Is yellowstone volcano the strongest volcano ever?
Here is a Q/A website about Yellowstones volcano http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/vo… It it erupts it will make Mt St Helens look like a firecracker.
No, but it is a contender. Yellowstone of 600 kya is a class 8 on Volcano Explosivity Index (vei), about 1000 cu km dense rock equivalent (dre) of ejecta. Yellowstone of 2.2 mya is a class 8 vei with about 2500 cu km dre. Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia of about 73 kya is a class 8 vei with about 2800 cu km dre. By comparison Mt St Helens in 1980 was a 5 vei with about 1 cu km dre. Mt Pinatubo in 1991 was a 5 vei with about 4 cu km dre. Toba was considered to be about 10,000 Mt St Helens erupting at once.
Of the 10-15 largest eruptions known to have occurred in Earth History, Yellowstone is the site of 3 of these. However, calling it the “strongest volcano ever” is probably too much of an exaggeration because 1) it depends on how you define “strong” and 2) there may have been several bigger ones we don’t know about.
