“Bob Smith at the University of Utah was interested in seeing if we could look for signs of contemporary deformation in the Yellowstone Caldera.
“He had recognised some of these indications, particularly in changes in lake levels of different parts of Yellowstone Lake, and because it’s so large, he felt there were indications that the lake basin itself was being tilted.
Dr Christiansen explained how his colleague discovered that the caldera was lifting below Yellowstone Lake.
READ MORE: Yellowstone volcano breakthrough in predicting next eruption amid ‘overdue’ fears.
Later studies would go on to show that this was normal behaviour for Yellowstone, as scientists observed periods of uplift, followed by lowering.
Yellowstone: How scientists made alarming find in lake [COMMENT]
By contrast, over the past three million years, the Yellowstone hotspot has seen just two supereruptions