A number of tourists travel to Yellowstone National Park to behold its wandering bison and the stunning colors of the Grand Prismatic Spring. Yet, none of them know that the park rests over a gigantic supervolcano.
The Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field that cuts across Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho lies within an area characterized by gargantuan volcanic eruptions where no less than 1,000 cubic kilometers of volcanic material had been thrown out in the past. In spite of the fact that the most recent lava flow was over 70,000 years ago, Yellowstone is one of the geothermally most active areas on earth. The park harbors more than 10,000 hydrothermal features in the form of geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles.
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On March 17, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that geologists had found a newly formed volcanic vent at Yellowstone, which was discovered in summer 2024. The vent, at the bottom of a lava flow, constantly releases steam and has sustained a high temperature of 171 degrees Fahrenheit (77 degrees Celsius) for several months.
Discovery of the New Volcanic Vent
Geologists Kiernan Folz-Donahue and Jefferson Hungerford reported the find in a blog entry, recounting how a park scientist initially saw a peculiar steam column on Aug. 5, 2024.
“Driving south from Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris Geyser Basin early in the morning of Aug. 5 last summer, a park scientist saw a pluming steam column over the trees and across a wet meadow,” Hungerford and Folz-Donahue wrote.
Additional examination reaffirmed that this was a novel volcanic feature, possibly connected to past geothermal activity documented in the same area during March 2003.
Potential Link with Current Fault Lines
Scientists theorize that the newly found vent is consistent with historic geothermal activity and documented fault directions in the region.
One might draw a line along the axis of the older active area and it would cut the new feature. This line also traces the trend of faults that extend from Norris Geyser Basin north to Mammoth Hot Springs and beyond,” Hungerford and Folz-Donahue said.
Although Yellowstone’s geothermal activity is still less vigorous than when it originally formed, the finding of this new vent highlights the park’s continuing volcanic processes.
