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Quake Shakes Yellowstone, All Normal

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A small earthquake shook Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday/Rebecca Latson file

A "light" earthquake shook Yellowstone National Park gently Wednesday morning, but geologists say there was nothing unusual about it.

According to a University of Utah seismograph station, a quake with a 4.2 magnitude was recorded just after 7:30 a.m. MDT.

"The epicenter of the shock was located 23 miles northeast of the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.," the U.S. Geological Survey's Yellowstone Volcanco Observatory reported. "A total of five earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater have occurred within 16 miles of the epicenter of this event since 1962. The largest of these events was a magnitude 4.2 on March 25, 2008, 20 miles northeast of Fishing Bridge, Wyoming."

USGS geologists say earthquakes of this magnitude are common in the Yellowstone region, "where over 30 earthquakes of M4 or greater have occurred since 1973. Today’s earthquake, which took place at a depth of 14 kilometers (8.7 miles), is the largest to occur in Yellowstone National Park since a M4.5 event on June 15, 2017 (part of a long-lived swarm of small earthquakes in the area between Hebgen Lake and Norris Geyser Basin, northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana)."

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