Yellowstone: Zircon Crystals Point To 'Recycled' Super-Volcanic Magma Chambers

Tiny crystals of zircon, a mineral found in the igneous rock rhyolites, from the Snake River Plain in the Yellowstone hotspot has solidified evidence for a new way of looking at the life cycle of super-volcanic eruptions. The pattern emerging from new and previous research completed in the last five years is that another super-eruption from the still-alive Yellowstone volcanic field is less likely for the next few million years than previously thought. The last eruption 640,000 years ago created the Yellowstone Caldera and the Lava Creek Tuff in what is now Yellowstone National Park. read more

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