Whats going on at yellowstone?

Something started at 18:45zulu that I've never seen before... the US.LKWY seismo (via GEE) started showing very high amplitude long duration (1 minute) events in the East/West direction with lesser amplitude events in the North/South. Nearly no change in the Z axis.

Anyone have any ideas what that might be?

Screen Shot

[edit on 1/3/2009 by Knobee]

Originally posted by Knobee
Something started at 18:45zulu that I've never seen before... the US.LKWY seismo (via GEE) started showing very high amplitude long duration (1 minute) events in the East/West direction with lesser amplitude events in the North/South. Nearly no change in the Z axis.

Anyone have any ideas what that might be?

wind...

lol

reply to post by LazyGuy

Lazy guy,

it sounds fine in theory but in practice, when we look at the data, I'm sorry but it doesn't stand up.

I'm using the "weatherunderground" site to find weather details because Yellowstone itself is not reporting at present apparently. I input Yellowstone Park and it gives me the closest available weather station. So, as an example from that station, take a look at the wind graph for 1/1/09. Notice that the peak gusts were recorded at around 6 pm, and then it died down again so the wind at around midnight was around half the strength at 6 pm.

Now, if we look at the helicorder trace for station YML on that date, and compare what's shown there with what the wind readings show above, we can see that the trace for 1800 hours local time (time on left) is fairly quiet
when we compare it to what then happened as its activity got stronger and stronger towards midnight.

Now okay, "one swallow does not a summer make" and all that, but even if we look at today's wind graph, we see that not long after midnight it was up around 22 mph and since then has died down, but that the helicorder chart for YML for today is only now showing some increase in activity and showed a very quiet, almost "flat line" reading (minus tectonics) in the early hours of this morning.

Yes, there are bound to be some times when the wind readings appear to correlate with the "harmonics" on the helicorders, but most of the time (as I've exampled) they simply do not. So, I really think that aside from some slight influences which are known of by U of Utah, it was not the wind that created the extreme activity traces on the helicorders.

And that's the last time I am going to answer the "wind" argument.

No offense to you, by the way! Hope it's cool.

Mike

Edited to fix a link! Yikes! (Wife interrupted me..)

[edit on 3/1/09 by JustMike]

Hey, I've been using WunderMaps on Wunderground it check out temperatures, windspeed surrounding the entire lake, and water charts/data. It's a nice interactive tool with lots of features.

So far this morning I haven't seen any wind measuring over 4-6mph. This is not enough to make a tree shake like we've observed this morning. With a tree's roots so deeply and spread out over a large, and deep surface area, it would seem that a tree would be much more sensitive and responsive to small tremors.

Just found you guys, have been blogging about this for a couple of days now. It seems a few of the papers over here (UK) have picked up on this.

One thing i've noticed is the strange behaviour of the Sour Creek Dome. One part of it is starting to lift faster than the surrounding points.

Post with links to graphs.

This ties in with an interesting statement from an anonymous contributor from US News who said;

"First from the horse's mouth: "I certainly agree that sophisticated imaging
techniques could potentially help define the system much better. Unfortunately, many of the tools you suggest cannot be used at Yellowstone
in January, even if we had the money and necessary contractors. Active
experiments require a lot of equipment that cannot be transported by snow
coach (or helicopter). And these techniques work less well in heterogeneous
volcanic rocks than the flat-lying sediments surveyed by oil companies. But
we plan to gather more detailed information in the days ahead". email from
Jake Lowenstern this morning.

Please note the admitted lack of "sophisticated imaging techniques" that
would probably needed to support any definitive asssessment sufficiently
convincing to get DHS and the NRC off their thumbs.

Please constrain your doomsday mentality because even with an VEI 8, a few billion people are likely to survive. Many millions more could be saved and widespread radiation contamination could be averted with sufficient
advance notice. We should all be working to ensure that the YVO gets the
necessary equipment, manpower and logistical support to produce a reliable
assessment.

The Lake is frozen but with proper support they could go out there to
conduct a limited bathymetric survey to detect uplift on the Lake bottom.
They might also be able to sample trapped gases. Deployment of a
magnetotelluric array could help determine whether its water or magma below the Lake. Active seismic mapping could better define the forming chimney, the degree of fracturing and the stability of any separating strata between the chimney and magma chamber.

In short, don't give up just yet as your efforts may be able to force USGS,
DHS and the NRC to do the proper assessment and planning."

Originally posted by beefytee
wind...

lol

*smack*

-K

I'll get right on that lens thing. We got 5 inches of snow overnight though so it might take awhile to get the truck warmed up.

Thanks RFBurns for the EAS info, fould a great document on the Wyoming EAS.
Wyoming EAS

And thanks spinkyboo for the info on tremor skimmer. I saw they have a yahoo widget for that and was going to try it out.

reply to post by Knobee


well - it looks a little bit like a drill bit on its side - like I mentioned before - in the mt. st. helens gif - where it's marked deep quake.

what do you think?

reply to post by sageturkey


are you really going? or joking?

if you are - could you bring a camera and take a few pix

I have a mac and can't see the streaming photos

gotta love ATS

reply to post by Knobee


That sharp spike could be somebody calibrating the machine. Or it could mean the end of the world....

reply to post by trusername



Sorry, should have included a 'tongue-in-cheek' with that. It's a few hours drive from here.
Welcome windycity! How about you? Want to get in on the 'whose gonna go clean the lens' pool?

reply to post by trusername


I may have good news for MAC users wanting to view the live streaming video from Yellowstone.....

Go to this site (Microsoft.com), they have a plugin for MAC to use Windows Media Player content on Quicktime players!

Click here for info

Requirements:

• Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later
• QuickTime version 7.0 or later (7.1.6 or higher recommended)

Lets hope this plugin works so you MAC users can see the footage of Old Faithful. Microsoft claims the plugin will provide support for streaming Windows format audio/video media to Quicktime.

** UPDATE **

Plugin Supports:

File Formats

• Advanced Systems Format (ASF)
• Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX)
• Audio Video Interleaved (AVI)

Network Protocols

• MMS Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)
• MMS HTTP
• HTTP
• FTP

[edit on 1/3/2009 by MadDogtheHunter]

[edit on 1/3/2009 by MadDogtheHunter]

Im starting to hallucinate watching the camera, I could swear I just saw Death in a black robe carrying a sickle..or was that just a skier?

Originally posted by dustystrings
Old Faithful is really cookin' this morning.

Been in either eruption or steam phase continually for hours...

I can tell you've never been to Yellowstone, and are taking stabs at things you really do not understand.

Old Faithful is -ALWAYS- in a steam phase or eruption. Even during the hottest summer days you can STILL see wisps of steam from the vent during it's refilling stage. In sub freezing temperatures, it's going to be VERY steamy.

How about you go order the book "The Geysers of Yellowstone" and learn a bit about individual geyser activity throughout the park before making grand presumptions. And no, Yellowstone doesn't have just Old Faithful. It is ~300 geysers, and thousands of hot springs. I have an even better idea, maybe visit the park, to get a better understanding of size and scope.

Just so you don't get confused, there's two smaller geysers next to old faithful on separate hills next to it that steam and erupt for hours.

I don't want you to panic and thing that the old faithful area will blow up because of steam.

Oh and that big steam area from the background is Geyser Hill, home to numerous large and small hot springs and geysers. Including but not limited to Giantess, Lion, Depression, Beehive, and Aurum Geyser. Up on the hill proper is Solitary Geyser which frequently erupts 1-10 feet every 20 minutes.

The REALLY big one near the base of the 'hill', was probably Grand Geyser and Turban Geyser. Grand being the largest predictable geyser in Yellowstone, and Turban is it's vent. It erupts every 8-12 hours, and can burst over 250 feet high, with Turban averaging 70 feet itself.

So to recap - right now you're dealing with sub freezing temperatures and near boiling water at the surface at multiple well documented areas. Of course it is going to steam, and steam a lot. Everything, including the Firehole River which is fed nearly exclusively by hot springs and geysers is going to be steamy.

Oh and to the poster giving Tantalus Creek's water readings. That's there in place to remotely monitor Steamboat Geyser. VERY large influx of water on that creek show a possible major eruption. However, it does erupt very frequently to 40-80 feet. The spikes and declines you are seeing is Steamboat Geyser runoff.

Normal and typical activity on geyser hill.

Originally posted by sageturkey
I'll get right on that lens thing. We got 5 inches of snow overnight though so it might take awhile to get the truck warmed up.

Thanks RFBurns for the EAS info, fould a great document on the Wyoming EAS.
Wyoming EAS

10-4. I posted a few pages back links to the Wyoming EAS state plan and the surrouding state's EAS plans too. There are several other links with excellent info that I recommend people save and print for reference.


Cheers!!!!

reply to post by MadDogtheHunter


Wow, good job MadDog!

Why can't someone call the national park and get someone out there to clean it? I mean it's worth a shot, right?

For convienience, here are the links I posted to state EAS plans and several other good links for general info.


The Wyoming EAS plan found HERE

The Montana EAS plan found HERE pdf file.

North Dakota EAS plan found HERE.

South Dakota EAS plan found HERE pdf file.

Nebraska EAS plan found HERE pdf file.

Colorado EAS plan found HERE.

Utah EAS plan found HERE pdf file.

Idaho EAS plan found HERE pdf file.

The following link is to a site which contains links to each of the states EAS plans. LINK.

The offical FCC/FEMA EAS website with concise information and how the system works can be found HERE.

I suggest everyone visit their state EAS plan websites, download and print out the page/pdf/doc and have for your reference. I also recomned buying a battery powered weather radio for your area, which are already tuned to the specific frequencies for the NOAA stations which all of the NOAA stations are LP stations (primary) for each state in the EAS nationwide system. These radios are cheap and can be set so that they will automatically sound an alarm and un-mute the audio when they recieve an alert.

Here is a pdf file with excellent info on evacuation steps during earthquakes. LINK. I suggest saving this file and printing it out as well.

A basic guide to evacutation found HERE pdf file.

Volcano information and what to do found HERE pdf file.

Red Cross volcano information and what to do found HERE pdf file.

Another good site for volcano information and tips found HERE.


Cheers!!!!

[edit on 3-1-2009 by RFBurns]

Has there been any significant quakes today or is it looking like this is the end of them.

Originally posted by Yummy Freelunch
reply to post by MadDogtheHunter

 

Wow, good job MadDog!

Thank you. I felt it was unfair for MAC users to not be able to view the Yellowstone cam, while the rest of us could. So I decided to research it a little. I hope it works.