Earthquake Swarm Just Started Up at Long Valley Supervolcano- California

a reply to: TrueAmerican

These are common...so why the heads up? Just curious is all...

originally posted by: ownbestenemy1
a reply to: TrueAmerican

These are common...so why the heads up? Just curious is all...

Because many of my friends here like to know when there are multiple swarms at once going on at a supervolcano that could affect them if it were to blow. And considering that USGS scientists list "multiple swarms" as one of the expected eruption precursors of supervolcanoes, it doesn't hurt anyone or anything to post about it. I don't expect it to blow, but neither did the people at Pompeii. Just watching it and sharing information is all. Glad you are participating.

a reply to: TrueAmerican

Okay. Good to know. Ive been in that region many a times and it was always a good thing they are so up to the minute on cyclonic activity when a thunderstorm rolled in.

So to be honest, it was an innocent question.

a reply to: ownbestenemy1

Hi OBE,

Here's a link to the 2016 Earthquake Thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Welcome to ATS,

STM

a reply to: seentoomuch

HI STM, Nice to see you and China Blue. She is my pretend cat. I appreciate the link too.

Nice catch. Yes, welcome "OBE" from me too to ATS.

For all the sites full of rude attacks here, it is serious dedication at sites like this that keep me logging on. So thank you OP person.

originally posted by: TrueAmerican
a reply to: Olivine

That said, however, over the last many months I have noticed periods when all the stations at LV start ghosting with tiny, tiny little signatures, all at once. It may be just telemetry error. But it may not.

Curious you mention that. I was wondering about these "sweeping" signatures in the 20 minutes prior to the Mag 3.8 (15:42 utc) yesterday.
I only found them on the 3 seismometers in the borehole at Mammoth. I'll post an image below to NC.DP.MPH1:

(click image for larger version)
This is the link for the same station, but in 2 hour increments. NC.DP1.MDH1, then click the "06" thumbnail. (I'm not sure if these are BHZ or VHZ stations)

Do you notice the "stacked" or "harmonic" lines in the 0-5 Hz range, too? Strange.

My hunch was that the "sweeps" may have been caused by surface waves from the Mag 5.9 near Tonga that occurred 40 minutes prior to the Mag 3.8 at Long Valley. But I'm not sure.

Glad you are keeping an eye on this.

...another mag 2.5ish Mag 2.3 pop as I finish this post.

originally posted by: Olivine
Do you notice the "stacked" or "harmonic" lines in the 0-5 Hz range, too? Strange.

Oh I see all kinds of bizarre stuff, and especially at two particular stations. I'd be careful inferring too much from the borehole stations, as those are prone to a lot of telemetry error. It's been so bad in the past I rarely watch them anymore. I tend to stick with stations that I know are registering seismicity properly, as corroborated by other stations. One has to keep in mind that in these large networks, each station is in varying states of operation- sometimes 100%, sometimes 75%, and other times either in a state of repair or error. So not only are you sifting through seismic signatures, but noise, man-made stuff, and error too. First thing to do is see if it shows up at other nearby stations.

And even that may not help in some cases. I read article after article where at some of these volcanoes things like low level tremor and tornillos can be very localized to particular stations, and undetectable at the other stations because of the distances involved between stations and signal attenuation. That makes monitoring all the more difficult. And it worries me, especially at a place like Yellowstone, where this could easily occur because of the vast distances between stations. Yellowstone could literally DOUBLE the amount of stations it has, and it still wouldn't be enough to get corroborating station evidence for some volcanic signatures. But they just don't have the money.

a reply to: TrueAmerican

Will do. Thanks for the input.
I usually try to watch the entire page for the Mammoth stations, but those 3 caught my eye.

Since I'm in the Puget Sound area now, I'll leave you to Long Valley and go check on my favorite Volcano....good talking with you TA.

a reply to: Olivine

Oh hell no. Don't you go running off. I've got to go to work. YOU are on day duty.

I hope you do not mind if I post a few facts relating to Long Valley .

Her last Caldrea forming eruption was around 760,000.00 years ago. This was way before humans were even there, including the Natives.
Long Valley Caldera is a depression in eastern California that is adjacent to Mammoth Mountain. The valley is one of the earth's largest calderas, measuring about 20 mi (32 km) long (east-west) and 11 mi (18 km) wide (north-south), and up to 3,000 ft (910 m) deep.
A second eruption was between 40,000 and 600 years ago.
like any calrea in the world she is both volcanically and teconicly active. Meaning she is prone to rise and fall like the others. there have been earthquake swarms and a few of those were above a mag 5 and there was no major eruption. there seems to be fewer quake swarms here then in Yellowstone. and neither has erupted. yes she does bare keeping on eye on and she ll probably blow big before Yellowstone does but I highly doubt that it will happen in our lifetime.
and if she does, it shouldnt be much bigger then Mt st helens ..

a reply to: alysha.angel

Why is it we tend to ignore this super volcano? she too is going through a current seismic swarm, and her swarm is larger than yellowstones.
add in that it has been a lot longer since her last caldrea forming eruption then yellowstone. and the population of the west coast is a lot larger..

volcanoes.usgs.gov...

in the past month alone there have been well over 500 quakes with a few of them over mag 2.

i think we as a group needs to pay closer attention to long valley. at least as much yellowstone, back in the 1980s they actually raised the alert level because of gas emissions, deformation etc...

The problem is due to the geothermal power plant in the Caldrea you will get swarms from the re-injection of the water after the steam cycle.

These swarms can also be seen around Coso geothermal power plant, Geysers Power plants, and Salton Sea Power plants.
www.wired.com...
www.sciencedaily.com...