Explosive situation in Yellowstone

I would suggest reading the thread from the beginning. Follow the links and learn all you can. If you have questions beyond that come back and I'm sure one of the resident geniuses will help you out .

I haven't seen Mt. Sheridan do anything like this in some time.

www.seis.utah.edu...

Same goes for Mirror Lake.

www.seis.utah.edu...

Madison and Norris are still jumpy.

www.seis.utah.edu...


I haven't done any statistical analysis, but I don't think it would be a stretch to say that EVERY station in Yellowstone has recorded some significant movement at some point in the last week. Most weeks, Mirror, Sheridan are smooth.

Pitchstone is showing some movement today, which is usually very quiet.

www.seis.utah.edu...

Sheridan is again showing movement today.

www.seis.utah.edu...

And Little West Thumb.

www.seis.utah.edu...

Heck it looks like the whole park has shown some movement today.

www.seis.utah.edu...

Rockin and a rollin for about 3 hrs.

unbalanced,

Nice find man! I don't usually watch the Utah graphs. Tracy is indeed rocking.

www.seis.utah.edu...

I don't watch this one usually either, but Granite Mountain Vault, UT has been rocking for the last couple of days.

www.seis.utah.edu...

Mt. Sheridan is NOT giving me very good vibes at all... that is a busy seismo for the San Andreas....

Little West Thumb looks like something from a demolition site...

Madison River is downright scary....

Norris Junction showing low level but continuous activity with short punctuated jilts...

Mirror Lake indeed rather active...

Mammoth Hotspring been doing the jig all day....

My professional opinion on the matter is that anyone who lives in the vicinity of Yellowstone may want to start planning a family vacation in another state...

DR, I'm not usually the alarmist type but I agree. Movement is up across the board.

I've never seen strong motion like that sustained at Granite Mountain, UT.

www.seis.utah.edu...


[Edited on 10-9-2003 by kukla]

A 3.3 popped up overnight and was recorded on all the graphs. Which is not encouraging since I'm traveling to southern Idaho today for a week long visit.

www.seis.utah.edu...

FYI, a number of similar Magnitude 3-4 quakes preceded the eruption at Mt St. Helens....

Thread carefully... and make contingency plans accordingly.

I will definately be keeping an eye on the situation.

[Edited on 12-9-2003 by kukla]

Originally posted by kukla
DR, I'm not usually the alarmist type but I agree. Movement is up across the board.

I've never seen strong motion like that sustained at Granite Mountain, UT.

www.seis.utah.edu...


[Edited on 10-9-2003 by kukla]

Holy granite shakers, Batman!

That's bizarre!

All the hallmarks of increased volcanic activity.... this is NOT looking in the positive direction...

Norris Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park has long been recognized as the hottest and most changeable of Yellowstone's famous hydrothermal wonders. This summer, Norris lived up to its hot, unstable reputation as scientists and visitors alike have seen significant changes in many geysers and increased ground temperatures in the western part of the basin.


Porkchop Geyser, which sprang to life from a small hot spring in 1971, erupted in July for the first time since 1989. Water has drained away from several active geysers, resulting in hissing steam vents and ground temperatures as high as 93 degrees Centigrade (200 degrees Fahrenheit). Still other geysers have erupted more frequently and regularly, while some thermal features that usually release hot water and steam now send steam jetting into the air.

On July 11, the staff of Yellowstone National Park also noted the formation of a new mud pot-a small cauldron filled with boiling acidic water and mud. Within one week, the mudpot turned into a high-pressure steam vent. Also, pine trees are dying in three areas in response to the increased thermal activity.

www.hawaiinews.com...

Glad to know that they reopened a high traffic area to fishermen again, without a good explaination as to why the water temperature was rising...

Yellowstone river reopened to fishing

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK -- The Firehole River, which had been closed to fishing because of high water temperatures, was reopened to anglers on Thursday.

The Firehole River, along with the Madison and Gibbon rivers, had closed to fishing on July 21 because of unusually high water temperatures from thermal run-off and unprecedented warm temperatures in the region.

www.billingsgazette.com.../2003/09/12/build/wyoming/48-river.inc

THREE, count them, THREE quakes are on the Moose Creek seismo for yesterday:


www.seis.utah.edu...

BY THE WAY, CHECK OUT THE VARIOUS RECORDERS AROUND YELLOWSTONE. THESE THREE EVENTS ARE CAPTURED ARE **SEVERAL** OF THESE RECORDERS!

www.seis.utah.edu...

[Edited on 13-9-2003 by Valhall]

[Edited on 13-9-2003 by Valhall]

Holy calderas Batman!

I though Moose Creek was jicky. Look at Madison River!

www.seis.utah.edu...

And Mount Sheridan!!

www.seis.utah.edu...

[Edited on 13-9-2003 by Valhall]

Here are the three events from the USGS site:

2.5 2003/09/12 18:52:29 44.090 -110.560 4.2 51 km ( 32 mi) NE of Alta, WY

2.4 2003/09/12 19:03:08 44.100 -110.570 4.7 51 km ( 32 mi) NE of Alta, WY

4.7 2003/09/13 03:56:00 60.187 -153.015 126.8 71 km ( 44 mi) E of Port Alsworth, AK

Very intersting... They are now sampling for mercury at Yellowstone...

As noted in the article, mercury levels do increase with volcanic activity... and they are apparently going to great lengths and expense to take samples of this...

They also go to some trouble to attempt to cloud the situation, saying that the mercury samples may not be accurate, as mercury is also a man made pollutant.

While it is true that mercury is an artificial pollutant, it is not one that is capable of long range transport.... I would be sceptical of an accurate natural mercury concentration if a sample was taken less than 100 meters downriver from a smelter or similar facility, but in middle of Yellowstone, volcanism is the ONLY source for an increase in mercury....

(They mention mercury coming from coal power plants... I find this hard to believe, especially in very high concentrations, as the vast majority of all coal fired power plants now use fluidized bed boilers with multi level exhaust scrubbers to trap contamination.)


For two weeks this month, scientists like Zehner have been prowling Yellowstone trying to figure out how much mercury - a highly toxic pollutant - is burped into the air by the park's busy volcanic system.

"One of the hardest questions to tackle in mercury research is to quantify how much are natural and how much are man-made sources," said Dave Krabbenhoft, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist investigating mercury emissions.

Attention turned to Yellowstone because mercury is often associated with volcanic areas. Water samples from some streams in the park showed high levels of mercury, so some scientists hypothesized that at least some of that mercury was bubbling up through geothermal features and leaking into the atmosphere.

"We thought, 'If there was that much mercury in the water, couldn't there be a lot of mercury belching out?' " Krabbenhoft says.

www.billingsgazette.com.../2003/09/13/build/wyoming/30-ynp-tests.inc

From another board a poster shares:

"The recent/current Yellowstone-area swarm is just north of Colter Bay (East of road), and just south of the south entrance complex--close to Jackson Lake (quite a ways south of Yellowstone Lake). Many have not shown up on the ANSS or Utah maps/lists, but are definitely being felt in Colter Bay Village and Moran Jct."



mbmgquake.mtech.edu...

These are recordings of the same 3 quakes as listed in previous posts, I believe. One point to add here is that the posters theorize that this is yet ANOTHER occurrence of Yellowstone having prefacing quakes to a larger Alaskan quake. Maybe we should keep our eyes on this.

[Edited on 14-9-2003 by Valhall]