<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/gettyimages-120244069.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/gettyimages-120244069.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/gettyimages-120244069.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > The photo above shows the "Sunset Lake" hot spring in Yellowstone National Park on June 1, 2011. The tourist destination sits 1,800 miles above a supervolcano, and recent research has given scientists an even clearer picture of its hotspot. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

At a Glance Researchers have found evidence of a hot magma mantle plume underneath Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano.

Some scientists argue the plume is providing the heat for Yellowstone and its hot springs.

The plume reaches from the Earth's core-mantle boundary to the base of Yellowstone’s crust.

Researchers studying Yellowstone National Park believe they have gotten their best insight yet into what may be causing the tourist destination's heat.

Yellowstone's hotspot is situated within our planet’s mantle, and scientists believe it is part of a surge of atypically hot rock known as a mantle plume , according to a recent study. It is thought to begin more than 1,800 miles below Earth’s surface at the boundary separating the mantle from the core.

The scientists used an imaging technique known as seismic tomography and discovered a plume reaching from the Earth's core-mantle boundary to the base of Yellowstone’s crust.

Beneath Yellowstone is an underground supervolcano that is 44 miles across and last erupted more than 630,000 years ago. The intense heat from the hotspot causes the Earth's crust to melt and form basaltic and rhyolitic magma , according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Because rhyolite has a high concentration of silica, it can become thick and sticky, which keeps gas from escaping the magma. When large amounts of rhyolite build up within the crust, it can cause a large explosion.

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A supervolcano eruption is capable of “plunging the world into a catastrophe ” and pushing humanity “to the brink of extinction,” NASA researchers wrote in a 2015 study. The information we have on the rare explosions today are estimates based on the geologic record and the massive deposits left behind by them.

The ash spewed by such an explosion could create a global “volcanic winter” by blanketing parts of continents with soot.

To help prevent such a catastrophic event, the researchers suggested drilling into the volcano to extract heat and pump water through it. The water would circulate and reach more than 600 degrees Fahrenheit before coming back out, which could slowly remove heat from the volcano and prevent it from erupting.

“It has been suggested that the hydrothermal circulation at Yellowstone may cool the underlying magma and may lead to decreased long-term volcanic hazards,” wrote the scientists.

Though some researchers are looking into ways to protect people from a potential eruption, others aren't sure that the caldera under Yellowstone has the energy to pull off a major explosion.

One of the reasons is that the magma reservoirs underneath Yellowstone are largely solid , according to the USGS. This means there may not be enough "eruptible" magma present.

"This is a large unknown for volcanology in general," USGS scientist-in-charge Michael Poland told weather.com in an email. "How much magma needs to accumulate before an eruption can occur, and how does that magma collect itself into a single mass?"

Thankfully, there has been no evidence suggesting that an eruption from the underground volcano is imminent.