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The apocalyptic vision of fire bursting from the earth,

haunts men with the image of all the nature that is beyond his control.

There's something about volcanoes that makes them the superstars of natural disasters.

Magma violently forcing its way to the surface and exploding with terrifying force.

The images of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and its doomed residents encased in volcanic ash

and pumice are grim reminders of what happens when a volcano wakes up.

You might be surprised to learn that the United States is actually one of the planets

most volcanic places. It's got 161 volcanoes in its 50 states and territories that have been

active in the last 12,000 years. That's actually the most in the world.

The US West Coast forms one edge of the famous ring of fire, which is a semi-circle volcanic

activity that runs along a series of faults on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Roughly 75% of the planet's volcanoes occur in this ring.

The best known volcano in the United States is probably Mount St. Helens.

I still remember as a kid being freaked out watching this 1980 eruption on the news

and the ominous clouds of ash spewed across huge swaths of North America.

But here's the thing, America has a massive volcano that's practically hidden in plain sight

right beneath Yellowstone National Park. And it's not just any volcano, it's a super volcano.

Yellowstone has actually had three super eruptions that we know of throughout its history.

There was one at 1.3 million years ago and then it's had two others, one at 640,000 years ago.

And then one at 2.1 million years ago and that was the largest of all of its eruptions that it's had.

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