Yellowstone Just Lit Up Again With a New Swarm- happening now

Wow, am I reading this right? 193" of snow depth?
Last 2 days snow depth

I wonder if they are getting snowslides that are causing some webicorder activity...

Wouldn't surprise me, we got upwards of 32" over the last few days at the base of the mountain here on the high plains. Not as much in town, but still quite a bit...

reply to post by sageturkey


Okay...that map is really alarming me. Obviously, it is incorrect. The area around it is showing 2 to 5 inches, and the other map (by color) correspondsing with around 6 inches of snow.

That big, red 193 is obviously wrong. But I would like to know what caused it, becuase it is very near to where the current swarm is happening. How is that info monitored and gathered? Is there equipment on the ground that could have been disrupted by a quake, or more importantly.....deformation?

The FACT that the park is closed down, including the cameras is just....disturbing. Especially since the last quake (2.8) was centered near old faithful and the park camera.

UGH!!!

(At least we won't have to deal with the snow plows and catterpillars this year. )

reply to post by Baddogma


Does anybody just know a virgin?

reply to post by westcoast


I know just what you mean, it doesn't match up with the other readings.
But - I can tell you this much, the other readings are definitely incorrect. ETA 2: Apparently they're not...
We got a LOTTA snow from this one...
ETA: If we got 3-4 feet here on our little mountain, it would be totally plausible even likely that they got 2x to 3x as much...

reply to post by sageturkey


That 193 must mean something else.. there is just no way!! lol

reply to post by MamaJ


I'll see if I can find other sources, 16 feet would be a bit high but I could see 10 feet as totally possible.
In fact, one of my work partners is scheduled to work at the park all next week in Canyon Village and I'm betting that there's no way he's getting anywhere close.

ETA: Hmmm... maybe the storm missed them.
This site is only showing 5- 8 inches.
Link

So then the question remains, where the heck did the 193 come from? Doesn't look like a very well-designed site, just did a quick Google and pulled-up the first site that I saw.
ETA: I see that the data source for the map was NOAA, guessing that the shutdown has something to do with the erroneous data.
Shutdown Message

The bicuit basin camera is operating. Here is the link


There is a bit of snow, but not 193".

reply to post by Olivine

Thanks for that Olivine, I had never seen that cam before. I just edited my last post to include a bit more credible snow depth source....

Back on topic, swarm is definitely still ongoing.

ETA: Wow this last one at 12:53 and the one at 8:00 sure have different signatures along with some double and triple-taps... It's actually supposed to be 1:53 and 9:00, the chart is an hour off due to DST.
YMR

reply to post by sageturkey


YMR is now down.

Great.

Thanks for the camera link, Olivine!

reply to post by westcoast


It's back up. Just caught your post about snowplows and caterpillars, my thoughts exactly.
Durn caterpillars had ressiv and I kind of apprehensive until Olivine and others set us straight.

Notice the big difference between the last few "incidents" on the helicorder from earlier ones?
Anyone care to give an analysis on this? Instead of the sudden "cut loose and die-down" types, these are starting small and gradually building to a peak, then gradually dying off....

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm around, but working a lot lately so I really am monitoring only overnight.

We have ANOTHER swarm now, with it being centered around the area of the posted 2.8 quake. Like what always happens on weekends and late nights, they are posting the biggest event of the sequence first, and the rest will be backfilled later. The problem with that of course is that until they do, no one knows that it is a swarm, and just appears as one little quake for now. No one except for the people paying real close attention with the right tools, that is. And I don't know if any of you caught this, but even Mr. Grumpy PuterMan's data was premature, and indeed erroneous- didn't you guys see the final numbers of the quakes in the initial swarm? Well hey, I tried to tell yas!

www.iris.edu...

www.seis.utah.edu...

It is still fidgeting, but at the time of this post, gone into a lull.

There is no harmonic anything at Yellowstone, unless the birds decide to chirp in harmony.

Anyone reading this, please- don't use the word harmonic unless:

A. You really know what it means as applied to that type of tremor, and

B. You have the means of differentiating any such signal from other seismicity. Because unless you are a schooled seismologist AND volcanologist, you are going to have a real tough time even trying to claim such from just a waveform on a webicorder. It just makes you look stupid to post anything of the sort. If you suspect any kind of tremor at all, then best just ask. A couple of us around here DO have that means, and believe me, if I ever suspected harmonic tremor at YS, I wouldn't be sitting here posting about it at first. I'd be on the phone with scientists, even at 3 am, their time.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like a condescending know it all, because I don't know it all. I know very little. But what little I do know was enough to write that above, and mean it. I spend literally ever night of my life just about watching incoming raw data from YS and other places.

So how concerned am I about these swarms? Honestly, just a little bit. Some. Raising an eye brow type of concerned. Increasing microquake swarms is supposed to be ONE indicator of ramp up to eruption. But if the other indicators are not there, then scientists believe it will probably not erupt.

But wait. I mean never mind the fact that we have had uplift and subsidence of the caldera. Nah. I mean never mind the fact C02 emissions are a known indicator, and YS is one of the most prolific sources of C02 on the planet at this point. Nah. I mean never mind the fact dying trees are leaving lifeless sticks and stumps all around the park, and animals have died due to the gasses. Nah.



I have no question in my mind that the swarms are indeed elevated activity, and there seems to be no question of that in the YVO's mind either. So why didn't they raise the alert level? I already asked the question:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

All we can do is hope these swarms go away, and that YS is just in a temporary state. But they don't seem to be going away- and it will take weeks and/or months to make that assessment anyway.

TrueAmerican
Yeah, I'm around, but working a lot lately so I really am monitoring lately overnight.

We have ANOTHER swarm now, with it being centered around the area of the posted 2.8 quake.

www.iris.edu...

www.seis.utah.edu...

It is still fidgeting, but at the time of this post, gone into a lull.

There is no harmonic anything at Yellowstone, unless the birds decide to chirp in harmony.

Anyone reading this, please- don't use the word harmonic unless:

A. You really know what it means as applied to that type of tremor, and

B. You have the means of differentiating any such signal from other seismicity. Because unless you are a schooled seismologist AND volcanologist, you are going to have a real tough time even trying to claim such from just a waveform on a webicorder. It just makes you look stupid to post anything of the sort. If you suspect any kind of tremor at all, then best just ask. A couple of us around here DO have that means, and believe me, if I ever suspected harmonic tremor at YS, I wouldn't be sitting here posting about it at first. I'd be on the phone with scientists, even at 3 am, their time.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like a condescending know it all, because I don't know it all. I know very little. But what little I do know was enough to write that above, and mean it. I spend literally ever night of my life just about watching incoming raw data from YS and other places.

I just wanted to say that I believe you have every right to demand people not saying terms they know nothing about. If anything... Even if the offending party doesn't listen, I and others have learned why not to use it... Why it's used... Ect ect.

I just wanted to thank-you for educating us.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

harmonic means magmaflow....if the chamber is alreaddy filled up there will be an increase in pressure
so perhaps the magmaflow can't be measured due of the increased pressure..it will slow doun by it
its not an usuall strato volcano we talking about...its an caldera..there might be an differance in its behaviour
pressure is looking for the weakest spot...explains the swarms.....
wat is the weakest spot in the park??????????????

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Check this out..i dont know how to start a new thread .its been awhile..lol..but check this out.i went to check out the eq reports for today ok...yellowstone ect... well this is that i found under earthquakes today..

Goverment Furlough
Due to a laspe in Federal funding the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program has suspended most of its operataions...While the USGS will continue to monitor and report on earthquake activity, the accurancy on timelines of some earth quake info products as well as availability of functionality of some web pages could be effected by our reduced level of operation....

And that was it.. i couldnt find out about any earthquakes on that on map.. im going to try some other maps... oh my.. with Yellowstone, raising some fits.. this concerns me a bit...ill check back later.. bye

reply to post by eeks4


well another page came up so we have some insight of the quakes.. everywhere....but th info scares me a bit.. it could be so fudged...wow.. thank you for the updates with yellowstone.. ill keep watching....

TrueAmerican
Like what always happens on weekends and late nights, they are posting the biggest event of the sequence first, and the rest will be backfilled later. The problem with that of course is that until they do, no one knows that it is a swarm, and just appears as one little quake for now. No one except for the people paying real close attention with the right tools, that is.

Yep, even our local news did that. First, they reported that there was AN earthquake registering 3.6 on the scale. After getting reamed on their FB page and looking into it a bit more extensively themselves, they came out with another report that there were in fact 3 EQ's over mag 3 and hundreds of smaller ones.

Now with all the people away and park rangers on furlough, why are the tremor signatures unchanged? I remember someone replied that it was probably park traffic. Well I guess this is just Yellowstone making this noise on her own, nobody to blame for the readings now is there?

reply to post by whatnext21


They've actually changed big-time. At least the noise that I was seeing and questioning anyway.
I described it as "fuzzy caterpillars", I stole that from a conversation about the swarms in 2009 where someone was describing how to spot the now verboten words in this thread (I totally understand the reasoning behind your request TA - if it's not a duck, stop calling it a duck...)
It began every day about opening time and was fairly constant throughout the day and it's now gone.
Maybe you're seeing something else, but what I was seeing is gone.

Compare this screenshot from today (which is still a bit disturbing):


With this screenshot from last week:


No more fuzzy caterpillars see? Unless you count that stuff at 8:00 one... Still waiting to hear from someone more knowledgeable about the subject about the differences that I mentioned earlier...

reply to post by whatnext21


I am thinking it could be wind or animals as well - and likely some residual traffic from staff shutting things down? It does seem to correspond to the day getting started - like a switch is flipped on - weird.

Glad they could find non essential things like timely earthquake and volcano updates to cut funding on - instead of their own pay checks. My opinion - if government is this unreliable we need to make earthquake and volcano monitoring a private industry. No more government for important things like this. A fund 100% protected from government interference. I hope people realize that to count on these guys to manage our money is a mistake (and it is our money).

In the meanwhile I guess we have ATS experts to help us interpret and keep up to speed. Wouldn't have known about these quakes today without all of you. And of course there is always the good old fashioned reports from yellowstone residents.

reply to post by Dianec

Using today's helicorder readout as an example, if you look at the EQ's that occurred starting at about 12:00 (a few before too) they look totally different (more like the display from a sound editor) than the high frequency ones that I've been seeing throughout this latest swarm episode (more like a sideways tornado).
I don't think that they're vehicle activity as they don't look anything like the stuff that was occurring beginning at about 6:00 A.M. on previous days.
If you use this photo as a guide,

they would be classified as an LP earthquake which is defined as a long-period or volcanic earthquake versus the HF earthquakes which are classified as Tectonic. Glossary Source
And to me that's kind of worrysome - but what do I know right??? As TA mentioned - it's hard to tell what is going on just by looking at a readout, what with all of the variables that he mentioned like CO2, deformation, etc... But on the other hand, you don't need a DNA test to tell that a duck is a duck either...