Hundreds of Quakes Are Rattling Yellowstone

New York Times ^ | 1/31/10 | kirk johnson

[socialismislost]

DENVER — In the last two weeks, more than 100 mostly tiny earthquakes a day, on average, have rattled a remote area of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, putting scientists who monitor the park’s strange and volatile geology on alert.

[nw_arizona_granny]

I’d never heard or read this before.<<<

I do not pretend to know the truth about Yellowstone and doubt that we can, for only God knows all the answers.

[nw_arizona_granny]

A more realistic concern is a steam explosion type event that has created some rather large features in the post eruption history of the park. But swarms are not a precursor.<<<

All that energy going to waste.

Thanks for pinging me, I know very little about Yellowstone.

[hennie pennie]

Thanks, Godzilla for sharing your expertise here. I've read lots of webpages about Yellowstone, and had never seen it mentioned that the "Hot Spot" may never have a chance to erupt - it's interesting to learn that geologists have been discussing that possibility for a long time.

Last night I happened to hear Hugh Hewitt mention that there was a swarm of earthquakes at Yellowstone, and as far as I knew that was 'news' in mid-January, so decided to come online and find out what he was talking about currently occurring there.

Amazing how many people are really scaring large segments of the population, it's kind of reminescent of the global warming debacle.

[Godzilla]

Thanks, Godzilla for sharing your expertise here. I've read lots of webpages about Yellowstone, and had never seen it mentioned that the "Hot Spot" may never have a chance to erupt - it's interesting to learn that geologists have been discussing that possibility for a long time.

Love the place and geology. Modern science has been able to define the magma chamber beneath the park, monitored inflation and deflation of areas over time, started to tie it into a more complex tectonic setting. What I have found frustrating with the plethora of threads on ystone here are the armchair seismologists doing the chicken little dance over an earthquake swarm - granted it is one of the longer lasting ones, but the real experts have yet to see a problem.

Amazing how many people are really scaring large segments of the population, it's kind of reminescent of the global warming debacle.

In the MSN as well as some here on FR. Its exciting, dynamic, but nothing at this stage to worry about yet.

Seismologists are not AGW and I have confidence in their current interpretations. They've been monitoring the park for decades, there is a vast historical data base for them to reference to.

As I said, I'm still planning to make it to the park this summer!

[dragnet2]

The map is BS, since the prevailing winds for hundreds of years now have blown west to east...

That’s why Arizona and Texas and all points east get California’s storms, days later....Only much more severe.

You may just want to get a hold of the USGs and the University of Wyoming and Montana and tell them of the big mistake they made. Of course I am not sure what you are going to do about all the volcanic ash that in the sediment records of this area.

You might want to read my post again son. Ya see the part where I typed, "The prevailing winds for hundreds of years now have blown west to east".

I don't care what the winds were doing tens of thousands of years ago...I am simply telling you, if it went off today, the chances of the ash blowing east are *extremely* likely..

To prove this, go to any weather satellite site, and fast forward video, and you tell me the direction the clouds are moving...lol...I just looked, and the entire air mass from that region is moving due east towards Chicago.....

Do you take in account the pure blast effect?

Wait a minute now...The map you posted was all about, "Ash fallout", was it not? Hence my comments about prevailing winds...West to east.

Question:

Do you believe the map you provided is depicting the blast area, or the ash fallout? (Big difference)

Do you have any idea of the power of the eruption of a super volcano?

Yes.

On second thought never mind, you are absolutely totally irrevocably RIGHT!

Hmmm....In regards to prevailing winds, and subsequent ash fallout, I believe I am. You dispute this?

If you could address my two specific questions above.

[dragnet2]

By the way, if you want to respond to my #85, do it above board, on the public forum, not in my private mail.

[hennie pennie]

There's a speculative novel written in 1999, based upon what might occur if the New Madrid fault has a massive magnitude super earthquake. It's a very large book entitled, THE RIFT.

Here's what wikipedia has to say...

The Rift (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rift is a novel by author Walter Jon Williams. ... Largely using the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquake as a base, he depicts the breakdown of infrastructure...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rift_(novel)

[Godzilla]

The New Madrid is a serious concern as it is uncertain construction standards may not be rigid enough like they are here in cali. using the 1811 quake as a base line is what a number of folk are doing - and I think folks out there would probably wish for a tornado rather than a large magnitude quake.

The real show will the the magnitude 9 hanging over the folk in the pacific north west.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Amazing how many people are really scaring large segments of the population, it’s kind of reminescent of the global warming debacle. <<<

Yellowstone is getting ready to explode, is the hot topic and going to happen any minute, about every 5 to 7 years.

Last time, it was all the farming within 800 miles would be wiped out, by the ash.....

LOL, that is about all I recall from the last go round.

[hennie pennie]

>>> "The real show will the the magnitude 9 hanging over the folk in the pacific north west." <<<<

Yikes, thanks much for sharing, I feel astoundingly ignorant, LOL, as the popular press had led me to believe that the Big Ol' 8.0 in California on the San Andraes Fault was the next real Catastrophe Waiting To Happen.

Tell me more about the Pacific NW, if you have the time and inclination.

What I like best about THE RIFT is that he presents lots of information about earthquakes and about geologic features of the Mississippi Delta area, and particularly how he starts each chapter with an Eyewitness Account from 1812 -- those accounts are fascinating.

[nw_arizona_granny]

In the MSN as well as some here on FR. Its exciting, dynamic, but nothing at this stage to worry about yet. <<<

One has to admit, it is a break from the worry about the wars and politics. LOL

Volcanoes are interesting, and so is Yellowstone, all that hot water, just spouting out of the ground does make it interesting.

I live in volcano country, not active, but we have volcano cones all over the area.

A mile from my house, there were wells that are 25 foot to the water table and the water is hot.

3 miles south, I was at a well being tested, as the land was being sold and that well was 650’ deep with hot water in it.

Our average water table is about 1300’ deep.

Have fun at the park this summer, it is one that I missed out on seeing.

[Hamilcar_Barca]

Looks like Wisconsin will be OK.

[Godzilla]

Tell me more about the Pacific NW, if you have the time and inclination.

There is a subduction zone off the coast (beginning just north of where the RECENT 6.0 quake hit) the fuels the Cascade volcanos. Geologists have been able to figure out that in the past, quakes in the 9 range have occured - possibly historically (before the country moved west). It is similar to the boxer day quake that hit indoneasa a couple years back.

San Andreas and affiliated faults are long over due for a big'en

[Godzilla]

One has to admit, it is a break from the worry about the wars and politics. LOL

Indeed LOL.

I live in volcano country, not active, but we have volcano cones all over the area.

I'm familar with the general area. Years ago all my kids were freaked out when we camped at sunset crater - oh noes a volcano.

Our average water table is about 1300’ deep.

Keeping people like me gainfully employed figgering this stuff out LOL.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Keeping people like me gainfully employed figgering this stuff out LOL.<<<

LOL, yes, you would be well employed, if connected to finding water.

The only well that I have ever had drilled, I witched in and got the best one in the neighborhood.

Cheated you out of a job, sorry about that.

[hennie pennie]

9.0 ?

Oh my.... I suppose it will not surprise you that I have never ever heard of a NINE earthquake, I had no idea that such a magnitude even existed.

That is absolutely frightening, but it is VERY interesting to me that perhaps there have been major cataclysms in the area, say in the 1500s, 1600s, early 1700s -- well before settlement in the area.

Is there anything in the Lewis & Clarke journals which may substantiate the recent geologic record?

[AFreeBird]

Washable/reusable filters such as K&N would also be good.

[muawiyah]

You just go there and look at it. Volcano looming over everything, lahars, rocks hither and yon, looks like it just happened.

[Godzilla]

Here is a link that explains the evidence and the history, enjoy

http://www.pnsn.org/HAZARDS/CASCADIA/cascadia_event.html

[dragnet2]

What I have found frustrating with the plethora of threads on ystone here are the armchair seismologists doing the chicken little dance over an earthquake swarm - granted it is one of the longer lasting ones, but the real experts have yet to see a problem.

Hi there!

Will the experts see the problem in plenty of time to evacuate tens of millions from the entire region?