reply to post by sickofitall2012

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It means we are most likely looking at either dry rock or magma movements, or both, opposed to heated water as the causes of the quakes. Not much irregularity in the hydrothermal system there may also be an indicator. If it was, we'd probably be seeing more hydrothermal events, like new geysers forming, Old Faithful going out of whack, or something like that.

As to the latest (third) mini swarm of quakes, still waiting for conformation of location. But I can say that the last time I saw anything register 30 microns at H17A, it turned out to be a 2 or above.

Part of the problem here is they are using different types of sensors with different sensitivities. All that has to be factored in when trying to pin down the location of a quake without the coordinates given. And since I have been monitoring gee almost non stop since the day someone posted the link to it, I was witness to almost all the events in gee, how they looked, and what amplitude in gee corresponded to what magnitude in Richter scale.

It's possible the third mini swarm could be false events, but not likely given what I have seen. It will be very curious to see what comes of that when (and if) the coordinates get posted.

[edit on Mon Jan 12th 2009 by TrueAmerican]

reply to post by TrueAmerican

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So magma or dry rock movement is more indicative of an eruption instead of just a hydrothermal eruption?

reply to post by sickofitall2012

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Well, what we mostly have is quakes to go by that is really out of the norm, and even those are not so out of the norm as has been said many times. There have been previous swarms.

But see, that's the problem. There have been previous swarms, and now these swarms, all of which, taken either individually or over time = MULTIPLE SWARMS. The dreaded words so spoken by the YVO themselves in the last in depth assessment as a POTENTIAL indicator of a magmatic type of eruption- which then further divides down into the two main types of magmatic eruptions- basaltic or chryolitic. The link to their assessment is provided early in this thread if you want to read more.

At least one thing is clear: YS is one of the, if not the most, monitored sites in the world. Trouble is they are facing some unknowns here.

[edit on Mon Jan 12th 2009 by TrueAmerican]

reply to post by TrueAmerican

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Thank you so much for your help in understanding this. I'm not at all convinced that an eruption is too terribly close, but all this activity, I feel, is definitely early indicators that she's warming up. I hope they are also keeping an eye on the animals behavior. The animals will know before us. Thanks again, and I appreciate you keeping us up to date on the situation.

reply to post by sickofitall2012

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You're welcome, but heh, I am barely just getting a grasp of all this myself.

I have been getting activity south of Teton all day in spurts. This is south and southwest a bit of the lake. Right now I am monitoring so many channels, hard to keep em all straight.

Everyone else seems to be focused Northeast of the lake.

I can't believe that what I'm about to say is not widespread yet. Because of the earthquakes, Yellowstone was placed on red alert not too long ago. However, I'm not sure rather or not if it's still on red but it is still something to be worry about.

Who placed it on red alert? Where and when? I have not seen any such alert, I've seen it listed as a volcano hazard but always with condition: GREEN, NORMAL. Are you sure that is what you saw?

reply to post by quakewatcher

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It wasn't one of those volcano sites that everyone keeps checking every 5 seconds. However,I do not know who placed Yellowstone on red and I'm not sure if it's still on red. And this happen not too long ago. There is also another member on here who said they heard the same thing.

reply to post by Rocketgirl

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Where did you get that info from? I've seen it go up on the watch list but never seen its status change from green.

reply to post by Rocketgirl

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Are you talking about the guy who's in trouble with the feds for putting up the USGS logo on his personal website and telling everyone to evacuate? (Christopher Sanders) He doesn't even have a graduate degree in geology.

Yeah, I don't think it ever went yellow much less orange.

Guess what folks, I got a friggin answer! YES! FROM FROM FROM.... OMG. I dare not speak the name. For I surely want to protect their privacy.

BUT:

I am going to wait before I say anything. Why? Because the tone of the message to my surprise was so friendly, that I am going to retain this contact for further information. They still have two other emails of mine with more questions. They just answered the second one, which had the first list of questions after the contact was established. No, I swear, I would never do that to yous, don't even think it. It is true. And they are, well, I can't even say, because it would most likely give away who it is.

And very interestingly, they could not answer some of my questions. Now THAT just blows me away considering WHO this is.

Let them get me an answer to the third email at least, and I will then be better prepared to deliver all.

I will say this though: so far, the concern there is about where the alert level is: Normal. So relax for now folks- but they have not seen all my data or questions yet- or are in the middle of reading them. They provided me a direct number too!

Way cool. YAY! TA is happy.

Nice, I'm looking forward to read these emails.
By the way, today at about 01:44 MST, a ~1.5 magnitude earthquake (not reported yet) occurred near YLT, where yesterday you saw that micro-earthquake miniswarm.

[edit on 2009/1/13 by Shirakawa]

I just thought of something while I was catching up on everything this morning. Can anyone tell me how long there has been swarms like this? Did they start in 1985 or do they go back further? Also, I read an article out of Billings that someone posted, it stated 900 EQ's in YS since Dec. 26. I know I read a statement released by the USGS that said last year there were 1000 EQ's in YS TOTAL. Did the 1985 swarm they keep referring to have 900+ EQ's, after all, it lasted 3 months? WTH?

Actually, there is a bit more info, but not much. They are really not that concerned, and as it turns out, they are not necessarily a specialist in the YS volcano itself- and I think that is an issue. For this particular case, YS, RFBurns's contacts may be more applicable. But pretty much they had the typical "move along folks, nothing to see here- they'll alert us if anything's wrong" attitude.



Yep, I saw it on Gee. Except this time I got a screenie of it, in fact, I have started taking screenies of a lot of stuff.

As it turns out, I was able track down the exact coordinates of H17A. And boy was I surprised. I was under the impression that H17A resided slightly south of the Lake, when in fact the thing is sitting right at the lake, on the west side. Right where YLT is. I am not sure that Gee represents that exact position quite right from this new information. It is very very close to YLT actually, and for all intents and purposes, right next to it.

Sorry for my tone to you in the other thread. I need to really chill out on this. I was correct however. The quakes were closer to H17A than they were to YTP which is what you stated. But in a sense we were both wrong, and partly from not being clear exactly where H17A resides. I can understand you wanting the exact coordinates of these sensors. I need to really work with you in a collaborative tone instead of the tone I used. Excuse me, please.

At the moment we are only seeing the biggest 2 events of that mini swarm. But I think the new location of at least one of those, relative to all that's happened so far, is noteworthy. Right at the southwest side of the lake. I haven't tracked down that one you are talking about yet as to exact location, but yep, saw it, and got screenie. It pushed 100 microns on Gee, and so yeah it is probably in the range you stated. 300 microns in Gee for H17A yielded 2.5's or maybe 3.

I am a bit more at ease with the email I got, but still vigilant.

[edit on Tue Jan 13th 2009 by TrueAmerican]

This is an image I made by overlapping the GEE map (with WY stations added) and the webicorder location image on the University of Utah website. TA.H17A is a few hundred meters South of YLT:

reply to post by Shirakawa

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It's all kinda fun actually, trying to understand this, cause it's pretty challenging. G17A is also another one to watch, and its register is very telling of the potential magnitude right away when there is an event at the Lake. Nothing or little shows up in line on it, and chances are the event was below a 2.

So I'm just curious.

What if in a freak move all of a sudden we started seeing a swarm with peak magnitudes reaching in the 7's or 8's?

Whatcha say Burns. Would that cause you to get out fast right away, or would you still try to ride out the storm? What's your breaking point in all of this?

reply to post by TrueAmerican

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If the Yellowstone hypervolcano does go off, life in North America will be pretty much done for. We will all have to move. Australia might be safe enough. World wide "nuclear winter" conditions likely will persist in the Northern Hemisphere for quite some time

I believe this latest event was not from the Columbia quake. 4.6 wouldn't reach to YS that strong, and if it did, we'd mostly notice the S-waves on the BHE and BHN channels. And I believe in monitoring all 3 channels. Why throw out 2/3's of your information?

I believe this event was an earthquake somewhere in Montana or east of there, but still not sure.

Yeah, the americans leave N.America and conquer Australia, while either Russia or China buy up N.America's land at a super-discount price. Great.

Ko3