Yellowstone Hot Spot Shreds Ancient Pacific Ocean

[Chris_]

Yellowstone Hot Spot Shreds Ancient Pacific Ocean

If you thought the geysers and overblown threat of a supervolcanic eruption  in Yellowstone National Park were dramatic, you ain't seen nothing: deep beneath Earth's surface, the hot spot that feeds the park has torn an entire tectonic plate in half.

The revelation comes from a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that peered into the mantle beneath the Pacific Northwest to see what happens when ancient ocean crust from the Pacific Ocean runs headlong into a churning plume of ultra-hot mantle material.

Discovery