Yellowstone Volcanism Linked to Farallon Plate Dynamics
A new paper published in Science argues that the volcanic activity at Yellowstone is driven by geological stresses from the now-vanished Farallon plate, rather than a mantle plume. Researchers from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Illinois developed a geophysical model suggesting that the plate's disappearance has created pathways for molten rock to reach the surface, challenging previous theories that attributed Yellowstone's eruptions to a vertical plume of hot rock.