YELLOWSTONE EARTHQUAKE SWARM: Quakes Rock National Park For Third Straight Day

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come. Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.

"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."

Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around the park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.

"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory.

"Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity? We don't know. That's what we're there to do, to monitor it for public safety."

The strongest of dozens of tremors Monday was a magnitude 3.3 quake shortly after noon. All the quakes were centered beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.

A park ranger based at the north end of the lake reported feeling nine quakes over a 24-hour period over the weekend, according to park spokeswoman Stacy Vallie. No damage was reported.

"There doesn't seem to be anything to be alarmed about," Vallie said.

Smith said it's difficult to say what might be causing the tremors. He pointed out that Yellowstone is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago.

He said Yellowstone remains very geologically active _ and its famous geysers and hot springs are a reminder that a pool of magma still exists five to 10 miles underground.

"That's just the surface manifestation of the enormous amount of heat that's being released through the system," he said.

Yellowstone has had significant earthquakes as well as minor ones in recent decades. In 1959, a magnitude 7.5 quake near Hebgen Lake just west of the park triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.

Comments

[Kiba]

Right. I've had it up to here with this planet. It's a bleeping mess. And it's infested with semi-intelligent primates mucking everything up. How am I supposed to work under these conditions?

Someone is going to get a very strongly worded letter of complaint, I can tell you.

[sunrnr]

What they're failing to mention is the USGS study led by Ms. Lisa Morgan, geologist, which found a large dome under Yellowstone Lake that has been increasing steadily. It happens to be right about where the quakes are centered.

There have been previous large earthquake swarms in the Yellowstone area with noted increase in water temperature in some of the geyser basins. The lake itself is tilting southward due to the bulging on the northeast side.

Should it be a volcano, it will not be a good thing should it erupt. It will most likely be a supervolcano due to the size of the caldura and the water over it. Superheat you see. It will be much bigger than Mt. Saint Helens by several magnitudes.

One more sign, eh?

namaste

[MTNG]

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/new.html#bulge


Is there a bulge beneath the lake?

Mapping of the lake bottom has revealed a variety of faults, hot springs and craters beneath Yellowstone Lake. ...

Why was it called the "inflated plain"?

Seismic images of the lake sediments in this area show that they were tilted, hinting that the region may have been pushed up or "inflated.­" The amount of inflation would be much less than the 100-foot height of the feature, but is currently unknown. The images appear to indicate that the uplift is associated with accumulation of gas from Yellowstone's hydrothermal (hot water) system. Similar inferred gas accumulations were also noted elsewhere within the lake. Future research will assess the amount of uplift and its origin, whether by gas buildup or other potential mechanisms.

Has the "inflated plain" been growing?

At present, there is no evidence of recent growth of any features beneath the lake, and there is no indication that residents or visitors are in any danger. Temperature measurements from hydrothermal vents taken this year indicate no change in temperatures compared to those taken last year. The feature may have been there for decades or much longer.

So what's the big deal?

There may be none. This region has active hydrothermal features, and possibly some uplift. It's possible that the area could host future hydrothermal explosions, but so could other areas beneath the lake and other areas within the Park.

[GoodwithWood]

You’re correct, it is a sure sign of the Rapture.

[JackND]

When the Yellowstone caldera blows, millions of Americans will die. Perhaps tens of millions.

[JackND]

in the first moments, that is.

[voltaire11]

If that thing ever blows and is a supervolcano, you can cancel the United States. Obama won't have to worry about a stimulus package because our collective goose would be cooked.

[jeg]

Since the ash fall will cover most of the midwest and directly wipe out the US grain crop, and the ash blown into the atmosphere will make crop growing *anywhere* fairly difficult for a couple years, if Yellowstone makes like a supervolcano, expect a dramatic drop in world population.

[Balancement]

Seems to me that an "extinction event," considering the way the human infestation has been behaving lately, might be just the thing this poor, old, tired planet needs.

[jeg]

While I believe that no force goes unnoticed, and that humanity is a force that acts on the ecosystem, geologically speaking, we're a blip.

The dinosaurs were the dominant species for millions of years, and we've only been a nuisance for a few thousand years at best.

You could wipe out every multi-celled organism on the entire planet, and within a few million years, there would be plant life across the world, followed by animal life. As long as the sun burns brightly, and the planet has a favorable orbit, there will be life.

Whether there will be humans, remains to be seen.

[MTNG]

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=multiple-tiny-earthquakes-rattle-ye-2008-12-30



"But don't panic yet. Although the earthquake swarm continues, according to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, the volcano alert level remains normal. And a slew of larger earthquakes have occurred throughout the western U.S., Alaska, Puerto Rico and even Pennsylvania in the past week without incident, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"In recent years, Yellowstone's caldera has been rising thanks to uplifting magma beneath it—leading to more cracks, hot springs and even more frequent eruptions of Steamboat Geysers. Paired with the earthquakes, such magma movement might presage an eruption—either big or small. Unfortunately, scientists can't really predict when the next such eruption will happen, and the range of possibilities is large: from later today to a million years from now.

"How will we know if we should start worrying? The real warning signs will be rapid changes in the shape of the ground as well as volcanic gases leaking from the ground, neither of which have been sighted—ye­t."

"Eruptions are far enough apart that there is a very low probability of the next eruption happening in our lifetimes or anytime soon," Daniel Dzurisin of the USGS told me in 2006. "The flipside is: [Yellowstone] has been active for millions of years and it's going to erupt again sometime."

[RebelPatriot]

Come on now...

you don't think they'd actually tell us if that thing was gonna blow do ya?

I'm talking about a super-erup­tion...

not a chance.

[XCITIZEN]

Hey, as long as it doesn't happen in my lifetime I don't give a rats ass. I'm not coming back here when I'm done - I've reincarnated enough times - I'll be movin' on....

[XCITIZEN]

Remember on Saturday Night Live when Rosanne Rosanadana explained how Mt. St. Helens blew? She said it was like a big pimple that popped. So my question is - to all the geological geniuses here, if we really did face the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, if it was imminent - is there some way that over this caldera there could be some kind of drilling or detonation technique that could open the magma pool and let it up onto the earths crust?

I sincerely want someone who has knowledge to explain - because if we were literally facing the extinction of humankind, would we not find a way to deal with that threat? We got to the moon - we got to Mars, so what about this?

Also - I have one experience with a Volcano - I was in Eastern Washington when Mt. St. Helens erupted. Saw the announcement in a graphic runner across the bottom of the TV screen - I went out onto the deck and looked westward - and saw that a dark line was forming in sky above the valleys between the low mountains. That dark line grew until it spread across the sky - the sky went dark, and it rained down ash for hours and hours - it looked like snow falling beneath the streetlights.

One of the strangest experiences of my life - but not particularly frightening. I was much younger. This Yellowstone thing sound scary as hell.

[KYAGB]

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/43.45.-111.-109.php

Here’s the pertinent link to Yellowstone EQ reports. All but a few quakes are within a mile of each other and at every depth between 7.2 km and the surface suggesting magma movement along the same chimney almost all the way to the magma chamber is supposed to be at 5 to 8 mi down, (8-12.8 km).

Beyond the global volcanic winter devastating agriculture and the deaths/disease inflicted on all breathing animals from ash inhalation, I am concerned that water pumps cooling nuclear reactors will not survive for long with significant ash contamination in feed water and there should be a plan to dissipate latent heat in reactor cores and spent fuel storage pools given that the heat from radioactive decay will have to be actively dissipated for months after reactor shut down. Although nuclear plants are required to have this reserve water storage, it is already being used to cool spent fuel rods not originally intended for onsite storage and is therefore not available for blow down water replacement. New covered reserve water pools capable of sustaining heavy wet ash loads must therefore be built across the U.S. to accommodate this ash scenario and these reserve pools would have to be considerably larger for longer term blow down and spent fuel cooling. If the nukes are not secured, just add 600 years to the decades long devastation caused by the ash.

[dan-o]

That Dang global warming.

[MTNG]

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/12/30/yellowstone-earthquakes-under-supervolcano-caldera.html


"This December 2008 earthquake sequence is the most intense in this area for some years and is centered on the east side of the Yellowstone caldera. Scientists can not identify any causative fault or other feature without further analysis. Seismologists continue to monitor and analyze the data and will issue new information if the situation warrants it."

[GPC]

So, we're all bound to look like Chatanooga, Tn?

[RainbowPhoenix]

They didn't say anything about movement in the magma chamber, so I don't think we should be too worried. Just the same, this IS the world's largest volcano, so we should keep an eye on this just in case.

[AlltheBuzzfromCali]

Get a bottle of molten ash, right here folks, straight from Yellowstone. Blimey you dingos, I tell you it's from the late great US of A, here ya go, Matilda, from there to the land down under.

[jotunloki]

If Yellowstone erupts you'll get it down under. You're talking about a volcano with a caldera more than a hundred miles across. The ash will blanket the entire world, It'll just take you longer to starve.

[bigmaddy]

Hey don't pick on Yogi he didn't do anything wrong. But maybe Huckleberry the Hound did

[Badfickle]

This is clearly Obama's fault.

[metoo]

Just for the sake of argument, I say it's Bush's fault.

[jeg]

Ah, but Cheney is from Wyoming too...

[vsign]

Would the mountains along the Continental Divide be a good place to possibly survive? Would there be places high enough to get some sun and away from the ash?

[anothermba]

To add to dogbane's comments, getting closer to the equator and on the other side of the planet is also probably a good idea. It rains on the equator daily which would probably clear the skies somewhat. Also the equator is likely going to be the warmest place of all, obviously. And the other side of the planet will receive the least amount of ashes. To put all of these criteria together the best places would be, east Africa, India, Southeast Asia etc.

Unfortunately if you are not already there, getting to those places in the aftermath of such an event is going to be a problem. Planes won't be able to take off, ships may be the only way of traveling. And to get to ships you'll need to get to a coast.

[newworldman777]

The ash would be spewed so highly into the upper atmosphere, that much of it would be suspended much higher than cloud levels, thus drastically affecting the weather worldwide. No one on earth would escape from this disaster -- a natural "nuclear winter," as it were. To provide some perspective, when yellowstone erupted previously (600 million years ago), it spewed 2500 times as much ash into the atmosphere that Mt. St. Helens spewed when it erupted a few years ago.

With December 21, 2012 (the day of reckoning, according to the Mayan long-count calender) quickly approaching, perhaps our time on earth is finally reaching its limit.

[shaktidurga]

Um, no. Not only would the ash rise above cloud levels, as newworldman777 pointed out, but the Continental Divide runs right. spang. through. the. middle. of. YNP. So the Continental Divide puts you pretty close to ground zero, if not right AT ground zero.

Actually I vote for being instantly killed. Which, given that I live in Wyoming, is what would happen to me.

[lglglg]

I just read "Furnace of Creation, Cradle of Destruction" by Roy Chester, a combined history of the science of geology and a description of past cataclysms. If Yellowstone DOES become a supervolcano, we're all doomed...s­o for my Boston-area friends, it won't matter that the Patriots were jobbed!