Six years of scientific investigation within Yellowstone National Park has revealed a volcanic system far more complex than scientists imagined, with previously unknown eruptions and multiple underground magma chambers that could fundamentally change how researchers assess future volcanic hazards.

Madison Myers, a Montana State University professor who has spent years mapping the park’s geology, said her team has discovered numerous volcanic deposits that were either misidentified or completely unknown to science.

“There’s a lot of eruptions that we didn’t even know existed,” Myers said in an interview with the Chronicle. “There’s completely new volcanic deposits that we’re finding all the time down there.”

The discoveries challenge the popular image of Yellowstone as a ticking time bom

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