Pyroclastic Flows

The Yellowstone Plateau in the northern Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho is centered on a youthful, active volcanic system with subterranean magma (molten rock), boiling, pressurized waters, and a variety of active faults with significant earthquake hazard.

The Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field forms the high continental divide between the northern and middle Rocky Mountains.

Yellowstone's volcanism is the most recent in a 17 million-year history of volcanic activity that progressed from southwest to northeast along the Snake River Plain.

Volcanic rock deposits from eruptions in the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field reveal that a typical sequence occurs as the magma storage region evolves.

Although very unlikely to occur, a caldera forming eruption would produce massive pyroclastic flows.