Yellowstone Caldera
It may not look like it at a casual glance, but the park is actually a volcanic caldera.
Guide Sections
Use Yellowstone Caldera's guide sections to understand how this stop fits into the larger park plan.
Yellowstone Caldera Details
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Overview
Yellowstone's geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mudpots hint at the magma chamber that lies below the park's surface. It may not look like it at a casual glance, but the park is actually a volcanic caldera -- a relatively thin layer of crust over a vast pool of molten rock, formed the last time this megavolcano erupted about 640,000 years ago. This eruption was an estimated 1,000 times larger than the one that decimated Mt. St. Helens in 1980. You drive over the rim of the crater when you enter the park -- perhaps while saying a little prayer that the time has not come for another titanic eruption of this hot spot in the earth's mantle!