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What the New Discovery of Ancient Super-Eruptions Indicates for the Yellowstone Hotspot Geological Society Of America, SciTechDaily, June 21, 2020 https://scitechdaily.com/what-the-new-discovery-of-ancient-super-eruptions-indicates-for-the-yellowstone-hotspot/ Yellowstone’s Supervolcano Is a Hot Spot, but It May Be Calming Down. Some researchers interpret a new timeline of some of the formation’s biggest eruptions as evidence that its activity is waning. by Matt Kaplan, New York Times, June 18, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/science/yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption.html Biggest Ever Yellowstone Eruption Revealed. The ancient supervolcano under the national park was much more explosive in its early history and could be slowing down, a new study suggests By SHannon Hall, Scientific American, June 15, 2020 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biggest-ever-yellowstone-eruption-revealed1/ The open access paper is: Knott, T.R., Branney, M.J., Reichow, M.K., Finn, D.R., Tapster, S., and Coe, R.S. 2020, Discovery of two new super-eruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot track (USA): Is the Yellowstone hotspot waning?” Geology. June 1, 2020, DOI: 10.1130/G47384.1 https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G47384.1/586793/Discovery-of-two-new-super-eruptions-from-the Yours, Paul H.

Last night, my wife and I watched a documentary on fossil hunting. Trying to soak up as much information as possible.... it would seem that we needed to find a shale bank or coal dump.... we both started drifting off to sleep when my wife rolled over and said that she had an idea of where to go, no actual evidence as to why, just a gut feeling. Morning time comes and we both set off out the front door. Just as we get out the yard, my wives cousin yells out and hands us a small pick he used to use in the mines. Bam, what a great start to the day. So we set off again on our way to the “gut feeling” she had. We get to this new location and start looking around. A road cut bank of shale produced nothing. During this little endeavour I managed to cut my thumb after the hammer bounced off the pick and it struck just above the nail. We carry on up the track to a curve and notice a little man-made roadside ditch with a stream of water flowing through it. I lean in to clean the dried blood off my finger when I notice a fossil (Cordaites leaf) looking up at me through the water. I immediately grab my pick, strike and what we find is the best haul of fossils we’ve ever seen. Just piece after piece, layer after layer. We go on to notice the road we are standing on is made up of this rock and there are fossils literally, everywhere. The whole hill side is this stone. It’s a dark grey, soft stone. Shale right? Anyways, here are some of our favourite finds. Still learning and looking for more. Do you think we may find insects? Also, what’s the best course of action for this place? Some of these rocks are coming out in big chunks. Should we try and break them into as many “slices” as possible? We don’t want to miss any tiny fossils we could be inadvertently throwing away! Cheers for now. Also, we think we’ve identified these, but as a test of our skills, If you know any of these, could you post what you think it is and we can see if we’re right! Thank you!

Does anyone else have an opinion on this article? http://www.geologypage.com/2018/07/yellowstone-super-volcano-has-a-different-history-than-previously-thought.html My opinion is that it will be proven false. It will be proven that the plume theory is still the best theory to explain the Yellowstone Hotspot. Plate subduction invariably creates a chain of volcanoes parallel to the plate edge (as in the Cascades). I can not see how a plate subduction would create the pattern found in the Yellowstone chain. A chain, which by the way, closely resembles island arcs in the Pacific which are plume driven.