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A geologist at the national park said the proposal could have dire consequences, including killing scores of animals.

The warning comes after the US space agency revealed its options to prevent the volcano from exploding, including drilling into the bottom to release heat from it.

Fears were immediately raised the “risky” plan could actually backfire and trigger an eruption – potentially triggering a deadly nuclear winter.

Despite warning something must be done about the Yellowstone threat, Brian Wilcox, an ex-member of the NASA Advisory Council on Planetary Defence, warned the plan could cause an eruption.

(Image: GETTY)

And now Dr Jefferson Hungerford, who works at Yellowstone, has warned NASA scientists to stay away from the volcano.

He said: “Messing with a mass that sits underneath our dynamic Yellowstone would potentially be harmful to life around us.

“It would potentially be a dangerous thing to play around with.”

And he questioned whether the drilling could even work, saying “we’re not there scientifically”.

Dr Hungerford also said there is no need for anything to be done at Yellowstone, adding: “We won’t see [an eruption]. Very likely we will never see it.”

Earth has 20 known supervolcanoes, which if they erupted, would trigger planet-changing effects.

Major eruptions are incredibly rare, with the last one approximately 26,500 years ago in New Zealand.

But if a similar event occurred today, it would cause a nuclear winter with humans wiped out in just a few months from starvation.