Scientists assured the public that even though the supervolcano is bigger does not necessarily mean that it increases the likelihood of an eruption. This is good news considering the last time it erupted, the ash cloud that was produced was so massive that it shifted the entire climate of the earth. Many environmental hazards cause damage to people and have major economic impacts on the areas that are impacted. Many of those events can be mitigated to a point to reduce the amount of damage that is cause or some can be prevented almost entirely. An eruption of this supervolcano would not be one of those circumstances. An eruption of that magnitude has the potential to alter life as we know it and definitely would change the history of North America at the very least.
The newly recorded size may not increase the frequency of eruptions but that may not matter. Scientists believe that the supervolcano may erupt around once every 700,000 years and they believe it erupted last around 640,000 years ago. That should at least be a cause for careful examination of the supervolcano at the very least. It is hardly worth worrying about something that may or may not happen every 700,000 years though. Still, these new findings completely shocked the scientists who discovered it including Bob Smith, professor from the University of Utah, who has been working on the project for a long time. New scientific research on hazards such as this around the world are important in order to better predict the size and scale of threats to our environment. Information such as this can be used to educate governments and their citizens about their vulnerability to various hazards and ways to protect themselves against them.
(After taking in all that information: If you really want to get freaked out you can check out this awesome video that shows what would happen if the supervolcano really did erupt)
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