James' World 2

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The hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 ½ times larger than previously estimated, meaning the park’s supervolcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens, according to a new study.

By measuring seismic waves from earthquakes, scientists were able to map the magma chamber underneath the Yellowstone caldera as 55 miles long, lead author Jamie Farrell of the University of Utah said Monday.

The chamber is 18 miles wide and runs at depths from 3 to 9 miles below the earth, he added.

That means there is enough volcanic material below the surface to match the largest of the supervolcano’s three eruptions over the last 2.1 million years, Farrell said.

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FILE – In this Friday, Aug. 15, 1997 file photo, an unidentified pair of visitors to the Yellowstone National Park photograph the Old Faithful geyser as it rockets 100-feet skyward in Wyoming. Hundreds of small earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park in recent weeks have been an unsettling reminder for some people that underneath the park’s famous geysers and majestic scenery lurks one of the world’s biggest volcanoes. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)

FILE – This graphic provided by the University of Utah geophysicists shows the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot and partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. The plume of molten rock feeding the supervolcano under the surface of Yellowstone National Park is much larger than previously thought, according to University of Utah geophysicists whose findings will be published in Geophysical Research Letters. (AP Photo/University of Utah, File)

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