Causes

yellowstone

In a regular volcano eruption, scorching magma shoots up from the bottom of the earth. As the magma cools, it creates a cone shape that gradually forms into a mountain. In super volcanoes, the magma gets blocked from getting to the exterior surface. Instead, the amount of pressure just increases over time until more gravel in the region melt and turn into magma too. The area beneath the exterior surface becomes an enormous underground sea of magma and when the pressure gets too much to handle, a giant explosion that’s a thousand times more intense than a regular volcano bursts causing massive cataclysmic destruction.

Consequences 
An eruption from this supervolcano could have numerous catastrophic outcomes. It is estimated that 5 miles below the surface of the Yellowstone caldera lays a pit of magma measuring 30 miles long and 20 miles wide. With the amount of pressure contained within the supervolcano, which is already visible through its cycles of hourly “mini-eruptions”, the release of this amount of hot magma could decimate North America. It’s effects could reach across the world however.