Whats going on at yellowstone?

Well, I just got home from my vacation and checked CNN.com news. Low and behold, there it was....a major story on the "goings on" at Yellowstone with all the quake activity! Sorry, don't know how to "link", and I did try to go through all the comments to see if it had been posted yet, that the MSM was indeed reporting on it. Didn't see it anywhere, but in my haste if it was and I missed it, sorry.

reply to post by Knobee


Knobee, check your messages.

And to all the others... I dare say that speculation - regardless of which level - is somewhat... redundant currently...
Seriously, we've been discussing the same theories all over.
Only time will tell the truth, and we got to wait for it as long as it takes.

reply to post by elitegamer23


From what I have gathered thanks to this thread, and being by no means knowleadgable on the subject, it seems pretty clear that something is crawling beneath the earth towards the north.

If anything, we might witness some kind of ejection, most likely water or vapor, but instead of an earthquake, this seems more like something waiting to find it's way out.

Originally posted by TwiTcHomatic
reply to post by spinkyboo

 

I do believe those are harmonic tremors as well, (magma is a-movin') and remember this type of event can last for days and weeks.

Sorry, I don't believe those are harmonic.

I too have watched the Webicorders for years, and to be blunt this is typical noise you'll see in wind locations, or exposed locations prior to and following a storm. After watching the Cascade webicorders for years (namely after the Mt Hood Swarm) I've learned my lesson in noise with webicorders. This type of 'movement' is quite normal in wind, or storms, or if the sensor is turned up a bit to high. I've seen it before many times and learned not to even bother with it if theres wind or storm conditions -- unless the webicorder shows that it's protected from the elements. To compound the noise problem, some recorders seem to kick up the sensitivity a notch for a few hours after a quake and then drop back down to normal.

The Upper Falls (YUF) webicorder gives a much clearer picture as to whats going on, and is closer to the epicenters of the swarm than the Mary Lake webicorder is. No one is looking at that one though, as it's not as sensational about proclaiming harmonic quakes because the YUF doesn't have lots of squiggly lines. The YUP one is showing tectonic quakes without the noise.

I've seen entire days of worse noise in the cascades during a storm. For minor examples, Crater Lake and Mt Hood should blow up too as the past week they had the same type of noise, and if you caught the big storm 2 weeks ago -- all of the cascades should be gone. Also more so you can even see the noise increasing prior to the quakes further west at the YPP webicorder, ie the wind picking up.

Not to take the wind out of everybody's sails, but you have to realize you're dealing with wind conditions of 23mph with 39mph gusts across one of the largest altitude freshwater lakes in America that is currently flat as a board by being frozen over. Plus a winter storm coming that will create a ton of noise on the recorders not protected to the elements. Speaking of which the LYWY seismograph is stationed in nothing more than a concrete pillar. Want proof? Here's the seismograph from utah edu itself:



Please tell me you don't think that the wind isn't effecting it?

reply to post by sad_eyed_lady


I don't usually have the time to read and post so there's really no sense in me becoming a member if I'm just going to have this one post so I apologize for the anonymous post. With that out of the way, there's a video on YouTube that everyone may be interested in. I don't want to get the link wrong or the post pulled before someone has a chance to see it so I'm not posting the link but if anyone's interested, go to YouTube and in the search space type "New Hot Spring at Mammoth 01-01-09. It should be the first video that pops up and is supposedly a video of a new hot spring (obviously) that has leaked out onto the side of a road at Mammoth. I'm not familiar with the area nor with YouTube (I found it by accident) and therefore don't know how accurate/truthful it is but it's there for the viewing.

reply to post by PammyK


Maybe some one will have it youtubed soon.
Lets hope.

Hi there,

I've been reviewing this post over the last few days and I encountered a very interesting article:

images.google.com...://quake.wr.usgs.gov/research/deformation/modeling/papers/yellowstone98/yell_fig1_big.gif&imgrefurl=http:// quake.usgs.gov/research/deformation/modeling/papers/yellowstone98.html&usg=__-RTdjeQcoSBNeqyOdDS7uIUMhDU=&h=893&w=805&sz=315&hl=en&start=99&sig2=kEJ1H fY-D2ejYL1RpB58Yg&tbnid=zobY-dJudgCzEM:&tbnh=146&tbnw=132&ei=83JeSYaFIIb-MtO8hPIK&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dyellowstone%2Bcaldera%26start%3D80%26gbv%3D2%26nd sp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

In it there is a description of the interplay of fluid between the two domes (Sour Creek and Mallard Lake) above the yellowstone caldera. What I find interesting is that it appears there may have been a sort of "release valve" for pressure at the northwest corner of the caldera between 1985 and 1995 when earthquake swarms opened this valve in 1985 then possibly closed it again in 1995. Since then there has been a complex interplay of repressurization, particularly in the Sour Creek Dome.

What's even more interesting is that it appears that the USGS has named a rough line running between Mount Washburn down along the northeast edge of the Yellowstone Lake as the "leveling line" underwhich pressure is equalized between the Sour Creek (SC) and Mallard Lake (ML) domes. I'm guessing the leveling line is an area of dense, hard rock that is particularly resistant to uplift. The uplift occurs on either side of this leveling line which is why there are two domes.

It also appears that the Mary Lake (YMR) helicorder lies right over top a "conduit" (as mentioned in the linked article, a sort of pipe that is funneling fluids between the two domes in primarily the SC to ML direction). This conduit only opens when pressure has reached Pc (critical pressure) in the SC dome. This may be why we are seeing these harmonic earthquakes as they might be recording the flow in this newly opened conduit between SC and ML. This "conduit" runs roughly perpendicular to the leveling line and what is even more disconcerting is that the earthquakes appear to be following a track along this "leveling line." What this means, that the earthquakes appear to be following this leveling line, I do not know. What I do know is that in 1985 and 1995 the earthquake swarms were located at the edge of the caldera indicating a pressure release into the surrounding bedrock. This earthquake swarm is occuring within the caldera, in a line of rock that has separated and maintained the pressurized domes of the caldera.

What I'm trying to get at here is that there appears to have been a closure of a "release valve" to the northwest of the park that once allowed depressurization of the domes and subsequent subsidence. There also now appears to have been a large enough repressurization that a previously closed conduit between SC and ML has now reopened (as inferred by the harmonic tremors detected at YMR) indicating a high level of magmatic (OR hydrothermic) pressurization at least within the SC dome. And last but not least it appears that the leveling line is now beginning to crack, possibly due to the pressure along the SC/ML conduit. I think if you continue to watch the earthquakes over the next few days, you will see that they will continue northward and begin to drift west along the leveling line as fluid continues to flow between SC and ML.

Again, what this all means, I'd hate to even guess. But it certainly appears that the SC dome is alleviating pressure by transferring pressurized fluid to the ML dome. In the past the ML dome has relieved its pressurization by "leaking" into the bedrock to the north of the caldera. It's unclear from what I've seen what the cracking along the leveling line may mean or where the ML pressure might end up going. Any thoughts?

reply to post by PammyK

Slashdot carried this a few days ago.. because I wrote it.

reply to post by Not Authorized


Maybe wind would cause some noise but not the kind we are seeing. We have already discussed the wind possibility. What we are seeing on the graphs is by far not wind.

reply to post by iamcamouflage


In my honest and non-expert opinion. If this super volcano were to "blow big" I thing jet stream would immediately change course due to the force and size of the blast. The typical South Easterly direction may go away.

Originally posted by redhatty
for that Yellowstone Warning

Update time = Thu Jan 1 19:31:44 UTC 2009

Posted by geologist Christopher C. Sanders on January 1, 2009.

"I am advising all State officials around Yellowstone National Park for a potential State of Emergency. In the last week over 300 earthquakes have been observed by the USGS. We have a 3D view on the movement of magma rising underground. We have all of the pre warning signs of a major eruption from a super volcano. - I want everyone to leave Yellowstone National Park and for 200 miles around the volcano caldera."

Source

So he is a private geologist - not USGS? Is this not an official warning?

Originally posted by SevenandFive
reply to post by iamcamouflage

 

Jet stream:

www.wunderground.com...

right to washington DC...THE SUPERVOLCANO IS A TERRORIST!!!

Originally posted by xsamaelx
reply to post by elitegamer23

 

From what I have gathered thanks to this thread, and being by no means knowleadgable on the subject, it seems pretty clear that something is crawling beneath the earth towards the north.

If anything, we might witness some kind of ejection, most likely water or vapor, but instead of an earthquake, this seems more like something waiting to find it's way out.

has anyone calculated when it would reach the surface? this has been a very interesting thread. keep up the work you guys.
peace