Hey, Siege, if you find out where there's pics or video of this "thermal event" melting the road, post a link please! My wife is a geologist (by degree if not by current employment) and finds this sort of thing fascinating.
Was that DVD clip from a SyFy Channel movie, GrtLksMarlin? I've never seen that one, but I did see the "Supervolcano" movie Discovery or History channel did about 8-10 years ago. Anyway you slice it, a worst-case scenario of that volcano erupting doesn't play out well for We the People...of the Northern Hemisphere, that is!
BTW, the continent is moving over the top of that "hot spot", as geologists call them. At one time it was located under what is now northern Nevada.
North of Winnemucca near the Oregon border is a caldera from when that same magma chamber produced volcanic activity there. I don't know the age of the caldera and for some annoying reason I'm totally blanking on the name right now, too. I'd ask the wife, but she's absorbed in a TV show so I won't interrupt her.