Whole Lotta Shakin' In Yellowstone

[Mercy Now]

It's being reported that there has been a swarm of earthquake activity in Yellowstone the past couple of weeks. Are there any readers living near Yellowstone? The reason I ask is because seismographs have been known to register strong wind activity which I understand has been occuring at Yellowstone the past couple of weeks as well. So I'm wondering if any Yellowstone neighbor can confirm earth shaking?

FYI ..This swarm registers as being close to the surface.

 

 

[Richard]

Yellowstone is grumbling...

Yellowstone Volcano Rumbles, Many Small Quakes

[Richard]

Scientists eye unusual swarm of Yellowstone quakes

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Writer 
Mon Dec 29, 8:00 pm ET
 
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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/ap_o...Y_ie0EtbAF

[Richard]

More small quakes rattle Yellowstone National Park

Fri Jan 2, 5:34 pm ET
 
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – More earthquakes are rattling Yellowstone National Park.

The small quakes include three more Friday that measured stronger than magnitude 3.0. The University of Utah Seismic Stations say the strongest was 3.5.

Several hundred quakes centered under the northern end of Yellowstone Lake have now occurred since Dec. 26. No damage has been reported.

Earthquake swarms happen fairly often in Yellowstone. But scientists say it's unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days.

Yellowstone lies mostly in northwestern Wyoming and is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago. Scientists have not concluded what is causing the earthquakes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/ap_o...vqY6ADW7oF

[Richard]

Earthquakes at Yellowstone Supervolcano: Update

January 03, 2009 08:49 AM ET
James Pethokoukis

Here is the latest on the earthquake swarms at Yellowstone:

1) The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory put out an update yesterday evening

Yellowstone Lake Earthquake Swarm Update: 2 January 2008

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that as of 1800 MST on 2 January 2009, seismicity of the ongoing Yellowstone earthquake swarm continues. Over 500 earthquakes, as large as M 3.9, have been recorded by an automated earthquake system since the inception of this unusual earthquake sequence that began Dec. 27, 2008. More than 300 of these events have been reviewed and evaluated by seismic analysts. Depths of the earthquakes range from ~ 1km to around 10 km. We note that the earthquakes extend northward from central Yellowstone Lake for ~10 km toward the Fishing Bridge area, with a migration of recent earthquakes toward the north. Some of the dozen M3+ earthquakes were felt in the Lake, Grant Village and Old Faithful areas. Personnel of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory continue to evaluate this earthquake sequence and will provide information to the NPS, USGS and the public as it evolves.

This earthquake sequence is the most intense in this area for some years. No damage has been reported within Yellowstone National Park, nor would any be expected from earthquakes of this size. The swarm is in a region of historical earthquake activity and is close to areas of Yellowstone famous hydrothermal activity. Similar earthquake swarms have occurred in the past in Yellowstone without triggering steam explosions or volcanic activity. Nevertheless, there is some potential for hydrothermal explosions and earthquakes may continue or increase in magnitude. There is a much lower potential for related volcanic activity.

The University of Utah operates a seismic network in Yellowstone National Park in conjunction with the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. These three institutions are partners in the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Seismic data from Yellowstone are transmitted to the University in real-time by radio and satellite links from a network of 28 seismographs in the Yellowstone area and are available on the web.

Seismologists continue to monitor and analyze data from this swarm of earthquakes and provide updates to the NPS and USGS and to the public via the following web pages.

Information on U.S. earthquake activity including Yellowstone can be viewed at the U.S. Geological Survey web site: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/.

Information on earthquakes can also be viewed at the University of Utah
Seismograph Stations web site: http://www.seis.utah.edu/.

Seismographic recordings from Yellowstone seismograph stations can be
viewed online at: http://www.quake.utah.edu/helicorder/hel...ndex.html.

2)  Here is an amazing attempt at visualizing the earthquake swarm.

3)  Here is a bit of what Scientific American has to say on the topic:

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."

 4) Here is a Google Map mashup of the swarm.

5) Slashdot also has a very active discussion about the Yellowstone quakes.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-comm...pdate.html

Quake Activity Raises Fears In Yellowstone

[Richard]

Quakes shake loose fears about Yellowstone volcano

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Writer
58 mins ago
 
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Run for your lives ... Yellowstone's going to explode!

Hundreds of small earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park in recent weeks have been an unsettling reminder for some people that underneath the park's famous geysers and majestic scenery lurks one of the world's biggest volcanoes.

In the ancient past, the volcano has erupted 1,000 times more powerfully than the 1980 blast at Mount St. Helens, hurling ash as far away as Louisiana. No eruption that big has occurred while humans have walked the earth, however, and geologists say even a minor lava flow is extremely unlikely any time soon.

Some observers are nonetheless warning of imminent catastrophe.

"To those of us who have been following these events, we know that something is brewing, especially considering that Yellowstone is over 40,000 years overdue for a major eruption," warned a posting on the online disaster forum Armageddononline.org.

Another Web site contained a page entitled "Yellowstone Warning" that encouraged "everyone to leave Yellowstone National Park for 100 miles around the volcano caldera because of the danger in poisonous gasses that can escape from the hundreds of recent earthquakes."

That site, which carried the U.S. Geological Survey logo, has since been taken down.

"A casual observer would be led to believe that was an official source," Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said, pointing out that the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, which monitors the park for seismic activity, hasn't changed the volcano's alert level from "normal."

Working with the Geological Survey, Nash issued a news release Thursday, saying no evacuation had been ordered.

Jessica Robertson, a Geological Survey spokeswoman in Reston, Va., said the Web page violated the USGS trademark and that the agency's attorneys were investigating whether a federal offense was committed.

Phone and e-mail messages left with the contact named on the Web site weren't returned Thursday.

Earthquakes are hardly unusual in Yellowstone. Hundreds occur in the park every year. Earthquake "swarms" like the recent activity also aren't uncommon, although the 900 or so quakes that began Dec. 26 and significantly tapered off about a week later appear to have been the most energetic swarm in more than 20 years.

The most powerful temblor was magnitude 3.9, just short of being able to cause moderate damage. The vast majority of quakes were too weak to be felt by people.

Scientists knowledgeable about Yellowstone's geology aren't publicly speculating about what caused the swarm before they can analyze data. That will take months.

"I could come up with 100 different theories without any evidence for them and they would all be equally likely," said Jake Lowenstern, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based scientist in charge of Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. "Unless you have some reason to say that's what's going on, then you're not going to get a whole lot of people convinced by your speculation."

Park geologist Hank Heasler said the odds of a cataclysmic eruption at Yellowstone any time soon are astonishingly remote — about the same as a large meteorite hitting the Earth. The last such eruption occurred 640,000 years ago. The last eruption of any kind at Yellowstone was a much smaller lava flow about 70,000 years ago.

"Statistically, it would be surprising to see an eruption the next hundred years," Lowenstern said.

Much more likely, he said, would be a hydrothermal explosion in which underground water encounters a hot spot and blasts through the surface. Small hydrothermal explosions producing craters a few feet wide occur in Yellowstone perhaps once or twice a year. Large hydrothermal explosions leaving craters the size of a football field occur every 200 years or so, according to a 2007 paper co-authored by Heasler, Lowenstern and others.

Lowenstern said new equipment installed deep within bore holes in the park over the past two summers eventually should provide a clear picture of what's causing the earthquake swarm. That data could help scientists make better predictions about Yellowstone's geology.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090109/ap_o...exHA0EtbAF

[Richard]

Yellowstone Supervolcano Eruption Close ?.. Video

If you live in a 600 miles radius of Yellowstone national park in the USA i would seriously have a back up plan should yellowstone erupt as per the recent concerns aired on Fox and other networks...

 

[Sily]

Billy Crystal: “Earthquake Could Hit U.S. on Inauguration Day"

Posted by Simon Stimson    Monday, 12 January 2009 NEW YORK, NY (January 12, 2009) Speaking last night to talk show host David Letterman, Tony- and Emmy-Award winning performer Billy Crystal made a surprise prediction that the U.S. would experience a “major or minor earthquake” centered around Yellowstone National Park at the same date as the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. “I don’t know, it just came to me in your Green Room that this would happen,” the Long Island native confided to a somewhat shaken Letterman. “I don’t know the meaning of it, if any.”
The last eruption of any kind at Yellowstone was a small lava flow about 70,000 years ago.
But since Dec. 26, there have been more than 900 earthquakes recorded under the Yellowstone Lake. Of those, 500 were greater in magnitude than 2.0, with the largest earthquake of 3.9 occurring Dec. 28.
Scientists monitoring the situation insist there is no cause for alarm. As of last week, the seismic activity they are calling “a swarm of earthquakes” seemed to have subsided.
In a recent Associated Press report on the quakes, park geologist Hank Heasler said the odds of a cataclysmic eruption at Yellowstone anytime soon are astonishingly remote - about the same as a large meteorite hitting Earth.
The last such eruption occurred 640,000 years ago. That volcanic eruption was 1,000 times more powerful than the 1980 blast at Mount St. Helens. The earlier eruption hurled ash as far away as present-day Louisiana.
But Crystal told Letterman the earthquake he was predicting would be “substantially smaller than that.”
Officials at Yellowstone were skeptical of Crystal’s prediction. "Statistically, it would be surprising to see an eruption the next hundred years," said Jake Lowenstern, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based scientist in charge of Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.


linky stinky

---

[MC]

There are many indications that they are lying about Yellowstone and trying to downplay the whole thing.How do they explain the creation of a doomsday seed vault in the Arctic with blast proof doors and no one being allowed to go near it.They know that when Yellowstone blows,and that certainly will not be in 100 years,that they will need those seeds.