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The Science Channel investigated a section of the valley and discovered many clouds of smoke pouring from beneath the ground. Using InSAR data that has been monitoring the region for the last 20 years, geophysicist Jared Peacock pointed out a worrying aspect of the caldera that might portend problems. InSAR is a remote sensing method that employs a laser to concentrate a beam of radiation on a target, bouncing back to a sensor on an antenna, providing a comprehensive map of a region. One of the most concerning sites in InSAR was near Mammoth Lakes, a hamlet in the Sierra...

Maybe they became disoriented and beached themselves. Maybe they were trapped in a lagoon by a landslide or a storm. Maybe they died there over a period of a few millennia. But somehow, they ended up right next to one another, many just meters (yards) apart, entombed as the shallow sea floor was driven upward by geological forces and transformed into the driest place on the planet. Today, they have emerged again atop a desert hill more than a kilometer (half a mile) from the surf, where researchers have begun to unearth one of the world's best-preserved graveyards of prehistoric...

Beneath Yellowstone National Park is a giant volcano. The heat from this volcano powers all of the park's famous geysers and hot springs, so most tourists probably don't worry about having tons of hot magma under their feet. But perhaps they should: The Yellowstone supervolcano is a disaster waiting to happen. The supervolcano erupts about every 600,000 years, and it's been about that long since the last eruption. That means the volcano could erupt any day now, and if it does it'll send enough dust and ash into the sky to blot out the sun for years, along with blowing...

Instances of volcanic eruptions are their highest for 300 years and scientists fear a major one that could kill millions and devastate the planet is a real possibility. Experts at the European Science Foundation said volcanoes - especially super-volcanoes like the one at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, which has a caldera measuring 34 by 45 miles (55 by 72 km) - pose more threat to Earth and the survival of humans than asteroids, earthquakes, nuclear war and global warming. There are few real contingency plans in place to deal with the ticking time bomb, which they conclude is likely to...

Recently, rumors have been swelling of a danger at Yellowstone National Park. That danger? A brewing supervolcano eruption. The fear of a Yellowstone supereruption, which ultimately went viral, may have begun back in February when a seismometer called B944 began sending senseless data to a public viewer at the University of Utah's seismographic station, as George Black reports in The New Yorker. Luckily for most of the U.S., the likelihood this eruption would happen is pretty low: about one in 100,000 any given year. If it did happen, it would be pretty devastating, though.

CHEYENNE, Wyo.—The ever-changing thermal geology of Yellowstone National Park has created a hot spot that melted an asphalt road and closed access to popular geysers and other attractions at the height of tourist season, officials said Thursday. As they examined possible fixes, park officials warned visitors not to hike into the affected area, where the danger of stepping through solid-looking soil into boiling-hot water was high.

The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US is far larger than was previously thought, scientists report. A study shows that the magma chamber is about 2.5 times bigger than earlier estimates suggested. A team found the cavern stretches for more than 90km (55 miles) and contains 200-600 cubic km of molten rock. The findings are being presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Prof Bob Smith, from the University of Utah, said: “We’ve been working there for a long time, and we’ve always thought it would be bigger... but this finding is...

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming was hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.3, one of many earthquakes that the park is assailed with every year. According to local news sites and the US Geological Survey (USGS) May 8, 2011. ... A 7.5 magnitude earthquake, which occurred in 1959, near the Hebgen Lake though, had killed 28 people. According to geologists however, the Yellowstone caldera itself is unlikely to experience large earthquakes because the weakened bedrock is less likely to burst due to high subsurface temperatures.

A swarm of mostly imperceptible earthquakes continues to shake Yellowstone National Park in what is now the park’s second-largest on record. From the swarm’s beginnings on Jan. 17 through Monday morning, some 1,620 quakes were recorded by seismologists in the park, which sits atop a gigantic volcanic caldera. The activity is centered around the northwest corner of the Yellowstone caldera, in the back-country between West Yellowstone, Mont., and Old Faithful.

Since January 17, 2010 Yellowstone has had the second largest swarm ever recorded. The swarms have been steady at about 10 miles in depth and they have subsided a few days ago. In the past two days the depth has raised up to around 7 miles and in the past couple hours quakes vastly increased. http://www.quake.utah.edu/helicorder/ymr_webi.htm http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/111-44.html Remember this doesn’t mean we will see an eruption and it most likely means a normal volcano. It is very unlikely we will see a caldera eruption. But these changes are significant and cannot be over looked Some history: Since the most recent...

Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 22:43:34 UTC Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 03:43:34 PM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 44.565°N, 110.972°W Depth 6.5 km (4.0 miles) Region YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING Distances 15 km (9 miles) SE (136°) from West Yellowstone, MT 30 km (19 miles) ENE (76°) from Island Park, ID 56 km (35 miles) SSW (201°) from Gardiner, MT 430 km (267 miles) N (10°) from Salt Lake City, UT Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.3 km (0.2 miles); depth +/- 1.4 km (0.9 miles) Parameters NST= 24, Nph= 24, Dmin=11 km, Rmss=0.14 sec,...

Yellowstone National Park has been rattled by more than 250 earthquakes in the past two days following a period of 11 months of quiet seismic activity in the park. The quakes have been gaining strength, with a 3.1 tremor recorded at 11:03 a.m. today. A 2.9 quake was recorded at 12:38 p.m. Prof. Robert B. Smith, a geophysicist at the University of Utah and one of the leading experts on earthquake and volcanic activity at Yellowstone, said that the activity is a "notable swarm." "The swarm is located about 10 miles northwest of Old Faithful, Wyo., and nine miles southeast...

Responding to dozens of requests from the public, the Defense Department has released 146 more photos from the infamous Air Force One flyover that struck fear in thousands of unsuspecting New Yorkers in April. The photos are posted right on the Pentagon's Website, defense officials said today. The Pentagon also released a heavily redacted flight manifest. The April 27 photo-op caused quite a fright in Lower Manhattan and New Jersey, as many people who had lived through the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks thought the city was again under siege. Workers poured out of office buildings as the planes buzzed the...

Louis Caldera, the former White House Military Office chief who quit last month after approving that bizarre Air Force One photo op over Manhattan that frightened countless New Yorkers, has landed a job. He'll be a senior fellow focusing on higher education and national security matters at the Center for American Progress, run by John Podesta, a co-chairman of Obama's transition team. Obama aides said at the time that the president was furious about the April 27 flyover, which included an Air Force One understudy and two F-16 military fighter aircraft flying over the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan,...

Former University of New Mexico President Louis Caldera - who resigned as director of the White House Military Office last month following an Air Force One photo op gone wrong - has a new gig. The Center for American Progress, a self-described "progressive" think tank founded by John Podesta, a former chief-of-staff to President Clinton, has hired Caldera to work on higher education and national security issues. Caldera, a former U.S. Army secretary, will make a strong addition to the staff, Podesta said.

A White House military aide who authorized an Air Force flyover of New York that caused panic among some people in the city resigned on Friday. Louis Caldera said in a resignation letter to Obama that the controversy over the mission -- a photo shoot of a jumbo jet used as Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty in the background -- made it impossible for him to lead the White House Military Office (WHMO). White House officials said the flight was designed to update the official photo of the plane, known as Air Force One when the president...

The director of the White House Military Office submitted his resignation on Friday, less than two weeks after he authorized a flyover by an Air Force One backup of the Statue of Liberty that terrified thousands of people in New York City. Louis Caldera, who served as the secretary of the Army in the Clinton administration, apologized for the “distraction” that approving the flyover caused. He said in a brief letter to President Obama on Friday that it “has made it impossible for me to effectively lead the White House Military Office.”

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2009 – The director of the White House Military Office has submitted his resignation in the wake of an April 27 aerial photo shoot with a presidential aircraft over New York City. Louis Caldera, who served as secretary of the Army during the Clinton administration, resigned his office effective May 22. “I have concluded that the controversy surrounding the Presidential Airlift Group’s aerial photo shoot over New York City has made it impossible to effectively lead the White House Military Office,” Caldera wrote in his letter of resignation. President Barack Obama has accepted the resignation, White House...

White House Military Office Chief Resigns Over Plane Flyover Flap Louis Caldera, the man who organized the low-flying Air Force One plane that panicked New York City, delivered his resignation Friday as the White House released a photo of the plane.

WASHINGTON — A top White House aide resigned Friday for his role in Air Force One's $328,835 photo-op flyover above New York City that sparked panic and flashbacks to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Louis Caldera said the controversy had made it impossible for him to effectively lead the White House Military Office. "Moreover, it has become a distraction in the important work you are doing as president," Caldera said in his resignation letter to President Barack Obama.