New evidence for plume beneath Yellowstone National Park. The plume is part of a zone that runs to the park all the way from Mexico

2

A plume is a still theoretical abnormality that lies at the boundary between the Earth’s core and the mantle, and rises through the mantle into the crust — an abnormality that would exist as a vertical stream of magma. Well these researchers from the University of Texas claim they have found a new evidence of a plume beneath Yellowstone National Park and further propose that the plume is part of a zone that runs to the park all the way from Mexico.

plume beneath Yellowstone, plume beneath Yellowstone National Park, scientists found new evidence of plume under yellowstone, New evidence for plume beneath Yellowstone National Park. The plume is part of a zone that runs to the park all the way from Mexico
New evidence for plume beneath Yellowstone National Park. The plume is part of a zone that runs to the park all the way from Mexico. via Nature

The prospect of a plume beneath Yellowstone has been strongly debated. Some have suggested a plume would explain the source of the heat that drives so much surface activity in the park. Others disagree pointing out that it could just as easily be explained by shallow subduction or lithospheric processes.

The researchers found what they describe as “a long, thin, sloping zone” (approximately 72 by 55 kilometers in size) inside of the mantle where seismic waves were traveling slower than the areas around them. This suggests a section of the mantle that is approximately 600 to 800° C degrees warmer than surrounding areas, and offers strong evidence of a plume.

The new paper suggests that there is likely a thin plume stretching from the core-mantle boundary beneath the park and that it is responsible for the volcanism seen at Yellowstone.

For example, the the world’s tallest geyser – the Steamboat Geyser at Yellowstone – has erupted on March 15, 2018 after more than 4 years – September 3, 2014 – of calm:

Here the abstract of the new scientific study:

The Yellowstone hotspot, located in North America, is an intraplate source of magmatism the cause of which is hotly debated. Some argue that a deep mantle plume sourced at the base of the mantle supplies the heat beneath Yellowstone, whereas others claim shallower subduction or lithospheric-related processes can explain the anomalous magmatism. Here we present a shear wave tomography model for the deep mantle beneath the western United States that was made using the travel times of core waves recorded by the dense USArray seismic network. The model reveals a single narrow, cylindrically shaped slow anomaly, approximately 350 km in diameter that we interpret as a whole-mantle plume. The anomaly is tilted to the northeast and extends from the core–mantle boundary to the surficial position of the Yellowstone hotspot. The structure gradually decreases in strength from the deepest mantle towards the surface and if it is purely a thermal anomaly this implies an initial excess temperature of 650 to 850 °C. Our results strongly support a deep origin for the Yellowstone hotspot, and also provide evidence for the existence of thin thermal mantle plumes that are currently beyond the resolution of global tomography models.

Follow us: Facebook and Twitter

Nature

2 Comments

  1. FIRE STARTER SAYS: What we could do is have a massive public works projects similar to the Nuclear Scrubbing Plants that were developed during the course of the third global war. This was part of the Asian Miracle the mega fast increase in cybernetic body technology combined with eliminating nearly all of the radiation in the atmosphere from the war in the late 2020’s. Now EnnerTech is the latest joint energy company to harness the geothermal energy in the Yellowstone Caldera and various Japanese volcanoes. This 2 country massive public works project has put pricing pressures on the oil, gas, coal and nuclear power industries. As this new source of energy is much cleaner than the older ones, and the price is now cost effective saving consumers $. Yet, the 2 volcanic blowouts of South Sister and the one on Northern Hokkaido when setting the environmentally energy transfer geothermal wells created controversy. Lava was released and destroyed 453 properties and six people were injured three destroyed. It is rumored that the the nation of India has developed a most excellent form of COLD FUSION energy that will stall out the growth of the geothermal energy revolution! The Pacific Rim 2 Technology Research Resources Blogs dated May 15, 2037.

Leave a reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.