[Rockhounds] an electromagnetic view pf how magma is stored beneath yellowstone

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

How can lightning and solar storms be used to map magma beneath
Yellowstone?  Through magnetotelluric imaging, which provides information
about the amounts and locations of melt in the subsurface!

Yellowstone caldera is one of the largest volcanic systems in the world.
Past volcanic activity at the caldera has ranged from the output of
<https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/yellowstones-caldera-resurgent-domes-and-lava-flows-volcanic-giants-hiding>
lava <https://www.usgs.gov/glossary/volcano-hazards-program-glossary> flows to
the explosion of large volumes of ash
<https://www.usgs.gov/glossary/volcano-hazards-program-glossary>, and the
last eruption in the region—a lava flow
<https://www.usgs.gov/glossary/volcano-hazards-program-glossary>—was over
70,000 years ago. In a recent study
<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08286-z>, USGS investigators
with collaborators at Oregon State University and the University of
Wisconsin-Madison used a tool called magnetotellurics to image where and
how much magma
<https://www.usgs.gov/glossary/volcano-hazards-program-glossary> is
presently stored beneath Yellowstone caldera.

Magnetotellurics is a geophysical method that uses variations in the
Earth’s naturally occurring electromagnetic field, typically caused by
lightening and solar storms, as a signal for imaging the subsurface.

https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/electromagnetic-view-how-magma-stored-beneath-yellowstone