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

[avvocato]

Has Bush auctioned off the rights to the magma yet?

[montemalone]

Heck, he just gave 'em away.

[shaktidurga]

I live in central Wyoming. If and when the Yellowstone supervolcano blows, I'll get wiped out pretty much instantly, so I'm not too worried about it.

And really, seismic activity in YNP isn't all that unusual, it's just that this earthquake swarm is a bit busier than the norm.

[PepeLepew]

That caldera in Yellowstone is *huge!* If it ever went, you wouldn't want to be within 3,000 miles of it.

[innerpeace]

The ones closest to it would be the luckiest.They would go fast.Most everyone else on Earth would die more slowly from chocking or starvation..No sun no food and the dust and ash would block out the sun for decades or centuries..

[rextrek]

there would be over a foot of ash in NYC from this eruption...America would be ruined and NO MORE!

[PepeLepew]

I know. I live in Montana. I'd be one of the lucky ones.

[CaliRN]

Big typo in the article. Last Yellowstone eruption was not 70,000 years ago ... though there was Toba supervolcanic eruption approx. 73,000 years ago that caused a DNA "bottleneck" in human genetics.

Yellowstone has erupted three times: The first, and largest eruption was 2 million years ago. The second eruption was 1.3 million years ago. The most recent eruption was 630,000 years ago. ...and these were huge eruptions. The estimate for the current size of the magma chamber under Yellowstone is 40 miles by 35 miles ... that's why it is called a "Supervolcano". For an idea of scale of the eruptions, the book "Windows Into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks" (which is a great book for anyone interested in geology, volcanos, or the Tetons/Yellowstone), "the three eruptions, respectively, were 2,500, 280, and 1,000 larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens".

I visited Grand Teton and Yellowstone in August/September .... the beauty of these regions are amazing! My husband and I joked on the way to the parks that we would be seeing Yellowstone before it erupts. mmmmmmm ... but joking aside, if this thing blows, no one would be safe anywhere. The predicted volcanic winter that would result after the eruption would cover the entire planet for years.

[instagladiator]

Hey! Not to worry. W's gonna fix it with an executive order!!

[TJCole]

Yellowstone Caldera....

http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/calderas.htm

Read this..there is so much good info out there but this gives you a good idea of the magnitude of any possible super eruption for North America..

[MuseScavenger]

First the rock-slide in Yosemite back in October and now this! Why does God hate our National Parks that start with "Y"?

[XCITIZEN]

Oh m god, you are so funny! First real belly laugh of the day. Thanks!

[indypete]

God's about to punish Yogi and Boo Boo for being ga y.

[imsixftsix]

How ga y are they, I query?

[wadenelson1]

That's queer, I never suspected a thing.

[anothermba]

According to geological history, the huge caldera under Yellowstone Park blows every 600,000 years or so in a massive eruption. The last time it blew it covered all of North America in inches if not feet or ashes and made the sky quite dark all over the world.

The last time it blew was 634,000 years ago. We are 34,000 years due. Damn!

[CowboyDenver]

You might want to re-read the article, anothermba: "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." That's 70,000 years, not 634,000 years. Your math is just a bit off.

[anothermba]

Cowboy, what happened 70,000 years ago was a non explosive lava flow, not a violent supereruption. There have been non-violent flows and less violent eruptions at shorter time periods. There was another eruption much less violent about 150,000 years ago. This "super" caldera, which is a combination of three calderas does blow very violently at the time period I mentioned. Some periods are little longer than the others. The last three super eruptions occured around 2.1 million years, 1.3 million years and 640,000 years ago to round up the numbers.
You might want to do some research on it. It's available on the Internet.

[Formeralaskangal]

Now that's the ultimate bailout!

[souris]

...................grab your picnic basket and Boo Boo, and RUN, Yogi, RUN!!!!!

[Hayduke1969]

If the Yellowston Caldera blows up again, that will be bad.

Almost as bad as the Interior Department's budget cuts that have left the park's infrastructure in disrepair.

I suppose on the positive side, the local welfare ranchers in Montana won't have to worry about their cattle contracting brucellosis...and they can stop spazzing out about the wolves.

[JM28]

What about the US nuclear arsenal that located throughout the central Plains states? Would an eruption of the supervolcano at Yellowstone also trigger explosions of a great number of the nuclear arsenal? Doesn't look good for life on planet Earth if such an eruption were to happen.

[gschear]

I think they would remain buried for future archaeologist to find. Imagine their horror when they realize what they are...and what we were. They would just fill in the dig and salt the earth.
However you bring up an interesting point. The top of the magma chamber is what, 5 miles down?
Could a stupidly large bunker busting type thermonuclear device (why doubt that they exist) targeted on the caldera trigger an eruption? The way I understand it when the magma is no longer contained it immediately and explosively loses millions of cubic feet of gas.
Hmmmmm. I hope Dr. Evil isn't blogging today.
Try the Hotpockets, they're breathtaking!

[TJCole]

I was and this is true, the first in 2000 or so to pose this scenario of a nuclear ground burst spelling doom for the U.S. to our Pentagon if it hit the magna bubble more or less directly..and triggering a possible super eruption, it was after Kim Jong Ill threatened to "bury us in fire..."

His sea based submarine launch SL-22 missiles even if far off our coast would have the range to reach Yellowstone..up to 3,800 miles..

[MelRoy]

An eruption at Yellowstone would be what I think geologists call "an Earth killer", so a nuclear reactor in the locale would be moot. Most of the US and half of Canada would be decimated and the acid rain and ice age that would follow would take care of the rest.

[NealHib]

Its the difference between a firecracker and a July 4th fireworks show.

[HarryParatestis]

the dome that covers the magma at yellowstone is like the economic dome the GOP created over the last 8 years...sooner or later the forces of equillibrium come to pass, and everything gets blown up.......talk about a far reaching comparison...

[HarryParatestis]

or is that far fetched...lol

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

...28-years

[rjohns3]

I better hurry and get my DK to 80 stat!

[rbarry647]

Make sure you get a few epics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGRMSJ4Xg5w