Yellowstone Earthquakes Under Supervolcano Caldera

There's been a slight uptick of earthquakes under the super volcanoe. I was wondering if anyone else was following this? My dad just came in and told me about it.

This December 2008 earthquake sequence is the most intense in this area for some years and is centered on the east side of the Yellowstone caldera. Scientists can not identify any causative fault or other feature without further analysis. Seismologists continue to monitor and analyze the data and will issue new information if the situation warrants it.

www.usnews.com...

reply to post by djpaec


yeah there;s already a thread...


What's Going On At yellowstone.....it's really popular right now...front page....

reply to post by djpaec

Just alot of Earthquakes happening everyday since Dec 26 Something is a Foot, At the north end of the lake..
The November 9, 2007 issue of Science Magazine features an article, Accelerated uplift and magmatic intrusion of the Yellowstone Caldera, 2004 to 2006, by YVO scientists from the University of Utah and USGS. Using GPS and another satellite-based technique (InSAR), the authors find that parts of the Yellowstone Caldera rose as much as 7 cm (~3") per year from 2004 to 2006. The uplift is most noticeable at the White Lake GPS station, as has been discussed in our monthly YVO updates over the past year. Chang and his colleagues credit the relatively rapid uplift to magma entering the region beneath the Yellowstone Caldera. During this period of uplift, there have been relatively few earthquakes at Yellowstone. Heat and gas flow from the geysers and hot springs also remain unchanged. Calderas such as Yellowstone can display this sort of geologic behavior, even for centuries or millennia, without erupting.

As lava enters the chamber and pushes up the dome, the rock around the perimeter is weakened. Lava flows into this rock producing earthquakes. A website this writer was at several days ago stated that the most recent quakes were directly above the lava chamber where the earth is thinnest. If this is true, then the current earthquake swarm is qualitatively different from past earthquakes in the area.

-Torange

Just found this news video item concerning this event. www.ksl.com... If that does not work put "yellowstone earthquakes" into google press news www.google.co.uk... and it is the top story at the momment.

For once I am glad I live in the UK.


[edit on 31-12-2008 by tarifa37]

Just in case you cannot find that thread mentioned already started.... Here it is.

Thus far there has been around 210 earthquakes recently in the Yellowstone vicinity. About 99% of them are swarming in the Yellowstone Lake!