Is Yellowstone's Data Being Throttled?

For those of you that are familiar with Yellowstone, you may have visited a site of webicorders. I'll post a letter that has replaced the usual map with all the seismograph pages, live pages and archives.

The site...

www.isthisthingon.org...

"So What Had Happened Was...

I've always gotten my images from the University of Utah, a.k.a. the UUSS. And sometime on the evening of April 4th, 2016, they suddenly completely changed how they provide those images. Rather, they got rid of those images. I'm therefore unable to archive them anymore or present them to you in the efficient fashion you've come to know and love.

From what I can tell so far about their changes, seismographic images have now become just "seismographic image." Every seismogram now shows only and exactly the past 24 hours of its life, as if they don't want anyone having the ability to look at its history even two days later. The filenames don't even have anything in them anymore but the station's ID. The only way for me to compensate for this is to only download each station's image once a day and then stick it in the archives. That means they'd never be live again. You'd have to go use their site to get live images. They couldn't have invented a better way to break my site if they tried. I'm not saying they were trying, but...

...but I don't know of another source for the old-style images. If you do, or have a better idea for how to compensate for the New Seismic Order, please write. If you don't, maybe utilizing the first link on this page instead will do more good. (But please be civil, internets.) I'm still waiting to hear back from them about whether the old-style seismograms are still being generated somewhere; they may be. But if not, there's no way I alone will ever get them to bring them back.

And, hey. At least the quakes still work.

Update, 4/6/2016: It's official. I got the following response: "For now, we will have only one day. We'll be working on having multiple days eventually. The old style Webicorders are no longer being generated." Which begs the question, why did they stop making them if they plan to start making them again "eventually?" Why do they consider restricting the amount of data they serve as an "improvement?" Sure, it's prettier now maybe, but it's almost completely useless. My conclusion: this was all intentional. They don't want us knowing anymore, and they'll never bring back the old-style seismograms. That or they were licensing the webicorder-generation software and decided they weren't going to pay for it anymore (exceedingly-unlikely, but I do know that Swarm, what they're using now, is free). I literally can't think of any other explanations... but I guarantee you that no true scientist would act like this. To scientists, more data is always better, and less data is always worse. This was not done for any scientific reason. This was all politics... unless they're trying to hide some event that they know is almost here...

I guess it's up to you. In the meantime I'll see what I can do to start archiving the new-style one-per-day images. They won't be live, but at least there'll still be history to look at. What a mess. I gotta get to work."

I feel bad for this guy and all his hard work being mucked up...


There is still data. So it isn't exactly censorship. But, if you only release data in a limited way, it can lead to the same thing. I'll say you all my opinions, but I think it could be argued that this argument is the open access debate.

I'm sure I'm making too much of this. But what makes me think I'm not is that the USGS and Utah have had to deal with many public "freak outs" on line. Meaning, the internet has caused media storms about imminent eruptions without any real substance. Is this change a way to make it more difficult for the information to be used by "amateur" broadcasters?

I'm sure the University of Utah will say this is all for the better. I actually want to believe that. Oh, this is just a bit of information that I'd like to share. I watch the Yellowstone webicorders, the graphs of earthquakes, all the time. I can tell you when there is an earthquakes and about how big it is. But do you know what, if an earthquake happens on the weekend, or holiday, The USGS won't list it on their main site. WORD.

originally posted by: ericblair4891
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When you click this form-field, this message will disappear.Ooops, I already posted before I could even post a complete title. Blame my fingers. Be patient. I'll keep editing until I get a full post. My fat fingers. To be brief, the data stream from the University of Utah is being changed.

Ima let you finish. *Kanye style*

a reply to: ericblair4891
Hit enter a bit too fast.

Hurry up man, I wanna see what Yellowstone is doing!

Ohhh, I have it bad.
I really wanted to see some proof of the title....
Doom porn on the horizon if true!

a reply to: MotherMayEye

Yes, I'll try to finish. [snip]

a reply to: ericblair4891

What has the data been indicating as of late? Anything that might explain this change?

a reply to: MotherMayEye

Very little. There are not swarms. Only the odd earthquake. And, even the inflation (that's the uplift of ground) is stalled. Basically, nothing is going on at Yellowstone. Maybe that's the reason. Do it when no one is watching. If they are going this for some alternative reason, other than to update tech, I think it's for all the old news about Yellowstone. Every month I get some story about how it's going to blow up soon. At the moment, I don't think there is any sign of an eruption or anything.

However, in 2008, we don't know how close we came....

Odd & maybe a little tiny bit worrying. What happened in 2008? And can you please explain your comment about USGS not showing quakes on weekends or holidays?

I always enjoy your interesting posts on the Quakewatch thread by the way!

a reply to: ericblair4891
It seems strange that they would take away the access to the history portion. I know from looking at the quake threads how much research you guys have put into this. You said that Yellowstone seems calm, is it calmer than usual? It seems like when our government does something, there is always a reason behind it. I don't like that they are removing access to information. It makes me ask why......

Given that there are countless organizations using data from Yellowstone to study and formulate opinions, papers and scientific research, I find it incredibly unlikely that anyone could fake or withhold anything without someone in that sea of people knowing about it and leaking that fact.

People seem to think that Yellowstone is like some kind of top secret base or something. There are scientists and students there every day, with access to all the information we have access to, and a lot more besides.

If anything was being "covered up", they would have to silence thousands of people, or those thousands of people would have to be "in on it".

I sent an email to a USGS scientist that, in the past has been very forthcoming with information to me.

Let's see what his response is.

I wonder if it's just that not that many people are looking at the information. And maybe they just figured, why bother making it public.

I don't know. Well see.

a reply to: crappiekat

keep us in the loop and let us know if you get a response to your email...I wondered about the thread title, it only said "is yellowstone" then I came back and saw the whole title and the explanation....

hmmm....2008, is that when there was a big bulge at one end??? can someone have a few details?

originally posted by: paradisepurple
Odd & maybe a little tiny bit worrying. What happened in 2008? And can you please explain your comment about USGS not showing quakes on weekends or holidays?

I always enjoy your interesting posts on the Quakewatch thread by the way!

In 2008 there was a swarm under Yellowstone Lake. To be brief, however slight, there was a risk of a hydrothermal explosion. Then in 2010 there was a larger swarm. Obviously there was no eruption, but, it does prove Yellowstone is an ACTIVE volcano and can erupt at any time. But like I said, at the moment, it's very quiet.

The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory does not list any earthquakes on the weekend. Because, in 2008, the swarm started on the Christmas Holidays. Someone posted a You Tube video and said they were a geologist and that the swarm was a danger. The media jumped on the story and no one was in the office to counter-act the claims being made on the internet.

So, before December 2008, The Yellowstone Observatory released earthquakes automatically. After the public relations nightmare, they began delaying the release of data. That's what I am saying again, they are delaying and throttling data so that they can control it. That way, nothing will be "LIVE LEAKED". They want to control the message. Now with a delay and one source, someone can simply turn of the data and no one will see what they don't want you to see.

For example, if a large swarm happened over the Easter weekend, you wouldn't see an earthquake listed til someone got back to work on Tuesday. So, if it happened on a Friday, data could be held up for about three days.

Hey, I'm sure I'm just being alarmist. I'm sure they'd tell us right away if something was going on at Yellowstone. I am pretty sure I'm being sarcastic.

a reply to: research100

Here read all of this and you'll be all filled in. This thread was started with the swarm and is the reason I end up here. It explains everything.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: ericblair4891


Hey, I'm sure I'm just being alarmist. I'm sure they'd tell us right away if something was going on at Yellowstone. I am pretty sure I'm being sarcastic.

I love you, Eric. (Not in a "I-want-to-go-steady-or-anything" way.)

Keep being sarcastic. It's nice to have a reason to laugh.

a reply to: ericblair4891

Thanks for explaining that Eric! So basically because of some idiot on Youtube we're now denied live quake data off USGS

Yeah, right I'm certain they'd tell us exactly what's going on at Yellowstone. I'm glad there are people like you keeping an eye on things for us

originally posted by: paradisepurple
a reply to: ericblair4891

So basically because of some idiot on Youtube we're now denied live quake data off USGS

It's technically the USGS and The University of Utah. Also, it's not just the 2008 swarm and media hype. Recently, there was someone stating that Yellowstone was going to blow up. I didn't even find out there was a "scare" until long afterward because I was watching the webicorders and not reading the many opinions on the volcano. I like seeing the live data. Right now I am obsessed with Nicaragua and they have live seismos and cameras with quick updates on their earthquakes list.

I should say that I think you can still get live seismographs on GEE. But that is not exactly easy. In fact it's a pain. They're are people who still watch the live feed. Maybe I should load it up again and see if I can see something live. It's not low tech. If you want certain stations you have to load, etc. It frustrates me.

Again, I want to state again that Yellowstone is quiet. Spooky quiet. wooooooo. I'm joking. It's next year I really about.

Ok, I did receive a reply back from someone named Wendy. (Not the same person) odd.

She directed me to this page.

volcanoes.usgs.gov...

So tomorrow I will send another message with more detail.

Yes the Caldera is going to explode and release Gods judgement, it will envelope the whole earth and kill everyone except those who subscribe to my weekly newsletter ! I'm so over all the crap coming onto the internet these days, it seems every day there is impending mega death heading your way.

The journo scum are to blame...I think we should jail them all for failing to do their job which is speak the truth.

originally posted by: mazzroth
The journo scum are to blame...I think we should jail them all for failing to do their job which is speak the truth.

No, no, no, ever since Watergate, the journalist has been taught that their job is to change the world, not simply report truth. Since when did you get so naive?

Of course, if we'd go back to the days of more reporting, less crusading disguised as reporting, we might start to re-establish some trust in our public institutions.