In the national park of Yellowstone there was “aeruption of mud” at the Black Diamond Poolone of the best-known hot springs in the area. As reported by the USGS (United States Geological Survey), this dirty eruption (literally “dirty eruption”) occurred at 9.23am on December 20th (local time, 5.23pm in Italy), with the mud – expelled from the underground together with waterfall And gas – which reached several meters in height, clearly visible in the video below.
There Black Diamond Pool is located in Biscuit Basina region located in the heart of the national park of the Yellowstone supervolcano. On July 23, 2024, the spring was the scene of a hydrothermal explosion, which caused significant damage to the walkway, throwing rocks and mud several hundred meters into the air. Since then the area has been closed for safety and several similar incidents have been recorded, with the mud which, in some cases, it has achieved 9/12 meters high.
In fact, the USGS had already detected it in recent weeks an intensification of these events: however, the explosions had mostly occurred at night or when the camera was obscured by ice. In short, they were audible, but not visible.
Unlike classic volcanoes, it Yellowstone does not present a classic “cone” structure that stands out in the sky like a mountain: this supervolcano, in fact, is a large caldera – that is, a depression that forms when the upper part of the volcanic building collapses following a volcanic eruption, exactly like the Phlegraean Fields – whose extension (3,900 km2) is approximately equal to that of the Aosta Valley (3,263 km2).
Although its last eruption dates back to approximately 3,300 years ago, Yellowstone is an active volcano: this is demonstrated by the intense hydrothermal activity – with numerous geysers, mud pools and fumaroles – which gave rise to the mud explosion recently recorded, defined by the institute as “Kablooey!” The USGS, however, specified that there are no signs of an imminent eruption of Yellowstone.
