YouTube Personality Ben Ferraiuolo Talks Yellowstone Supervolcano

When it comes to finding the truth about what's really going on with the Yellowstone supervolcano, it's hard to separate the sensational from the science. Amateur Seismologist Ben Ferraiuolo explained how he monitors Yellowstone and what we should watch for that would signal a major event is about to happen.

I have been following Ben's YouTube channel for about a year and frequently share his videos when he does updates on what he sees happening at Yellowstone. Ben took some time out of his busy schedule to visit with us and explain how he got started and what he thinks is happening (and not) at Yellowstone right now.

Ben Ferraiuolo: "Well, actually it all started with my son's birth surprisingly on June 15, 2017 which some people out there probably that's a familiar date with Yellowstone when they had one of their largest earthquake swarms ever...my son was just born, my 2nd kid, I'm like 'Oh, great'...slowly but surely started doing my own research..."

Instead of referencing the more sensational claims about Yellowstone, Ben bases his studies on seismic charts and graphs from the USGS and the scientific geological community.

Ben Ferraiuolo: "Oh, yes. Actually a lot of the seismic data is all for free on the internet...I taught myself over the course of the past year or so how to do this and it's pretty easy accessing data from Yellowstone, monitoring for earthquakes..."

Since Yellowstone is practically in our backyard near Casper, what should be look for in the park that would give us a hint that a big volcanic event was about to happen? This is what Ben said:

Ben Ferraiuolo: "Well, my take on it differs a little bit from the professionals...they say that they believe there would be uplift in the range of 10's of meters, multiple feet of uplift within a few years..That would be extremely concerning...lots of earthquakes, lots of gas output, a lot more thermal activity than we're seeing right now."

How close (or not) are we to a major Yellowstone event? Ben has an interesting prediction.

Ben Ferraiuolo: "I think that Yellowstone won't see a super eruption for a long, long time. That's what I believe personally. BUT, I believe smaller eruptions...like maybe on the size of Mt. St. Helens...those are very possible, so we need to be watching for uplift occurring..."

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Ben is a great guy to follow on YouTube. You can also get more details including the tools to do your own monitoring through his official website.