A sinking, melting ancient tectonic plate may fuel Yellowstone’s supervolcano
Computer simulations suggest that a core-deep plume of magma isn’t needed to power the massive eruptions
By
Carolyn Gramling
7:00am, January 2, 2018
HOT SPOT The Yellowstone supervolcano has a 17-million-year history of eruptions in the western United States. Now scientists say the source of the supervolcano’s heat isn’t a deep mantle plume, but the downward drag of an ancient subducting slab stirring up the mantle.
The driving force behind Yellowstone’s long and explosive volcanic history may not be as deep as once thought. A new study suggests that instead of a plume of hot mantle that extends down to Earth’s core, the real culprit is a subducting tectonic plate that began sinking beneath North America hundreds of millions of years ago.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sinking-melting-ancient-tectonic-plate-may-fuel-yellowstones-supervolcano
