Thermal activity closes part of Yellowstone

US Geological Service ^ | July 22, 2003 | National Park Service

[gitmo]

Closure of the western part of the Back Basin Trail within the Norris Geyser Basin
Press Release http://www.nps.gov/yell/press/0362.htm

On July 22, Yellowstone National Park issued a press release to inform the public that it would close the western part of the Back Basin Trail within the Norris Geyser Basin. This follows increased thermal output within this area including areas immediately adjacent to the trail, beginning on July 11. Norris is the hottest and most seismically active geyser basin in Yellowstone. Recent activity in the Norris Geyser Basin has included formation of new mud pots, an eruption of Porkchop Geyser (dormant since 1989), the draining of several geysers, creating steam vents and significantly increased measured ground temperatures (up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit). Additional observations include vegetation dying due to thermal activity and the changing of several geysers' eruption intervals. Vixen Geyser has become more frequent and Echinus Geyser has become more regular.

Much of this activity may be attributed to the "annual disturbance", which, as implied by its name, is an annual event at Norris with increased boiling, increased turbidity of thermal pools, and apparent increased injection of waters from deeper parts of the hydrothermal system. The disturbance occurs within the summer season. A study of changes during the 1995 annual disturbance was published by Fournier et al. (2002). This year, changes at Norris are more pronounced than in previous years.

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July 2003 Yellowstone Seismicity Summary

During the month of July 2003, 37 earthquakes were located in the Yellowstone region. The largest shock to occur during this report period was a magnitude 2.0 earthquake on July 4th at 06:22 UTC, located about 6 miles west northwest of Norris Junction, Wyoming.

Earthquake activity in the Yellowstone region is at background levels.

[gitmo]

Interesting activity.

[farmfriend]

Interesting

[lilylangtree]

Geysers suffering from irregularity--according to the commercial, there's medicine for that.

[First Amendment]

A few days ago I read (had to be on FR, I don't bother with much else) about a lake at Yellowstone, which has hot spots, and the bottom of the lake is swelling, and other interesting factoids which I don't remember. It also mentioned stuff about there being the biggest caldera in the world (?!) in Yellowstone, and how previously (I don't know when, not recently!) the volcano (es) there spewed lava that covered much of the western US....

[tubebender]

PING...

[CWOJackson]

Do you recall all the storys just a couple of years ago about UN bases being secretly built in our National Parks? This would have had many of those folks headed for their bunkers.

[finnman69]

[Cate]

bahhahahahhaahaa........I love that commercial, and the politically correct gurus didn't think it was at all funny. Imagine that someone could actually add medicine to the geysers.(sarcasm)

[First Amendment]

Thanks - hard to even imagine anything that huge! Where's the Island Park Caldera, BTW? Is that in Yellowstone too?

[easonc52]

The Island Park Caldera just east of Yellowstone.

[easonc52]

The Centennials form both the Continental Divide and the Idaho/Montana border for 62 miles, from Monida Pass at I-15 to Red Rock Pass east of Yellowstone National Park. The range 12 miles in wide in places. In the west, the range begins as series of high rolling ridges that gradually gain in elevation as one moves to the east. On its eastern end, the range climbs abruptly out of the forested Island Park Caldera to form a high rugged crest that reaches its highest elevation at 10,203 feet on Mount Jefferson.

[Troublemaker]

Island Park is in Idaho and starts is 15 miles southwest from where I live in West Yellowstone, MT, which is the Western entrance to the park.

[Centurion2000]

Bulge in lake worries YNP scientists

Here's that article you were referring to. I believe that the last time Yellowstone lit off it buried Nebraska in about 6 feet of ash.

Original FR thread

[First Amendment]

Thanks! How long ago was that ashfall? Or does it say in one of the links...

[Lucy Lake]

Ping.

One more thing to worry about.

[Bernard Marx]

Yep, I was around for one of this area's little "burps" during the Hebgen "Quake Lake" drama in '57 or '58. I received a Pulitzer nomination for the newspaper reporting I did when a mountain sheared off and buried about 27 people innocently sleeping in a campground below. That quake seriously changed the "plumbing" of Yellowstone and its geyser activity varies from year to year. Yellowstone is a "hot spot" where deep magma is close to the earth's surface. For humans, it's one of the most dangerous places on earth when it's in an eruption cycle.

[djf]

Is it true Krakatoa was smaller than the Crater Lake event? Didn't Krakatoa completely destroy an island 23 miles in diameter?

[Troublemaker]

Still worry more about the fires. Enjoying this heat? How about those Grizzlies? What's the word on your new coach? We are expecting big things from the Bobcats.

[Smokin' Joe]

no...that's Geezers...

[goody2shooz]

Yellowstone is the caldera of what is called a "Supervolcanoe".
For all the scary details see the following url:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/1999/supervolcanoes.shtml

It will tell you everything you ever wanted, and didn't know you feared, about this subject.