Abstract
Yellowstone National Park as is one of the worlds most complex and active volcanic and seismic systems making the possibility of future violent hydrothermal, magmatic and tectonic events a reality. These events pose potential hazards to those visiting the park, the infrastructure in the surrounding area and in the event of a caldera-forming eruption these hazards can spread to neighboring states and affect the world over.
It has been established that hazards that pose a risk to the Yellowstone area include seismic shaking forming earthquakes of greater than magnitude 6, non magmatic hydrothermal eruptions that pulverize the confining rock sending large blocks of rock into the air, lava flows of both rhyolitic and basaltic composition forming deposits 10's of meters thick, and pyroclastic deposits in the form of fallout tephra that could blanket large areas of North America and hot, severely destructive pyroclastic flow deposits that would destroy everything in their path.
It has been established that hazards that pose a risk to the Yellowstone area include seismic shaking forming earthquakes of greater than magnitude 6, non magmatic hydrothermal eruptions that pulverize the confining rock sending large blocks of rock into the air, lava flows of both rhyolitic and basaltic composition forming deposits 10's of meters thick, and pyroclastic deposits in the form of fallout tephra that could blanket large areas of North America and hot, severely destructive pyroclastic flow deposits that would destroy everything in their path.