According to scientists from University of Utah, a “super-volcano” is forming deep below the Earth’s crust at the area north of New Zealand. This kind of volcano eruption can destroy life as we know it. However this event is not likely to happen for another 100-200 million years according to the scientists that studied this phenomenon.

University of Utah seismologist Michael Thorne has been studying seismic waves through the Earth’s crust and has come to the conclusion that such a volcano eruption can happen. According to his study deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, near Samoa, two continent – sized piles of rock were colliding moving at the lower part of  Earth’s mantle.

This way new volcanic “hotspots” are formed leading to huge volcano eruptions giving magnificent features and formations i.e. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

This study includes the largest set of data ever used to map the lower mantle in the Pacific region, using 4.221 seismograms from seismometers around the world that detected 51 deep earthquakes originating more than 100 km under the surface.

source: http://www.stuff.co.nz