Jump to content

Yellowstone hotspot

Coordinates: 44°26′N 110°40′W / 44.43°N 110.67°W / 44.43; -110.67
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Yellowstone Hotspot)
Yellowstone hotspot
Schematic of the hotspot and the Yellowstone Caldera
Past locations of the hotspot in millions of years
CountryUnited States
StateIdaho/Wyoming
RegionRocky Mountains
Coordinates44°26′N 110°40′W / 44.43°N 110.67°W / 44.43; -110.67

The Yellowstone hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the United States responsible for large scale volcanism in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming, formed as the North American tectonic plate moved over it. It formed the eastern Snake River Plain through a succession of caldera-forming eruptions. The resulting calderas include the Island Park Caldera, Henry's Fork Caldera, and the Bruneau-Jarbidge caldera. The hotspot currently lies under the Yellowstone Caldera.[1] The hotspot's most recent caldera-forming supereruption, known as the Lava Creek Eruption, took place 640,000 years ago and created the Lava Creek Tuff, and the most recent Yellowstone Caldera. The Yellowstone hotspot is one of a few volcanic hotspots underlying the North American tectonic plate; another example is the Anahim hotspot.

Snake River Plain

[edit]

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.

The central Snake River plain is similar to the eastern plain, but differs by having thick sections of interbedded lacustrine (lake) and fluvial (stream) sediments, including the Hagerman Fossil Beds.

Nevada–Oregon calderas

[edit]

Although the McDermitt volcanic field on the Nevada–Oregon border is frequently shown as the site of the initial impingement of the Yellowstone Hotspot, new geochronology and mapping demonstrates that the area affected by this mid-Miocene volcanism is significantly larger than previously appreciated.[2] Three silicic calderas have been newly identified in northwest Nevada, west of the McDermitt volcanic field as well as the Virgin Valley Caldera.[3] These calderas, along with the Virgin Valley Caldera and McDermitt Caldera, are interpreted to have formed during a short interval 16.5–15.5 million years ago, in the waning stage of the Steens flood basalt volcanism.[4] The northwest Nevada calderas have diameters ranging from 15 to 26 km and deposited high temperature rhyolite ignimbrites over approximately 5000 km2.

As the hotspot drifted beneath what is now Nevada and Oregon, it increased ecological beta diversity locally by fragmenting previously connected habitats and increasing topographic diversity in western North America.[5]

The Bruneau-Jarbidge volcanic field erupted between ten and twelve million years ago, spreading a thick blanket of ash in the Bruneau-Jarbidge event and forming a wide caldera. 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. There, two hundred fossilized rhinoceros and many other animals were preserved in two meters of volcanic ash. 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 event responsible for this fall of volcanic ash was identified as Bruneau-Jarbidge. Prevailing westerlies deposited distal ashfall over a vast area of the Great Plains.

Volcanic fields

[edit]

Twin Falls and Picabo volcanic fields

[edit]

The Twin Falls and Picabo volcanic fields were active about 10 million years ago. The Picabo Caldera was notable for producing the Arbon Valley Tuff 10.2 million years ago.

Heise volcanic field

[edit]

The Heise volcanic field of eastern Idaho produced explosive caldera-forming eruptions which began 6.6 million years ago and lasted for more than 2 million years, sequentially producing four large-volume rhyolitic eruptions. The first three caldera-forming rhyolites – Blacktail Tuff, Walcott Tuff and Conant Creek Tuff – totaled at least 2250 km3 of erupted magma. The final, extremely voluminous, caldera-forming eruption – the Kilgore Tuff – which erupted 1800 km3 of ash, occurred 4.5 million years ago.[6][7][8][9][10]

Yellowstone Plateau

[edit]
See also: Yellowstone Caldera
Yellowstone sits on top of four overlapping calderas.

The Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field is composed of four adjacent calderas. West Thumb Lake is itself formed by a smaller caldera[a] which erupted 174,000 years ago. (See Yellowstone Caldera map.) 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.[11] The Henry's Fork Caldera is nested inside of the Island Park Caldera and the calderas share a rim on the western side. The earlier Island Park Caldera is much larger and more oval and extends well into Yellowstone Park. Although much smaller than the Island Park Caldera, the Henry's Fork Caldera is still sizeable at 18 miles (29 km) long and 23 miles (37 km) wide and its curved rim is plainly visible from many locations in the Island Park area.

Of the many calderas formed by the Yellowstone Hotspot, including the later Yellowstone Caldera, the Henry's Fork Caldera is the only one that is currently clearly visible. The Henry's Fork of the Snake River flows through the Henry's Fork Caldera and drops out at Upper and Lower Mesa Falls. The caldera is bounded by the Ashton Hill on the south, Big Bend Ridge and Bishop Mountain on the west, by Thurburn Ridge on the North and by Black Mountain and the Madison Plateau on the east. The Henry's Fork caldera is in an area called Island Park. Harriman State Park is situated in the caldera.

The Island Park Caldera is older and much larger than the Henry's Fork Caldera with approximate dimensions of 58 miles (93 km) by 40 miles (64 km). It is the source of the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff that is found from southern California to the Mississippi River near St. Louis. This supereruption occurred 2.1 million years BP and produced 2500 km3 (700 mi³) of ash. The Island Park Caldera is sometimes referred to as the First Phase Yellowstone Caldera or the Huckleberry Ridge Caldera. The youngest of the hotspot calderas, the Yellowstone Caldera, formed 640,000 years ago and is about 34 miles (55 km) by 45 miles (72 km) wide. Non-explosive eruptions of lava and less-violent explosive eruptions have occurred in and near the Yellowstone Caldera since the last super eruption. The most recent lava flow occurred about 70,000 years ago, while the largest violent eruption excavated the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone around 150,000 years ago. Smaller steam explosions occur as well – an explosion 13,800 years ago left a 5 kilometer diameter crater at Mary Bay on the edge of Yellowstone Lake.

Both the Heise and Yellowstone volcanic fields produced a series of caldera-forming eruptions characterised by magmas with so-called "normal" oxygen isotope signatures (with heavy oxygen-18 isotopes) and a series of predominantly post-caldera magmas with so-called "light" oxygen isotope signatures (characterised as low in heavy oxygen-18 isotopes). The final stage of volcanism at Heise was marked by "light" magma eruptions. 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. The appearance of "light" magmas would seem to indicate that the uppermost portion of the continental crust has largely been consumed by the earlier caldera- forming events, exhausting the melting potential of the crust above the mantle plume. In this case Yellowstone could be expiring. It could be another 1–2 million years (as the North American Plate moves across the Yellowstone hotspot) before a new supervolcano is born to the northeast, and the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field joins the ranks of its deceased ancestors in the Snake River Plain.[12] A 2020 study suggests that the hotspot may be waning.[13]

Eruptive history

[edit]
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.

Notes

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ West Thumb Lake is not to be confused with West Thumb Geyser Basin. The caldera created West Thumb Lake and the underlying Yellowstone hotspot keeps West Thumb Geyser Basin active. See Fig. 22.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming". USGS. Archived from the original on 2005-03-24.
  2. ^ Brueseke, M.E.; Hart, W.K.; M.T. Heizler (2008). "Chemical and physical diversity of mid-Miocene silicic volcanism in northern Nevada". Bulletin of Volcanology. 70 (3): 343–360. Bibcode:2008BVol...70..343B. doi:10.1007/s00445-007-0142-5. S2CID 64719108.
  3. ^ a b Matthew A. Coble & Gail A. Mahood (2008). New geologic evidence for additional 16.5–15.5 Ma silicic calderas in northwest Nevada related to initial impingement of the Yellowstone hot spot. Earth and Environmental Science. Vol. 3. p. 012002. Bibcode:2008E&ES....3a2002C. doi:10.1088/1755-1307/3/1/012002.
  4. ^ a b Brueseke, M.E.; Heizler, M.T.; Hart, W.K.; Mertzman S.A. (15 March 2007). "Distribution and geochronology of Oregon Plateau (U.S.A.) flood basalt volcanism: The Steens Basalt revisited". Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 161 (3): 187–214. Bibcode:2007JVGR..161..187B. doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2006.12.004.
  5. ^ Kent-Corson, Malinda L.; Barnosky, Anthony D.; Mulch, Andreas; Carrasco, Marc A.; Chamberlain, C. Page (1 October 2013). "Possible regional tectonic controls on mammalian evolution in western North America". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 387: 17–26. Bibcode:2013PPP...387...17K. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.07.014. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lisa A. Morgan & William C. McIntosh (March 2005). "Timing and development of the Heise volcanic field, Snake River Plain, Idaho, western USA". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 117 (3–4): 288–306. Bibcode:2005GSAB..117..288M. doi:10.1130/B25519.1.
  7. ^ Robert J. Fleck; Ted G. Theodore; Andrei Sarna-Wojcicki & Charles E. Meyer (1998). Richard M. Tosdal (ed.). "Chapter 12, Age and possible source of air-fall tuffs of the Miocene Carlin Formation, Northern Nevada" (PDF). Contributions to the Gold Metallogeny of Northern Nevada, Open-File Report 98-338. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  8. ^ Christiansen, R.L. (2001). "The Quaternary and Pliocene Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana". U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper. 729: 146.
  9. ^ Lanphere, M.A.; Champion, D.E.; Christiansen, R.L.; Izett, G.A.; Obradovich, J.D. (2002). "Revised ages for tuffs of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field: Assignment of the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff to a new geomagnetic polarity event". Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 114 (5): 559–568. Bibcode:2002GSAB..114..559L. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(2002)114<0559:RAFTOT>2.0.CO;2.
  10. ^ Pierce, K.L. & Morgan, L.A. (1992). Link, P.K.; Kuntz, M.A. & Platt, L.B. (eds.). "The track of the Yellowstone hot spot: Volcanism, faulting, and uplift". Regional Geology of Eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming. Memoir 179: 1–52.
  11. ^ a b c d e "Yellowstone". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
  12. ^ Kathryn Watts (Nov 2007) GeoTimes "Yellowstone and Heise: Supervolcanoes that Lighten Up": Kathryn E. Watts, Ilya N. Bindeman and Axel K. Schmitt (2011) Petrology, Vol. 52, No. 5, "Large-volume Rhyolite Genesis in Caldera Complexes of the Snake River Plain: Insights from the Kilgore Tuff of the Heise Volcanic Field, Idaho, with Comparison to Yellowstone and Bruneau-Jarbidge Rhyolites" pp. 857–890).
  13. ^ "Discovery of Two Ancient Yellowstone Super-Eruptions, Including the Volcanic Province's Largest and Most Cataclysmic Event, Indicates the Yellowstone Hotspot Is Waning". 5 June 2020.
  14. ^ "Yellowstone National Park Earthquake listings". Retrieved 2013-04-20.
  15. ^ "The Great Rift Zone". Digital Atlas of Idaho.
  16. ^ "Hell's Half Acre". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  17. ^ "Black Butte Crater Lava Field". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  18. ^ "Craters of the Moon". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  19. ^ "Wapi Lava Field". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Supplement" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-01-20. Retrieved 2010-03-16. to P.L. Ward (2009). "Sulfur dioxide initiates climate change in four ways". Thin Solid Films. 517 (11): 3188–3203. Bibcode:2009TSF...517.3188W. doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2009.01.005.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Mark H. Anders. "Yellowstone hotspot track". Columbia University, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). Retrieved 2010-03-16.
  22. ^ a b Knott, Thomas; Branney, M.; Reichow, Marc; Finn, David; Tapster, Simon; Coe, Robert (June 2020). "Discovery of two new super-eruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot track (USA): Is the Yellowstone hotspot waning?". Geology. 48 (9): 934–938. Bibcode:2020Geo....48..934K. doi:10.1130/G47384.1. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  23. ^ a b c Rytuba, J.J.; McKee, E.H. (1984). "Peralkaline Ash Flow Tuffs and Calderas of the McDermitt Volcanic Field, Southeast Oregon and North Central Nevada". Journal of Geophysical Research. 89 (B10): 8616–8628. Bibcode:1984JGR....89.8616R. doi:10.1029/JB089iB10p08616. Archived from the original on 2012-09-27. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  24. ^ a b c d e f Lipman, P.W. (Sep 30, 1984). "The Roots of Ash Flow Calderas in Western North America: Windows Into the Tops of Granitic Batholiths". Journal of Geophysical Research. 89 (B10): 8801–8841. Bibcode:1984JGR....89.8801L. doi:10.1029/JB089iB10p08801.
  25. ^ a b c d Steve Ludington; Dennis P. Cox; Kenneth W. Leonard & Barry C. Moring (1996). Donald A. Singer (ed.). "Chapter 5, Cenozoic Volcanic Geology in Nevada". An Analysis of Nevada's Metal-Bearing Mineral Resources. Archived from the original on 2010-06-21. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  26. ^ Rytuba, J.J.; John, D.A.; McKee, E.H. (May 3–5, 2004). "Volcanism Associated with Eruption of the Steens Basalt and Inception of the Yellowstone Hotspot". Rocky Mountain (56th Annual) and Cordilleran (100th Annual) Joint Meeting. Paper No. 44-2. Archived from the original on 2010-12-23. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  27. ^ Noble, D.C. (1988). "Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the northwestern Great Basin: an overview". Spring Field Trip Guidebook, Special Publication No. 7: 31–42.
  28. ^ Castor, S.B. & Henry, C.D. (2000). "Geology, geochemistry, and origin of volcanic rock-hosted uranium deposits in northwest Nevada and southeastern Oregon, USA". Ore Geology Review. 16 (1–2): 1–40. Bibcode:2000OGRv...16....1C. doi:10.1016/S0169-1368(99)00021-9.
  29. ^ Korringa, Marjorie K. (December 1973). "Linear vent area of the Soldier Meadow Tuff, an ash-flow sheet in northwestern Nevada". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 84 (12): 3849–3866. Bibcode:1973GSAB...84.3849K. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1973)84<3849:LVAOTS>2.0.CO;2.
  30. ^ Matthew E. Brueseke & William K. Hart (2008). "Geology and Petrology of the Mid-Miocene Santa Rosa-Calico Volcanic Field, Northern Nevada" (PDF). Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. Bulletin 113: 44. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-07.
  31. ^ Carson, Robert J.; Pogue, Kevin R. (1996). Flood Basalts and Glacier Floods:Roadside Geology of Parts of Walla Walla, Franklin, and Columbia Counties, Washington. Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources Information Circular 90).
  32. ^ Reidel, Stephen P. (January 2005). "A Lava Flow without a Source: The Cohasset Flow and Its Compositional Members". The Journal of Geology. 113 (1): 1–21. Bibcode:2005JG....113....1R. doi:10.1086/425966. S2CID 12587046.
  33. ^ "Southeast Oregon Basin and Range". SummitPost.org.
  34. ^ "Andesitic and basaltic rocks on Steens Mountain". USGS.
  35. ^ Victor E. Camp; Martin E. Ross & William E. Hanson (January 2003). "Genesis of flood basalts and Basin and Range volcanic rocks from Steens Mountain to the Malheur River Gorge, Oregon". GSA Bulletin. 115 (1): 105–128. Bibcode:2003GSAB..115..105C. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(2003)115<0105:GOFBAB>2.0.CO;2.
  36. ^ "Oregon: A Geologic History. 8. Columbia River Basalt: the Yellowstone hot spot arrives in a flood of fire". Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  37. ^ a b c "High Lava Plains Project, Geophysical & Geological Investigation, Understanding the Causes of Continental Intraplate Tectonomagmatism: A Case Study in the Pacific Northwest". Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington. Archived from the original on 2010-06-18. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  38. ^ Tolan, T.L.; Reidel, S.P.; Beeson, M.H.; Anderson, J.L.; Fecht, K.R. & Swanson, D.A. (1989). Reidel, S.P. & Hooper, P.R. (eds.). Revisions to the estimates of the areal extent and volume of the Columbia River Basalt Group. Geological Society of America Special Papers. Vol. 239. Geol. Soc. Amer. Spec. Paper. pp. 1–20. doi:10.1130/SPE239-p1. ISBN 978-0-8137-2239-9. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  39. ^ Camp, V.E. & Ross, M.E. (2004). "Mantle dynamics and genesis of mafic magmatism in the intermontane Pacific Northwest". Journal of Geophysical Research. 109 (B08204): B08204. Bibcode:2004JGRB..109.8204C. doi:10.1029/2003JB002838.
  40. ^ Carlson, R.W. & Hart, W.K. (1987). "Crustal Genesis on the Oregon Plateau". Journal of Geophysical Research. 92 (B7): 6191–6206. Bibcode:1987JGR....92.6191C. doi:10.1029/JB092iB07p06191.
  41. ^ Hart, W.K. & Carlson, R.W. (1985). "Distribution and geochronology of Steens Mountain-type basalts from the northwestern Great Basin". Isochron/West. 43: 5–10.
  42. ^ Murphy, J. Brendan; Andrew J. Hynes; Stephen T. Johnston; J. Duncan Keppie (2003). "Reconstructing the ancestral Yellowstone plume from accreted" (PDF). Tectonophysics. 365 (1–4): 185–194. Bibcode:2003Tectp.365..185M. doi:10.1016/S0040-1951(03)00022-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  43. ^ Johnston, Stephen T.; P. Jane Wynne; Don Francis; Craig J. R. Hart; Randolph J. Enkin; David C. Engebretson (November 1996). "Yellowstone in Yukon: The Late Cretaceous Carmacks Group" (PDF). Geology. 24 (11): 997–1000. Bibcode:1996Geo....24..997J. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1996)024<0997:YIYTLC>2.3.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  44. ^ McCausland, P. J. A.; D. T. A. Symons; C. J. R. Hart (2005). "Rethinking "Yellowstone in Yukon" and Baja British Columbia: Paleomagnetism of the Late Cretaceous Swede Dome stock, northern Canadian Cordillera". Journal of Geophysical Research. 110 (B12107): 13. Bibcode:2005JGRB..11012107M. doi:10.1029/2005JB003742.
  45. ^ "O Ma large mafic magmatic events". www.largeigneousprovinces.org. Archived from the original on 2007-07-01. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
  46. ^ "Snake River Plain-Yellowstone Hot Spot Migration" (PDF). Idaho Geological Survey. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2010-03-26.

Map references

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yellowstone_hotspot&oldid=1245626293"