Yellowstone earthquake swarm continues into third day, intensifies

[Turborama]

Source: Denver Post

The swarm of earthquakes that started Sunday at Yellowstone National Park continued this morning with the magnitude of the tremors increasing last night and today.

At 9:48 a.m. today, a magnitude 3.3 tremor was recorded. A magnitude 3.3 tremor was also recorded at 8:39 p.m. Monday night followed by a magnitude 3.0 earthquake at 9:42 p.m. Monday. Prior to the 3.3 at 9:48 a.m., the park had seen tremors of 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 this morning.

As of 9:20 a.m. today, 424 earthquakes had been recorded in the swarm, according to Jamie Farrell, a doctoral student in geophysics at the University of Utah, which operates more than two dozen earthquake recording stations in the park.

=snip=

Prof. Robert B. Smith, a geophysicist at the University of Utah and one of the leading experts on earthquake and volcanic activity at Yellowstone, said that the activity is a "notable swarm."

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_14221601

---

Details of the earthquakes here: http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html

[DCBob]

1. Yikes! The whole planet has been rumbling a bit more than usual recently.

This could get ugly..

[Ganja Ninja]

6. Yes it does seem to be more active world wide.

Perhaps there's more to this 2012 stuff after all.

[MineralMan]

10. Actually, it's no more active than usual. We're just aware of it

since the earthquake in Haiti.

[DCBob]

15. I follow quake activity even before Haiti and it does appear there has been more activity lately..

especially in the Carribean area, SA and central/west US. I was thinking of downloading some quake data from USGS and doing a quick analysis to see if its true.

[MineralMan]

18. I encourage you to do just that.

[Ghost Dog]

35. Agreed. n/t

[elleng]

44. Not in DC area, right?

Please keep us informed! DU needs FACTS!

[Mojorabbit]

51. I'd love to see your results

I have Equake from firefox on my toolbar and it seems to me that there are quite a bit more quakes than usual. I don't like that yellowstone is perking up.

[TalkingDog]

45. Maybe not more, but more that are stronger....

from: http://wp.me/pAw0L-90

[OnlinePoker]

48. Hmmm, Bush years...strong earthquakes

Coincidence? You be the judge.

[wordpix]

56. also, we're populating the earth everywhere, even in places where settlement was avoided

due to faults, earthquakes, floods and volcanoes. Now people settle on top of faults, in the ocean surge zone, flood plains and below volcanoes and think, "It won't happen to me."

[a la izquierda]

19. Each time the Mayan calendar...

clicks over, they predicted significant events to precede it. That doesn't mean world-ending things. Just significant things. December 22, 2012 will happen. There will probably be some weird stuff leading up to it.

[SpiralHawk]

29. Big Yellowstone ceremonial - maybe needs to happen again

Massive Medicine Wheel Ceremony

http://www.chiron-communications.com/communique%209-2.html

[damntexdem]

47. Forget the rest. A big eruption of Yellowstone could be a civilization-ending event.

That's one big caldera over a big hot spot. But, then, that means that Yellowstone is often active, doing a lot of shaking, so not necessarily ready to blow big.

[Dogmudgeon]

43. Oops, wrong reply!

--d!

[MUAD_DIB]

17. There is always geologic activity across the globe I believe.

If everything was quiet then I would be much more concerned.

[madokie]

42. surely it wouldn''t be someone setting off some nuke warheads deep in any

of these fault lines would it?:tinfoilhat: Wheres the dick? :-)

[xchrom]

2. Oy. Nt

[thunder rising]

3. If Old Faithful coughs blood we're in trouble.

[Javaman]

41. ...

:spray: :rofl:

[ellenfl]

4. perhaps it's the buildup to the rapture. eom

[MineralMan]

7. More like the Rupture...actually...

[Po_d Mainiac]

38. ...

:spray:
:rofl:
:rofl:
:rofl:

[truebrit71]

5. Hmm..if that thing blows we're all in some pretty deep shit...

...get your supplies together kiddies...

[hobbit709]

8. Well, it would solve the global warming problem.

[Ghost Dog]

36. Too right.

Meanwhile, all's quiet, too quiet, on the African-Eurasian plate boundary here...

[Gregorian]

9. Yogi Bear made that (you know) pact with the devil.

Where's Pat Robertscum now?

We asked for it when we made that pact with Ranger Hal?

[pattmarty]

21. Yeah, Robertson will come out with a "statement" claiming that............

............Yogi was gay and that's why god struck Yellowstone.

[winyanstaz]

22. I blame booboo...........

I think he is the one that pissed God off.

[pattmarty]

32. Was he gay too??? Boy, the whole state's fucked now.

:sarcasm:

[Gregorian]

49. Yeah. Booboo was obviously born out of wedlock!

Which would explain the name.

[here_is_to_hope]

39. Jellystone silly! eom

[winyanstaz]

54. Well I, for one, remember seeing them running around with a girl bear in a pink tutu once!

I think they all made a pact with the devil so they could have more picnic baskets!
They are nothing but tourist terrorists anyways!
Probably magic brownies in those picnic baskets too!

[closeupready]

11. A "notable swarm", but unprecedented? Last week I read that hundreds of earthquakes happen each day.

I presume most of them are between 3.0 and 4.0, as here.

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. Actually, most are between 1.0 and 3.0. 4.0 are relatively rare.

If this swarm is generating 3.0 - 4.0 tremors, that is unusually strong.

[closeupready]

20. Ah okay.

Thanks.

[theHandpuppet]

14. Nope

Most of the earthquakes are very small. To have this many 3+ quakes at Yellowstone bears noting. I have followed this site for years:
http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/

Here's the closeup for Yellowstone: http://quake.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html

[thelordofhell]

12. In other words......business as usual

This happens all the time there.

[peace frog]

16. Darn! And I was all packed 'n' ready to Rapture

oh well, back to plotting the end of the world as we know it. :::humming merrily:::

[winyanstaz]

23. listen, if you rapture ....

can I have your car? Mine needs a new heater fan :)

[winyanstaz]

24. This is a great place for me to stick my ad :)

I am willing to sign a contract that I will take care of your kids, dogs cats, spouse and/or grandparents if you rapture for a small fee every month ...up until the time you rapture..at which time I shall consider you paid in full. (and your contract will have to be canceled at that time due to pre-existing conditions. :) )

[Stargazer09]

26. Someone has already thought of the pets

http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/

:)

[Turborama]

27. WOW! Is that for real?

If so, it's a genius idea!

[Stargazer09]

31. I think it is real

But it's hard to say. I agree about it being a genius idea, though!

[winyanstaz]

52. Rats....:)

Too bad....oh well :)
But the kids, spouse and grandparents is still a great offer :)

[peace frog]

25. Sorry, all valuables pass to

my gonna-burn-in-hell non-believer kids. It's all their father's fault! ;)

[hlthe2b]

28. And how's that supervolcano doing?

:shrug: It's always something..... Is it time for me us to duck?

[Coventina]

30. Gosh, that's one of my nightmares - Yellowstone blowing up

Aside from the huge impact it would have on the entire planet, it makes me sad to think of the destruction of that beautiful landscape & all the endangered species that have refuge there.

:-(

[GliderGuider]

37. If it blows, WE may be come an endangered species.

:wow:

[David Zephyr]

50. We will be, not may be.

It's all over, baby blue.

[Hubert Flottz]

33. Reminds me of a song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU89y-AWDSg

[Submariner]

34. Billions will die around the globe

when the Yellowstone super volcano goes off. Most all of the U.S. from heat and volcanic dust suffocation, and the rest of the globe from starvation. And it is already 40,000 years overdue for it's next eruption. Haiti will look like a day at the beach when Yellowstone blows.

[robcon]

40. More alarmist crap.

We had the same thing a few months ago. It meant nothing then, and it means nothing now.

Yellowstone is a very active (and huge) earthquake zone. This "notable swarm" is meaningless.

[martymar64]

55. So are you saying that Yellowstone will NEVER blow?

Forgive me if I am mistaken, but that sounds like what you are implying, that there is no chances that Yellowstone will ever blow, ever again.

To do that would to be simply ignorant of geology. I sure nobody predicted the magnitude of Mt St Helens until it happened. Same with the volcano in Montserrat. Supervolcanoes DO exist and Yellowstone is one of them. That is an established fact. True, it may not blow in the near future, it may not blow in the next 50K years. But it certainly does have the potential to do so at anytime, even next week. And when it does, the nightmare scenarios described will certainly come to pass. To acknowledge that fact is not alarmist. For somebody to get panicked about that fact is alarmist, though. If it indeed happens there not a damned thing anybody (individual or government) will be able to do to prevent it. So my attitude is why worry over something that one has no control over? I won't live my life in fear of what ifs, be they supervolcanoes or terrorists. However, I think the speculation about the effects of a supervolcano are interesting and gives people perspective about the magnitude of these phenomena in relation to other events like regular volcanoes.

[semillama]

59. Well, the chances are less then they were historically

due to the migration of the caldera from an area of thinner crust to an area with thicker crust. National Geographic had a really good article on it in 2009.

"So, the colossal question: Is it going to blow again? Some kind of eruption—perhaps a modest one like Mount Pinatubo's in the Philippines, which killed 800 people in 1991—is highly likely at some point. The odds of a full, caldera-forming eruption—a cataclysm that could kill untold thousands of people and plunge the Earth into a volcanic winter—are anyone's guess; it could happen in our lifetimes, or 100,000 years or more from now, or perhaps never. Bob Christian­sen, now retired, suspects the supervolcano may be safely bottled up. For most of its history, the Yellowstone hot spot has formed calderas in the thin crust of the Basin and Range area of the American West. Now the hot spot is lodged beneath a much thicker crust at the crest of the Rockies.

"I think that the system has more or less equilibrated itself," says Christian­sen. Then he quickly adds, "But that's an interpretation that would not stand up in court."

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/08/yellowstone/achenbach-text/1

[Mojorabbit]

61. +10 nt

[bigworld]

46. Nice helicorder here

http://quake.utah.edu/helicorder/ymr_webi.htm

[XemaSab]

53. Something's moving

:popcorn:

[alfredo]

57. Free Global Earthquake Explorer so you can monitor stations world wide.

http://www.seis.sc.edu/gee/

[theHandpuppet]

58. Now up to seven 3+ quakes between 1/18 and 1/19

The latest one at 3.4 very late last night.

http://www.seis.utah.edu/recenteqs/Maps/111-44.html

[insaniaveritas]

60. emmerich would be proud.

2012 is close....

[zbiker]

62. if it were just a little farther north

then it would be just about right to thin our pesky ever present wolf population back down to a manageable number :), mind ya it only need be a large enough quake to open a large hole and swallow the wolves and a few griz, then it could close back up. but not large enough to shake anything in cody or jackson

[Alhena]

63. The one last year was much more worrisome ...

this is in a less likely spot for a super-eruption, appears to be tectonic rather than magmatic in nature, and doesn't have those disturbing seismograms which looked suspiciosuly like harmonic tremor. The one last year (late Dec. 2008-early Jan 2009 to be exact) actually had me concerned. This one? Meh.

[kestrel91316]

64. Aw, crap, not THAT thing.

[Haole Girl]

65. Interesting

Thanks for the post, Turborama.