RV Camping or tent camping in Yellowstone National Park gives you the opportunity to experience first hand, and camp in one of the most geologically unique places in the world. Set up your tent or park your RV and you will be camping inside the world’s largest volcano. Not only will you be camping in Yellowstone, but you will also be camping inside one of the most active volcanic areas in the world. With over 10,000 thermal features, Yellowstone is the world’s largest active volcano, with lava only 4 to 10 miles below the surface in some areas.

Presently, the only signs of volcanic activity are the boiling pools, geysers, and mud pots. While you are there, you will be inside the caldera of the massive explosion that occurred 650,000 years ago.

The Yellowstone Caldera, unlike most volcanoes formed by a column of magma rising to the surface, is a massive hot spot of lava. The lava collected there due to a weakness in the surface rock, as opposed to tectonic plate movement. The underlying pool of lava is still there and is estimated to recently be raising the landmass by two or three inches per year. The most recent lava flow in Yellowstone was about 75,000 years ago.

This interesting piece of work bubbles and simmers at the edge of Yellowstone lake

It all began about two million years ago with the initial Yellowstone eruption and ending with the most violent occurring six hundred fifty thousand years ago when a massive batholith of magma eventually rose to the earth’s crust and exploded in one of the world’s most violent eruptions. The blast was approximately 2,000 times the force of the 1980 Mount St Helens explosion.

The explosion made a wasteland out of most of North America and impacted the entire globe by exterminating thousands of species. Estimates are that 240 cubic miles of debris were expelled in the explosion.

If another major eruption occurs, it is estimated to possibly be the worst ever, and could effectively exterminate almost all life on earth. Scientists believe that there will be several smaller eruptions before the super explosion.