The recent swarm of earthquakes noted at Yellowstone National Park were most likely caused by shifts in tectonic plates, not pressures in the magma chamber beneath the park, according to geologists.
According to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, University of Utah semismograph stations in the park noted a pair of earthquakes Sunday evening that measured magnitudes of 3.0 and 3.1. The first event of magnitude 3.0 occurred at 11:09 p.m. and was followed by a magnitude 3.1 event at 11:21 p.m., the observatory reported.
Both shocks were located around 9 miles southeast of West Yellowstone, Montana, and about 10 miles northwest of Old Faithful. Typically, events of this magnitude are felt in and around the park, but there were no reports of these particular events being felt, the observatory noted.
These two earthquakes are part of an ongoing swarm in Yellowstone that began January 17, 2010. The largest earthquake in the swarm as of 9 a.m. MST, January 25, was a magnitude 3.8, the observatory reported. There have been 1,271 located earthquakes in the swarm of magnitude 0.5 to 3.8. This includes 11 events of magnitude larger than 3, with 97 events of magnitude 2 to 3, and 1,163 events of magnitude less than 2. There have been multiple personal reports of ground shaking from observers inside the park and in surrounding areas for some of the larger events.
Earthquake swarms are relatively common in Yellowstone.
The swarm events are likely the result of slip on pre-existing faults and are called tectonic earthquakes and are not thought to be caused by underground movement of magma, the observatory staff noted. Currently, there is no indication of premonitory volcanic or hydrothermal activity, but ongoing observations and analyses will continue to evaluate these different sources.
Seismic information on the earthquake can be viewed at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations: http://www.seis.utah.edu/.
Seismograph recordings from stations of the Yellowstone seismograph network can be viewed online at: http://quake.utah.edu/helicorder/yell_webi.htm.
Anyone who has felt earthquakes in the swarm are encouraged to fill out a form on the USGS Community Felt reports web site: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi/.
Support Essential Coverage of Essential Places
Comments
When 300,000 humans die in Haiti it is not appropriate time for you to ridicule my 34 years of reseaarch.
I am sorry you feel that way.
john delano 07/14/2010
The deep magma pool under Yellowstone has been researched, and the temperature of the pool was reported to be only 170 degrees farenheidt. The cooling mass is again sinking and rather then rising as stated above. The pool may decend 500 miles was also reported. "The tail" of the magma pool under all the ancient calderas is under the front range, where it should be.
The "Front Range"! Nowhere in the United States is the proof so convincing that these mountains were pushed up from the west, from the Pacific Ocean. Look at them. Its like a 100 mile wide "bulldozer" pushed the land toward the east. I have become a believer after 34 years of research that I know what that bulldozer was made of.
Socrates and Plato spoke of fire ,water, [ice] and air----pick one.
The 4.5 billion year old moon forming collision did in fact excavate the Pacific Ocean and the moon was created from the material that was circling the earth . The experts working with super computers are convinced of the moon capture and even state that the formation took only a month to complete.
The Pacific Hollow was created.
The Pacific Hollow filled with all the water accumulated from millions of years of incoming coments.
The Pacific Hollow's massive water holding would freeze solid.
Earth had no atmosphere billions of years ago.
The Earth rotated faster.
The Ice Cap Formed, and was raised to great heights due to the returning mantle material .
The ice cap was 18 miles high at the center.
The ice cap was an aysemetric mass on the surface of the Earth.
In 100 million years the Centrifical fores moved this mass on the surface toward the equator , pushing crust and mantle toward the earths equator which went through the north and south poles.
The South Pole Antartica records the "Napier Mountains", 4.4 billion years old parallel to the equator at that time, and forming the "Backbone" of the highest continent on the Planet- Antartica.
The Movement ov the ice cap formed other ancient folded mountains ,all on the equator and perpendicular to the center of the Pacific Ocean. Those are the ancient mountains of South America. The Ages of the mountains are oldest in the East [2.2 billion years ago-BYA] then get younger as 4 more folded mountains ranges are dated 1.9 BYA- 1.8 BYA -1.75 BYA -1.7 BYA .
The fscts continue daly proving the Ice Cap and the Continental size ice shell floes was the buldozer the pushed the land , coming from the ocean and no where to be found.
To be continues...
There is nothing to see here, move along.
2012 ?
It's just nature's way of shrugging off parasites from its coat, like a dog scratching a flea.
The earth will be here long after we are gone.
Unlike some other contributors, I have no desire to challenge Mr (Dr?) Delano's 34 years of research, as my own research into the Yellowstone supervolcano is confined entirely to having watched one 'made for TV' disaster movie on the subject. (I believe I may term the genre: 'schlockumentary'...) My concern is largely personal, as my daughter is studying in America.
However, I venture that Mr Delano's scientific credibility does suffer somewhat owing to his poor standard of literacy. That is not intended as a personal slight on Mr Delano, many scientists express themselves poorly in writing, while I myself have wasted rather more than 34 years in literary endeavours that qualify me to do little other than carp; but rather, proposes a possible course of action he might take, perhaps to collaborate and share his research with someone better qualified to publicise its rather alarming prognostications, that are surely worthy of peer review?
I am concerned, too, that no-one has posted a comment on this blog since 11 August. Why the curtain of silence? We are coming up to the January 'swarm season', apparently. Will we be kept informed, despite President Bush's imprimatur, of further developments? Should we 'watch this space'?
Finally, I am wondering if 'Mr Delano' is not in fact the model for the crazy character in Roland Emmerich's film, 2012; a hippie Jeremiah, who lives in a camper in the national park and runs a one-man radio station prophesying the end of all things? If so, I am worried. He was right.
At school right now we are doing a project on tectonic plates, and this really helped!