Yellowstone volcano: where is the national park, when was last eruption, and how likely is it to erupt again?

Yellowstone is one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, but many are questioning when it will erupt once more.

The volcano, located in the USA, has not boiled over for thousands of years, however experts are warning that a super-eruption could come in our lifetime.

The secrets are all due to be spilled in the Channel 5 documentary Doomsday Volcano: The Next Pompeii, but just how likely is it to erupt again and when was the last time it erupted?

Where is Yellowstone located?

The volcano in question is named after the national park it resides in.

It is situated in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA.

When did Yellowstone last erupt?

The super-volcano hasn’t erupted for quite some time.

The last known eruption occurred around 20,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Due to the extremely long length of time since the last time Yellowstone boiled over, some experts say that the volcano is “overdue” to erupt again.

Yellowstone is known as an “active” volcano, which means that there is still a chance that it could erupt once more.

Is Yellowstone due to erupt soon?

Despite the belief that Yellowstone is “overdue” for an eruption, there is currently no evidence to suggest it is “imminent”.

Scientists currently say they have no indication that an eruption is imminent and believe that the warning of an eruption would be detectable for weeks, months or even years prior to the event.

What would happen if Yellowstone erupted?

Despite the unlikely scenario that Yellowstone erupts in our lifetime, we already have evidence of dealing with volcanoes erupting.

Famously, the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010 and saw air travel across Europe brought to a standstill due to the large and continuous ash clouds rising above the continent.

More recently, the Cumbre Vieja volcano, located on the island of La Palma in Spain, erupted and forced the mass evacuation of residents from the island.

Travel to and from the island was cancelled and lava destroyed more than 2,600 buildings, eventually creating a new peninsula.

The most famous volcano eruption in history saw the city of Pompeii destroyed in the year 79 AD after Mount Vesuvius erupted.

Yellowstone, which is classed as a super-volcano, does have the ability to produce a “large catastrophic eruption” on the scale of Pompeii, but this is “improbable”, according to the US Parks.

They said: “For the most likely type of volcanic eruption in Yellowstone, everywhere would be safe except in the immediate vicinity of the advancing lava flow.

“In the highly improbable event of a large catastrophic eruption, the greater the distance from the eruptive center, the safer it would be. It is impossible to know the effects of the eruption without guessing at the explosivity of the highly unlikely eruption and the total amount of the material that erupted.”

When is Doomsday Volcano: The Next Pompeii on?

The new Channel 5 documentary on the Yellowstone volcano will be available to watch at 10pm on Tuesday 23 November.

The show will also be released on the channel’s streaming service, My5, at the same time.

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