Is Yellowstone's supervolcano ready to blow? Scientists find thousands of cubic miles of magma under volcano

Scientists have completed mapping out a new reservoir of magma underneath Yellowstone's massive supervolcano. The magma was found about 12 to 28 miles beneath the surface of the volcano and with computer mapping technology scientists have determined that it is four to five times larger than the magma pool that caused the volcano to erupt some 70,000 years ago and currently powers Yellowstone's geysers.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - This newly discovered reservoir has about 11,000 cubic-miles of magma, and another nine miles of hot rock from the smaller reservoir sits on top of that.

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Despite only being recently imaged with computers, scientists have believed there was more magma under Yellowstone.

"It's existence has been suspected for a while," said Hsin-Hua Huang, a geophysicist with the University of Utah. Huang is also the lead author of the paper covering this find.

It was carbon dioxide that may have given away this larger magma pool, as the amount of carbon dioxide being released could not have come from the shallower magma reservoir.

Using data on seismic waves from earthquakes that had passed through the area they were able to show that there was not just solid rock underneath Yellowstone, and that there had to be liquid rock in order to account for the slowing of the seismic waves.

Some may be worried about this massive magma pool, however the data suggests that neither magma pool is likely to create an eruption.

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