from explosion deposits on land.

“That was to be expected since one was deposited through a water column and one was deposited on land.”

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