Wayne Thatcher Daniel Dzurisin Jerry Svarc Charles W. Wicks 2006 <p><span>The Yellowstone caldera, in the western United States, formed </span><img src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif" alt="approx" data-mce-src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif"><span>640,000&nbsp;years ago when an explosive eruption ejected </span><img src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif" alt="approx" data-mce-src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif"><span>1,000&nbsp;km</span>³<span> of material</span>^{<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B1" data-mce-href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B1">1</a>}<span>. It is the youngest of a series of large calderas that formed during sequential cataclysmic eruptions that began </span><img src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif" alt="approx" data-mce-src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif"><span>16 million years ago in eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. The Yellowstone caldera was largely buried by rhyolite lava flows during eruptions that occurred from </span><img src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif" alt="approx" data-mce-src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif"><span>150,000 to </span><img src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif" alt="approx" data-mce-src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif"><span>70,000&nbsp;years ago</span>^{<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B1" data-mce-href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B1">1</a>}<span>. Since the last eruption, Yellowstone has remained restless, with high seismicity, continuing uplift/subsidence episodes with movements of </span><img src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif" alt="approx" data-mce-src="http://www.nature.com/__chars/math/special/sim/black/med/base/glyph.gif"><span>70&nbsp;cm historically</span>^{<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B2" data-mce-href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B2">2</a>}<span> to several metres since the Pleistocene epoch</span>^{<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B3" data-mce-href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/full/nature04507.html#B3">3</a>}<span>, and intense hydrothermal activity. Here we present observations of a new mode of surface deformation in Yellowstone, based on radar interferometry observations from the European Space Agency ERS-2 satellite. We infer that the observed pattern of uplift and subsidence results from variations in the movement of molten basalt into and out of the Yellowstone volcanic system.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1038/nature04507 en Macmillan Journals Ltd. Uplift, thermal unrest and magma intrusion at Yellowstone caldera article