Which plate boundary is Yellowstone associated with?

Question

I mean tectonic plates not dinner plates by the way!

Answer 1

Yellowstone is one of those very few volcanos which is not associated with any of the tectonic plates. It is what's known as a supervolcano, which means it is many, many times stronger than most. The caldara, or the mouth of the volcano, is actually most of Yellowstate National Park itself. It is what runs the geysers and hot springs in the area.

An eruption of Yellowstone, if it erupts to its full capacity, could cause:

1. About 50 miles out, everything would be annihilated by the blast itself.

2. At least 1" of volcanic ash would fall as far away as the Mississippi river, and volcanic ash is different from regular ash--it is more like cement, and when it is inhaled, it becomes hardened within your lungs and kills both humans and animals. It would also wipe out most of the crops in the grain belt, which provides food for a great deal of the world's population. Also, the ash is so heavy, only that much ash, when mixed with just a little rain, could cause roofs to collapse across the area.

3. The ash cloud would block out the sun, causing a nuclear winter which could last for years. In the early 1800's, a volcano in Asia let out enough ash when it erupted that it caused a nuclear winter across the U.S. and Europe. It was referred to as "the year without a summer." Crops everywhere failed, and some even blame the starvation it caused as one of the causes of the French Revolution. And that volcano was not even a supervolcano--if Yellowstone erupted at its full capacity, it would produce many times the ash that eruption caused.

Yellowstone has a cycle--it has historically erupted after a period of 2 or 3 thousand years, and we are due. That means it could be tomorrow or 200 years from now, though, so don't panic--it's still a sight worth seeing.

Answer 2

The closest might be the boundary among the San Juan De Fuca Plate and the North American Plate close the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The San Juan De Fuca Plate dives below the NorthAmerican plate and the warmness prompted by means of this subduction is accountable fro the Cascade Volcanoes (Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta)