And there’s one lurking just underneath Yellowstone National Park
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00:00Volcanoes are some of the most powerful and destructive forces planet Earth is capable
00:09of.
00:10But while smaller volcanoes explode or seep lava onto the surface pretty much all the
00:13time, supervolcanoes are another story.
00:15And now a research team in Indonesia studying the terrifying geological events says everything
00:20we know about supervolcano eruption patterns could be wrong.
00:24It was once thought that after a super eruption, these mega destroyers would go dormant for
00:28ages.
00:29But after looking at minerals feldspar and zircon, which act as geological time capsules,
00:33they now believe that supervolcanoes likely remain active and can even continue spewing
00:37lava for thousands of years after they blow.
00:39In the case of the Toba supervolcano, it continued for around 5,000 to 13,000 years.
00:46According to the researchers, these types of events only happen about once every 17,000
00:50years.
00:51Meaning the superblast has not only a massive effect on the surrounding area and the world
00:54at large, but it does so for millennia.
00:57The researchers say learning more about supervolcanoes like the one underneath Yellowstone is our
01:01best defense against the next inevitable eruption.