I'm a sucker for the geologic history of the U.S.West, esp. in the light of last week's 4 CA earthquakes & such. Yellowstone would appear to be the mother lode. American Scientist via linkfilter.net: "Yellowstone National Park is one of the more seismically active areas in the country, in large part because of a magma chamber that currently lurks beneath the park. It is that magma chamber that also drives the geothermal activity that has made Yellowstone a national treasure. Over the past 2 million years, the pressures associated with the movement of the magma, along with the slow movement of the North American plate over the stationary magma chamber, have led to cataclysmic events that, if they occurred today, would dwarf most other events in recorded history."

Filed in: history, yellowstone, nature, geology