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If you were online or otherwise not living under a rock back in October of 2017, chances are you caught at least a glimpse of the “Yellowstone supervolcano will soon kill us all!” mania. Most normal people can be forgiven for reacting to this with, shall we say, a bit of concern.

We here at Scenic Safaris did some more research, though, and we’re here to tell you that a massive, world-ending, vacation-ruining eruption probably isn’t in the cards any time soon.

Still curious? Here’s what you need to know about the Yellowstone supervolcano.

Tomorrow Probably Isn’t Doomsday

According to The Smithsonian, scientists recently published research stating that by new calculations, the supervolcano lying dormant under Yellowstone could erupt a lot sooner than we’d previously thought.

This does not mean it’s going to erupt now, however. The last eruption was 174,000 years ago, and the last lava flow 70,000 years ago. On a geologic timescale, “sooner” really isn’t that soon.

Supervolcanos Can Have Mini Eruptions

No eruption should be taken lightly. Still, just because a supervolcano blows doesn’t mean it’s going to encompass the world in a thousand-year layer of ash and death.

In fact, the last two events – referenced above – still had fairly local results, both contained within the Yellowstone area. Civilization probably won’t end by volcano any time soon (though watch out for the robots).

We Kind of Have a Plan

Because the Yellowstone supervolcano is not the only one on Earth, scientists have come up with a plan to soothe a soon-to-erupt volcano. The idea is to force high-pressure water down into the magma chamber, then let it explode back out the top, carrying much of the volcano’s heat with it. This idea was put forward by NASA, the same people behind our plans to divert asteroid and meteor strikes, so it seems as trustworthy an idea as we’re going to get.

Want to know more about Yellowstone, volcano-wise or vacation-wise? Scenic Safaris is here for you, so please feel free to get in touch at any time.