Whats going on at yellowstone?

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I think that the second one (the 2.9) has disappeared. The one listed as 3.1 happened 12 minutes after the 3.0.

reply to post by Ape_Man


Nope, both are still there. I tracked down the RSS feed that Equake Alert uses to source from (seeing as I can't use it cause it doesn't support Firefox 3.6):

earthquake.usgs.gov...

That might be a useful link to bookmark, as it is just a touch faster than Equake Alert.

Check it, they are both still there.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Thanks for the link.

I misunderstood. I thought the 2.8 you were talking about was the one immediately following the 3.0. That one looked to me like a mid-high 2 and I am sure it was listed briefly on the UoU website.

Cheers

[edit on 25-1-2010 by Ape_Man]

reply to post by Thought Provoker


I only said the moon started the swarm. I have no idea why the majority of quakes are happening in the evening. It's been a similiar pattern. Quiet with small quakes throughout the day. The odd 2.5 and it really gets quiet, then bang and usually bang. They seem to be double taps. I was hoping Shirakawa could explain quakes that behave like this. Most quake has a little one, then main shock, then lots of aftershocks. I know swarms don't follow this pattern. But this swarm doesnt' seem to be similiar to this one in that regard. At the moment it's making me so curious and I want to know why?

reply to post by Robin Marks


I just wonder how much more of this the park can take before one of those hundreds and hundreds of quakes knocks something loose and causes a chain reaction. 1 fracture in the wrong spot and man... I dunno... Scary stuff.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


For all we know, that chain reaction started several days ago and will take several more to reach climax. Pleasant dreams...

(I'm joking, of course. ha?)

reply to post by Thought Provoker


Heh, I must admit, this thing has got me totally fixated. But of course the humor is appreciated. In response to your hypothesis, given that these appear tectonic and not magmatic- it is precisely that I worry about- movement on the faults jars something loose, or causes a fracture which then cannot stand up to the building pressure from any part of the magma chamber. I mean I don't see any reason that it possibly could not go down like that. Just all of a sudden, huge explosion after one of these quakes.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I've been thinking the same thing these past two days. B207 is just constant with small quakes now....punctuated every few minutes with a larger one.

Those double quakes are what first made me take notice. There are several patterns that seem to be culminating to something......hopfeully it will just ease off prior to the 'breaking point'. It has managed to for thousands of years!!

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Exactly how I've always thought it would happen. I picture it like an elephant slowly pushing against a brick wall, harder and harder, while you're watching from the other side. At first the wall would start to crack along the weaker seams and bulge towards you. Cracks would appear both small and large, along with cracking sounds whose loudness matches how much cracked. The more time that goes by, the weaker that wall gets, until it must give way and fall to pieces and suddenly there's an elephant in the room. But nobody likes talking about the elephant in the room, so you keep hoping it'll just stop pushing and go away all the way up to the point where your wall shatters.

So I guess it's tectonic fault-boundary grinding caused by magmatic pressure from the plume that some people think doesn't exist. The amount of pressure in the magma chamber is the elephant almost in the room. At a certain amount of pounds per square inch, the ground's structural integrity will fail. Problem is, nobody can even guess how much pressure it'd take, or how much pressure is in the chamber. And that is why nobody can predict when it's going to erupt until it's just about to. Without those two variables, all we can do is watch.

So why worry?

reply to post by westcoast


I so hear you. You know, maybe what we need is one good hard quake. Like a 6 or 7 to show us the park can still take it. I mean obviously I wouldn't wish harm on anyone, but if that did happen and it didn't blow, I guess it would prove we are not on the edge of a MAJOR disaster. In that way it would certainly ease my concerns, that's for sure.

Re the evening 'bangs' and the moon aspect, would I be right in assuming that currently the moon is opposite the States at around this time?

It is currently setting in the West here in Ireland in the late evening so I am guessing that would put it over the States at the right time? Just a thought..(despite the fact that the USGS says it has no influence )

reply to post by Shirakawa


A mine blast - or nuke(?) on a Sunday at what -- around 1 pm assuming 8 hours behind GMT. Possible but.....

reply to post by PuterMan


I agree....who would be blasting in the dead of winter on a Sunday? If that were capable of it, and it was a common thing, then we should see it on the webicorders going way back....swarm or not, right? I'm just not sold on that theory. What about an avalanche?

reply to post by PuterMan


Mine blasting or not (military tests? some kind of "explosive" or "snapping" activity anyway), the signal source was a few hundred kilometers east of Yellowstone National Park. Seismic stations from the Transportable Array network confirmed this.

[edit on 2010-1-25 by Shirakawa]

Another 2.9

* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 10:27:37 UTC
* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 03:27:37 AM at epicenter

Location 44.566°N, 110.962°W
Depth 9.7 km (6.0 miles)
Region YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
Distances

* 16 km (10 miles) SE (133°) from West Yellowstone, MT
* 31 km (19 miles) ENE (76°) from Island Park, ID
* 56 km (35 miles) SSW (201°) from Gardiner, MT
* 431 km (268 miles) N (10°) from Salt Lake City, UT

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.5 km (0.3 miles); depth +/- 1.2 km (0.7 miles)
Parameters NST= 24, Nph= 24, Dmin=12 km, Rmss=0.23 sec, Gp= 68°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=2

About the 21:15 stuff Shirakawa is right. It's related to something that happened east of YS and is not at all related to the actual swarm.

Check the seismographs YJC, YMP and YPK if you've some doubts.

About HT's.
None till now as I can see on the seismographs and I don't think we will see any. This entire swarm is tectonic, as already stated by the de pros. ;-)
If, read if and not when, HT shows up I think the only graph (seis-utah ones) to check is the YMR. Probably the reason why they kept that one at 125.00 microvolts.

Nidwin

Now another - 2.8

2.8
Date-Time

* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 11:11:30 UTC
* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 04:11:30 AM at epicenter

Location 44.564°N, 110.960°W
Depth 7.4 km (4.6 miles)
Region YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
Distances

* 16 km (10 miles) SE (133°) from West Yellowstone, MT
* 31 km (19 miles) ENE (76°) from Island Park, ID
* 56 km (35 miles) SSW (200°) from Gardiner, MT
* 430 km (267 miles) N (10°) from Salt Lake City, UT

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.4 km (0.2 miles); depth +/- 1 km (0.6 miles)
Parameters NST= 21, Nph= 21, Dmin=12 km, Rmss=0.15 sec, Gp= 83°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=0
Source

* University of Utah Seismograph Stations

I think another M2.6 and a M2.8 occurred in rapid sequence.
I didn't expect this uptick in activity.

[edit on 2010-1-25 by Shirakawa]

Yet another 2.8... looks like should be two reported but perhaps one was under 2.5 and not auto-reported on USGS... bang goes my early night (it's nearly 1am here!!)

2.8
Date-Time

* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 11:32:10 UTC
* Monday, January 25, 2010 at 04:32:10 AM at epicenter

Location 44.594°N, 110.954°W
Depth 9.3 km (5.8 miles)
Region YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
Distances

* 14 km (9 miles) ESE (122°) from West Yellowstone, MT
* 32 km (20 miles) ENE (71°) from Island Park, ID
* 53 km (33 miles) SSW (201°) from Gardiner, MT
* 434 km (270 miles) N (10°) from Salt Lake City, UT

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.6 km (0.4 miles); depth +/- 1.2 km (0.7 miles)
Parameters NST= 18, Nph= 18, Dmin=25 km, Rmss=0.2 sec, Gp=108°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=0

[edit on 25-1-2010 by MoorfNZ]

Looks like 3 in a row to me (could be wrong although)

a 1.x followed by a 2.2-2.3 and the 2.8