# Alternative Yellowstone eruption scenarios? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-yellowstone-eruption-scenarios/790809 "2017-07-09T04:47:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-yellowstone-eruption-scenarios/790809/21 "2017-07-10T13:32:54Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > The Yellowstone hot spot once erupted lava to cover 210,000 km[sup]2[/sup] of land {[“Columbia River Basalt Group Stretches from Oregon to Idaho”](https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/cvo_columbia_river_basalt.html) – USGS – n/d}, that’s why it’s called a supervolcano … not sure it’s fair to say the event 70,000 years ago was larger … > > BTW, the photo in that link _clearly_ shows the high water mark for Columbia River floods … where the top soil has been eroded off the basalt … around 800 feet above normal river level … woot … watchwolf no like global cooling … The cause of the Columbia River lava floods is still up for debate. See this section of the Wikipedia article and note the location of the Yellowstone hotspot at the time. On the southern edge of the flood zone. Many of the thickest areas are well to the north (over a mile thick!) in Washington. The Yellowstone hotspot location may just be a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-yellowstone-eruption-scenarios/790809/22 "2017-07-10T14:45:31Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The cause of the Columbia River lava floods is still up for debate. See this section of the Wikipedia article and note the location of the Yellowstone hotspot at the time. On the southern edge of the flood zone. Many of the thickest areas are well to the north (over a mile thick!) in Washington. The Yellowstone hotspot location may just be a coincidence. True … but then that implies the hot spot that cause these basalt floods is now extinct … which provides yet another alternative Yellowstone eruption scenario … “never again” … ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-yellowstone-eruption-scenarios/790809/23 "2017-07-10T20:14:37Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Volcanoes produce a lot of interesting gasses. And there’s nothing that says you can’t have both types of gasses (or even several more in addition) at once. > > Death by volcanic gasses is a documented thing. It does happen. > > H[sub]2[/sub]S also has the charming characteristic that sufficient quantities can numb the olfactory senses, meaning once it gets up to a certain concentration you actually won’t be smelling it anymore. I climbed to the caldera’s rim on Mount Etna and looked in. Next thing I knew all I was breathing was SO[sub]2[/sub]. I was starting to feel asphyxiated, when a fresh breeze blew good air into my face. I immediately recognized what gas it was from the smell, because I had used metabisulfite tablets dissolved in water to sterilize winemaking equipment, which produces sulfur dioxide gas. My own mini-anoxic event. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-yellowstone-eruption-scenarios/790809/24 "2017-07-10T20:31:10Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > True … but then that implies the hot spot that cause these basalt floods is now extinct … which provides yet another alternative Yellowstone eruption scenario … “never again” … The Ozark uplift is the product of a hot spot that started with explosive volcanoes (of which the remnants are called the St. François Mountains) and then left a trail of magma-stuffed anticline uplift as far as Tahlequa, Oklahoma and finally the hot spot just sort of quit scorching the underside of the North American plate moving across it. It clearly started out with a bang and then trailed off. Perhaps the motion of the continental plate dragged enough stuff along to gradually snuff out the hot? Like shoveling sand onto burning embers? Minus the oxidation, of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-yellowstone-eruption-scenarios/790809.md?page=1)