Yellowstone Caldera

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The Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field, is a Quaternary volcanic field, caldera complex, and volcanic plateau spanning parts of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It is driven by the Yellowstone hotspot and lies largely within Yellowstone National Park. The field comprises several overlapping caldera structures, multiple lava domes and resurgent domes, and numerous bimodal lavas and tuffs of basaltic and rhyolitic composition, originally covering about 17,000 km2 (6,600 mi2). Volcanism began 2.15 million years ago and proceeded through three major volcanic cycles. Each cycle involved a large ignimbrite eruption, widespread pyroclastic flows and ash fall, and caldera collapse, preceded and followed by smaller lava flows and tuffs. The climactic eruption of the first and largest cycle produced the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff about 2.08 million years ago and formed the first-cycle caldera complex. The second cycle culminated in eruption of the Mesa Falls Tuff and...

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