Scientists: Yellowstone 'Unlikely' to Erupt in Our Lifetime

The supervolcano resting underneath Yellowstone National Park is "unlikely" to erupt in our lifetime, scientists told The Washington Post.

"Nowhere in Yellowstone do we have regions that are capable of eruption," Ninfa Bennington, the lead author of a new paper published in Nature on Wednesday, told the Post. "It has a lot of magma, but the magma is not connected enough."

Because so much magma is underneath the surface of Yellowstone, the region will stay volcanically active, Bennington said. But because the magma rests in segregated reservoirs, it's not concentrated enough to lead to an eruption in our lifetime.

Yellowstone's volcanic activity is said to gradually shift northeast over time, driven by the movement of the North American tectonic plate over the park's volcanic hot spot.

"By no means is Yellowstone 'due for an eruption,'" Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, an associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at Denison University who was not involved with the study, told the Post. "There will be eruptions, but it will probably be thousands of years before we can expect an eruption."

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