Featured heavily in the movie 2012, as what is called a super volcano, Yellowstone does pose a potential threat to a significant portion of the United States. Now is it starting to rumble?

From Sheep No More

Andrew Pontbriand February 3, 2014

A seismometer inside a borehole at Yellowstone National Park has begun reporting staggering underground activity near the southwest corner of Yellowstone Lake, possibly signaling the beginning of an eruption of the Super Volcano at the Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is home to many beauties, with it’s ancient landscape, geysers, and hot springs. It is also the site of one of the worlds most destructive forces. A supervolcano.

The upward movement of the Yellowstone caldera floor between 2004 and 2008 rose almost 3 inches (7.6 cm) each year and was more than three times greater than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923. By the end of 2010, geologists stated that the ground swelling has slowed down significantly.
However, new reports are coming in the a borehole (B944) at Yellowstone Lake (where most activity is) has shown some pretty intense movements.
– See more at: http://asheepnomore.net/2014/02/03/breaking-yellowstones-supervolcano-belly-rumbling/#sthash.i4kO7a7W.dpuf

“A second printout shows the activity continuing to this very moment, so severely that the seismometer printer is RUNNING OUT OF BLUE, BLACK AND GREEN INK!“ –

The potential effect of an eruption at Yellowstone is huge.

Well, before you start digging out a survival shelter and stocking it with Dr. Pepper and Twinkies, check out this from USGS.Gov

Monitoring Upgrades Result in New Insight Into Yellowstone’s Magma System
December 19, 2013

Scientists from the University of Utah – a YVO partner agency – recently presented new research at the Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco that suggests that the size of the magma body beneath Yellowstone is significantly larger than had been thought. Previous similar studies had underestimated the size of the magma body because of insufficient instrumentation. Over the past decade, improvements to the Yellowstone monitoring network has increased the number and quality of the instruments deployed. This new research takes advantage of these upgrades, which will continue to pay dividends for years to come.

The UU researchers, in collaboration with a scientist from the Swiss Seismological Service in Zurich, used a method called seismic tomography to create an improved image of the magmatic system beneath Yellowstone. One should not think of Yellowstone’s magma reservoir as a big cavern full of churning lava. Rather, the reservoir is distributed throughout a porous, sponge-like body of otherwise solid rock, with the amount of liquid rock (melt) varying from place to place. Because seismic waves slow down when traveling through liquids, seismic tomography can be used to map out these variations. The new research shows that while the magma reservoir is bigger than we thought, the proportion of melt to solid rock (estimated at <10-15%) is similar to previous reports and appears to remain way too low for a giant eruption.

So while Yellowstone undoubtedly poses a huge threat to the United States with impact of an eruption felt worldwide, it is not a threat we need worry about today or necessarily soon.

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