Mini-earthquake swarm in Yellowstone

[lurkey]

http://www.seis.utah.edu/recenteqs/Maps/111-45.html

[jinftl]

Some background from USGS discussion on seismic activity in that region:

"There are usually over a thousand earthquakes per year at Yellowstone. About 40% of the earthquakes every year are associated with swarms. The beautiful hydrothermal features in the park (geysers, hot springs, mud pots, etc.), the uplift and subsidence, and many of the earthquakes are caused by the movements of hydrothermal and/or magmatic fluids."
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/about/faq ... toring.php

[Stephanie]

I wonder if the swarms help to prevent the pressure from building up to catastrophic levels.

[jinftl]

Didn't think of that....but from my non-scientific perspective, that actually would make sense. The question is whether the energy released from thousands of small quakes is just a drop or two out of a leaky faucet, not really effecting the buildup of the 'core' pressure that is only released by massive quakes.

I wonder if the swarms help to prevent the pressure from building up to catastrophic levels.

[lurkey]

I was just concerned because of the level of earthquake activity lately, especially of all place in Oklahoma. .

[jinftl]

Not sure if the number of quakes is actually increasing worldwide, but rather when the location of them (esp. a strong one) is a case of being in the 'wrong place at the wrong time' for a densely populated region, they garner alot more attention and interest overall. With resources available like the website link that plots every earth tremor daily, it may seem like there more quakes, but it could just be a case that this type of data was not previously available to the public, nor was there as much of an interest as there is following the haiti quake.

Just like with the tsunami in 2004 and Katrina in 2005, following a massively devastating natural disaster, there is definitely more interest in those events and more concern that it could be 'the start of something' in terms of these events happening more often and in more places. That is not unreasonable at all to think or feel that, but that fear will subside over time.

The earth has been moving and buckling since inception I would hazard to guess. Continents that were once all joined have now moved apart to create our current global map. The forces that would cause that over millions of years certainly make earthquakes an understandle occurrence in the risk zones.

I was just concerned because of the level of earthquake activity lately, especially of all place in Oklahoma. .

[Stephanie]

Didn't think of that....but from my non-scientific perspective, that actually would make sense. The question is whether the energy released from thousands of small quakes is just a drop or two out of a leaky faucet, not really effecting the buildup of the 'core' pressure that is only released by massive quakes.

I wonder if the swarms help to prevent the pressure from building up to catastrophic levels.

Perhaps the "leaky faucet" theory is just in fact another way the earth's core releases pressure. There's probably many other areas across the world that has swarms like this.

If you think about it, during a deep freeze, one of the things you should do to protect your pipes from freezing and bursting is opening the valves to allow the water to flow. Hmmm...

[Macrocane]

Here in El Salvador experts always say that is better to have several weak and moderate earthquakes to release the accumulated energy than a major earthquake that releases all of that energy in just a few seconds/minutes.

[Stephanie]

Here in El Salvador experts always say that is better to have several weak and moderate earthquakes to release the accumulated energy than a major earthquake that releases all of that energy in just a few seconds/minutes.

That makes a lot of sense to me.

[Derek Ortt]

as long as the quakes at Yellowstone are not harmonic tremors...

[Macrocane]

as long as the quakes at Yellowstone are not harmonic tremors...

That' true, I forgot that Yellowstone is a big volcano :S

[Derek Ortt]

if there are harmonic tremors there... we had better have plans for a planetary evacuation

[Dionne]

if there are harmonic tremors there... we had better have plans for a planetary evacuation

No "if" about it.....there have been recent harmonic tremors under Yellowstone Lake above the magma chamber. It's all over Google.

[Derek Ortt]

if there are harmonic tremors there... we had better have plans for a planetary evacuation

No "if" about it.....there have been recent harmonic tremors under Yellowstone Lake above the magma chamber. It's all over Google.

however, the tremors are not easily felt by people.

If we get an earthquake that is a harmonic tremor... that is when we must be worried (get a 7.5 harmonic tremor and we better set speed records in devising equipment that can travel faster than light to find another place to live

[Dionne]

#
On March 27, 1964, Alaska suffered a massive earthquake that caused a tsunami, which was responsible for the death of 131 people. The magnitude of the quake was 9.2 and lasted for five minutes. Property was displaced in a 100,000 mile area after the rupture of Pacific and North American plates near Prince William Sound.

75 miles away from the epicenter, Anchorage suffered severe damage and nine lives were claimed by the earthquake and its resulting landslides.

The tsunami caused waves and damages in Prince Rupert, Hot Springs Cove, Zeballos, Amai and Tofino, British Columbia, and visited Port Alberni two separate times, with devastating destruction to homes there.

There were more than 10,000 aftershocks that took place over an 18 month time period.AEIC: The Great Alaska Earthquake2

*


The planet survived this event. The strongest recorded earthquake on the North American continent. Imagine if this had happened in an area with heavy population density.
#

[Derek Ortt]

#
On March 27, 1964, Alaska suffered a massive earthquake that caused a tsunami, which was responsible for the death of 131 people. The magnitude of the quake was 9.2 and lasted for five minutes. Property was displaced in a 100,000 mile area after the rupture of Pacific and North American plates near Prince William Sound.

75 miles away from the epicenter, Anchorage suffered severe damage and nine lives were claimed by the earthquake and its resulting landslides.

The tsunami caused waves and damages in Prince Rupert, Hot Springs Cove, Zeballos, Amai and Tofino, British Columbia, and visited Port Alberni two separate times, with devastating destruction to homes there.

There were more than 10,000 aftershocks that took place over an 18 month time period.AEIC: The Great Alaska Earthquake2

*


The planet survived this event. The strongest recorded earthquake on the North American continent. Imagine if this had happened in an area with heavy population density.
#

of course we can survive that type of event

We likely cannot survive an explosion of the Yellowstone magma chamber. I am not exaggerating when I say that a super eruption is thousands of times as power as Mt St. Helens. If it were to blow and it were "only" a VEI 7 would kill hundreds of millions worldwide. In 1815, Tabora had a VEI 7 eruption and there was no northern hemisphere summer for a year. Meaning... no crop growth. Toba's VEI 8 nearly wiped us out

[Crostorm]

Press Release

University of Utah Seismograph Stations

Released: January 19, 2010 3:00 PM MST

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports an update of information on an ongoing earthquake swarm in Yellowstone National Park that began January 17, 2010 (1:00 PM MST). The swarm is located about 10 miles northwest of Old Faithful, WY and 9 miles southeast of West Yellowstone, MT. The largest earthquake in the swarm as of 3 PM, January 19, 2010, was a magnitude 3.7 event that occurred at 2:31 PM, MST, January 19, 2010. and there have been 469 located earthquakes in the swarm of magnitudes 0.5 to 3.7. This includes 5 events of magnitude larger than 3, with 34 events of magnitude 2 to 3, and 430 events of magnitude less than 2. There have been multiple personal reports of ground shaking from observations inside Yellowstone National Park and in neighboring communities in Montana and Idaho for some of the larger events. Earthquake swarms of this nature are relatively common in Yellowstone National Park.

At this time the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory does not consider the swarm to be unusual and the earthquakes are likely related to tectonic fault sources. Also there is no indication of premonitory volcanic or hydrothermal activity, but ongoing analyses will evaluate these different sources.

http://www.seis.utah.edu/EQCENTER/PRESS ... m#20100118

and here is a youtube video
Yellowstone - 2010-01-17 earthquake swarm, first 28 hours (day 1) [SOUND ONLY]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=139lircZH4o

Yellowstone - 2010-01-19 (UTC) earthquake swarm, day 2 [SOUND ONLY]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxVw1H6TUdc

[brunota2003]

You look at the map, look at how tightly clustered those earthquakes are. Yellowstone is definitely a very interesting area to study

[Crostorm]

Code: Select all

    
MAP    3.0    2010/01/23 05:41:16       44.568    -110.972     10.8      YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
MAP    2.5    2010/01/22 14:33:28       44.559    -110.966     9.6      YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
MAP    2.5    2010/01/22 09:41:50       44.562    -110.967     9.2      YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
MAP    3.0    2010/01/22 05:38:40       44.550    -110.972     8.4      YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
MAP    2.9    2010/01/22 04:09:02       44.560    -110.967     9.4      YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING