Theory 1- The river is being diverted downward into the ground, where it is filling up cracks and holes. As the water fills, the sheer weight of it could put pressure on fault lines and possibly cause more, or more severe earthquakes.
Theory 2- That water is going down towards places where magma from below is heating the water. If enough of it gets heated, and to a point where the (likely boiling) water generates enough steam, it could return in the form of geysers. Or, if it can't find a way to release the pressure, a large, volcano-like steam explosion.
Any other theories?
That makes alot of sense...I believe that is what transpired with Yellowstone thousands of years ago....
We're all gonna die!
The dwarves dug too greedily and too deep.
Most likely the quake fractured a pathway to a limestone deposit (buried by surficial volcanic deposits), or into old lava tubes.
Since it does not say the source dried up, my theory would be that the source got “Yellowstoned”. Yellowstone is tipping which is affecting Lake Yellowstone’s shoreline. Some parts that were beach are now high and dry, and in other places forests are in the water. If this happened at the headwaters, the river could very well reappear ... cutting a new channel through new neighborhoods.
Another theory is that it could have been “New Madrased”. At New Madras in the 1850’s, the Mississippi River jumped out of its banks and created a new channel several miles away.
Will know more when someone investigates the headwaters.
That it will flow as an underground river.
There are running rivers underground that go to basins, if the basin fills up then the river will begin to flow on top of the ground again.
If it doesn’t fill or the water finds an outlet then the river will remain underground.