Today, Yellowstone's Doomsday Volcano is relatively quiet, but it is known to have previously experienced major caldera-forming eruptions: 2.8 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 640,000 years ago.. Since then, the volcano has been relatively calm, but scientists believe that it will certainly erupt again and now we know when this will happen, writes Live Science.

In a new study, scientists took a detailed look at Yellowstone's magma storage system and found that, over the long term, liquid magma is likely to accumulate in just one region.. In simple words, scientists managed to find out exactly where the Yellowstone supervolcano will erupt in the future..

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Doomsday Volcano will not erupt anytime soon. Scientists believe Yellowstone will likely no longer be a national park by then, as any eruption is not expected to occur for hundreds of thousands of years.. Still, according to study co-author volcanologist-seismologist Ninfa Bennington of the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, future eruptions are likely to be concentrated on the northeast side of the national park..

The results of a new study indicate that the molten magma beneath Yellowstone is not stored in one large clump, but is hidden in four separate reservoirs in the caldera crust. In the west, the reservoirs do not touch deep mantle rocks, which could heat them from below, leaving them liquid and erupted. Meanwhile, in the northeast, near a landmark called Sour Creek Dome, deep rocks are heating magma locked in the crust.. In simple terms, scientists believe that magma on the west side of Yellowstone will likely cool and solidify, while those on the northeast will remain hot..

In previous studies, scientists used the passage of earthquake waves through the caldera to estimate where liquid magma versus solid rock lay beneath the park.. The problem is that waves can change their behavior depending on a number of reasons, including the hardness of the body or its temperature. As a result, hot solid rock is difficult to distinguish from the same liquid magma.

In the new study, the scientists used a different technique known as magnetotelluria.. It is known that the rotating core of the Earth creates a magnetic field that surrounds the planet. Because magma contains magnetic minerals, pockets of underground liquid magma create their own mini-magnetic fields, also found on the surface. Using instruments placed around Yellowstone, researchers mapped these mini-fields to find hidden pockets of magma..

Their analysis shows that the four pockets together contain more liquid magma than was present in Yellowstone's interior during major caldera-forming eruptions in the past.. It is known that the bulk of the magma lies at a depth of 9.6 to 11.2 kilometers below the surface. At the same time, scientists believe that only in the northeastern part of the caldera does magma come into contact with hot basaltic rock capable of maintaining it in a liquid state.

Despite the large volume of magma accumulated beneath Yellowstone, the caldera is unlikely to erupt anytime soon..

The fact is that magma accumulated in pore spaces in the solid rock inside the caldera, like water in a sponge. Only when more than 40% of these pore spaces are filled can the magma in the pores coalesce, become mobile, and begin to erupt. At the same time, scientists have discovered that for filled pores today it is only 20 or less.

Previously, Focus wrote about the explosion at the Doomsday volcano in Yellowstone: scientists explained whether it is worth waiting for the end of the world.