Amazing visualization of recent Yellowstone earthquake activity

[cayuga]

There have been hundreds of earthquakes since Dec. 27 at Yellowstone National Park. If this supervolcano blows, everything else will seem unimportant.


http://blog.wolfram.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/ystone_movie.mov

[patrice]

1. Can the smaller quakes also relieve pressure that would create a bigger quake?

Can "they" tell if this is happening or not?

[ixion]

2. as I understand it, they're waiting for a cone to appear

as a swelling of the ground. Once that starts, it will erupt sometime in the near future.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

7. I believe I heard that the floor of Yellowstone Lake is bulging.

[Warpy]

13. It is, but the "hot spot" theory would have a major eruption

occurring north and east of the present caldera, or at least on its north east rim.

It certainly bears watching. No one knows when a supervolcano is about to clear its throat. The last one that did was Mt. Toba and that nearly wiped us out completely.

[cayuga]

3. There are lots of 'experts' out there.

And they can't agree. Some experts are saying that the magma is building in one chimney which would lead to volcano...possibly not of supervolcano status. Some experts are saying this could be like the supervolcano of 70,000 years ago which pretty well wiped out known existing lifeforms.

We will just have to watch and hope.

I have long ago stopped listening to the 'experts'.

[originalpckelly]

8. It's not about the earthquakes, but the magma moving around causing them...

It means that it's becoming more and more likely that it will blow, even if only minutely. And that's pretty fucking scary.

[Richard D]

15. I'm not exactly sure why . . .

. . . but in Yellowstone, the smaller quakes make things worse. I think because it's not a fault line situation but a caldera.

[Cleita]

4. I have read articles about it saying it would have the impact of an

asteroid hitting here, blotting out the sky for many years like a nuclear winter. Having been to Yellowstone though, it seems like all the steam vents would relieve a lot of the pressure of a huge eruption. But I'm not a scientist so I don't know for sure. It could just be like the Hawaii volcano that's active but spurts regularly but not violently.

[kentuck]

5. I visited Yellowstone a few years ago...

an I felt very uneasy with the ground steaming and bubbling around me. There's something going on down there. It does not seem like a safe place to be, although we know it hasn't blown for a very long time.

[JohnyCanuck]

11. Maybe The devil is preparing a rousing reception and welcome home party for Dick Cheney

for when he finally kicks the bucket.

[Cleita]

17. LOL! Most of Yellowstone is in Wyoming.

Now we know where the gates of Hell are.

[kayakjohnny]

18. From one johnny to another, that post was the best.

[XOKCowboy]

14. As Carl Sagan used to say...

Geological time is measured in "billions and billions of years". It could be today or it could be in 600 years or it could be never. Momma Nature is a very coy lady.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. 7.5 quake in Yellowstone in 1959

Notice when you run the visualization some of the quakes show up in this region but
most are centered in the lake. Nice quicktime simulation BTW.


About the 1959 quake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Yellowstone_earthquake

[proud patriot]

9. Thanks for posting

I'm watching these threads . I sure hope all will
be well .

[Joanne98]

10. Wow. That's awesome.

[Joanne98]

12. UUSS Webicorder (Seismogram) Displays, Yellowstone Region

http://www.quake.utah.edu/helicorder/heli/yellowstone/index.html

Charts updated every hour but I don't know how to read them.

[Joanne98]

16. Here's another article with magma pocket image

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2009/01/earthquakes-continuing-rattle-yellowstone-national-park