Yellowstone hotspot

The eastern Snake River Plain is a topographic depression that cuts across Basin and Range Mountain structures, more or less parallel to North American Plate motion.Beneath more recent basalts are rhyolite lavas and ignimbrites that erupted as the lithosphere passed over the hotspot.Younger volcanoes that erupted after passing over the hotspot covered the plain with young basalt lava flows in places, including Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.[4] The northwest Nevada calderas have diameters ranging from 15 to 26 km and deposited high temperature rhyolite ignimbrites over approximately 5000 km2.Animals were suffocated and burned in pyroclastic flows within a hundred miles of the event, and died of slow suffocation and starvation much farther away, notably at Ashfall Fossil Beds, located 1000 miles downwind in northeastern Nebraska, where a foot of ash was deposited.By its characteristic chemical fingerprint and the distinctive size and shape of its crystals and glass shards, the volcano stands out among dozens of prominent ashfall horizons laid down in the Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene periods of central North America.The Henry's Fork Caldera in Idaho was formed in an eruption of more than 280 km3 (67 cu mi) 1.3 million years ago, and is the source of the Mesa Falls Tuff.If Heise is any indication, this could mean that the Yellowstone Caldera has entered its final stage, but the volcano might still exit with a climactic fourth caldera event analogous to the fourth and final caldera-forming eruption of Heise (the Kilgore Tuff) – which was also made up of so-called "light" magmas.
Yellowstone sits on top of four overlapping calderas.
Number of earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park region (1973–2014) [ 14 ]
Map of recent Yellowstone eruption fields, in comparison with a recent Long Valley Caldera eruption and Mount St. Helens .
millions of yearsWyomingRocky MountainsCoordinatesvolcanichotspotMontanaNevadaOregonNorth American tectonic plateSnake River PlaincalderaIsland Park CalderaHenry's Fork CalderaBruneau-Jarbidge calderaYellowstone CalderasupereruptionLava Creek TuffAnahim hotspotBasin and RangeNorth American PlatebasaltsrhyoliteignimbriteslithospherevolcanoesCraters of the Moon National Monument and PreservelacustrinefluvialsedimentsHagerman Fossil Bedsvolcanic fieldMioceneMcDermitt Calderabeta diversityBruneau-Jarbidge volcanic fieldpyroclastic flowsAshfall Fossil BedsNebraskafossilizedrhinocerosCretaceousPaleogeneNeogeneGreat PlainsArbon ValleyYellowstone PlateauYellowstone ParkHarriman State ParkHuckleberry Ridge TuffCaliforniaMississippi RiverSt. LouisLake Yellowstoneoxygen-18 isotopesmantle plumeYellowstone National ParkLong Valley CalderaMount St. HelensWapi Lava field and King's Bowl blowoutRupert, IdahoHell's Half Acre lava fieldIdaho FallsShoshone lava fieldTwin Falls, IdahoMesa Falls TuffTwin Falls County, IdahoPicabo, IdahoBruneau RiverJarbidge RiverOwyhee County, IdahoMcDermitt, NevadaTrout Creek MountainsPueblo MountainsLake OwyheePine Forest RangeSteens MountainColumbia River flood basaltsOlympic PeninsulaVancouver IslandSiletz River VolcanicsOregon Coast Rangebasalticpillow lavasCarmacks GroupHarney BasinJordan CratersSilver City, IdahoBull RunTuscarora MountainsOwyhee MountainsRexburg, IdahoHenry's LakeSoda Springs, IdahoGrace, IdahoBasin and Range ProvincegrabenTimeline of volcanism on EarthBulletin of VolcanologyBibcodeJournal of Volcanology and Geothermal ResearchPalaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, PalaeoecologyGlobal Volcanism ProgramSmithsonian InstitutionJournal of Geophysical ResearchPogue, Kevin R.Wayback MachineHotspotsAntarctic plateBallenyErebusKerguelenAfrican plateCanaryNew EnglandRéunionSierra LeoneSt. HelenaTristanEurasian plateAzoresIcelandJan MayenIndo-Australian plateEast AustraliaCrosgoveTasmantidLord HoweNazca plateEasterGalápagosJuan FernándezAnahimBermudaPacific plateHawaiiLouisvilleMacdonaldMarquesasPitcairnRarotongaSocietySouth American plateNoronhaTrindadePlate theory