Whats going on at yellowstone?

Now Folks, if you have nothing better to do for a few minutes this little exercise taken fron the English A-Level syllabus teaches you how to calculate the epicentre of an earthquake from seisomgraph readings. It 's quite good fun! (If you like that sort of thing)

www.matter.org.uk...

Just found another one. GCSE (a lower level). A nice simple explanation of things seismic.

www.gcse.com...

[edit on 12/2/2009 by PuterMan]

On a completely different subject, I wonder if the Pentagon ever noticed that Yellowstone lies almost halfway between two of its largest ICBM bases:

Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming

en.wikipedia.org...

and

Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, Montana:

en.wikipedia.org...

Each one of these bases has been targeted with hundreds of Russian nuclear warheads set to burrow deep underground and detonate, taking out the buried missile silos. All it takes is for one of these hundreds of warheads to overshoot or undershoot the mark and land in the Yellowstone caldera and a bad day is likely to get a lot worse for the US and the world.

My cheerful thought for the day.

lol of course with that many missles and stuff, it might just blow up the whole dang caldera anyway.

Off Post:

Anyone Know what's up with all the "Big Rollers" in Indo? My Mailbox is Overflowing with >4M from the past couple of Days. I notice also these seem to be effecting other Regions that are better not Disturbed...

[edit on 2/13/2009 by Hx3_1963]

I have no idea. I only knew of the one. What areas are being effected? Just outta curiosity. lol Well, the ones you said that are better left undisturbed. lol Cause I was trying to read up on it and don't see anything like that. But, that doesn't mean there aren't areas being effected that shouldn't be.

[edit on 13-2-2009 by ekhodust]

I wonder if its affecting this side of the globe!
I have received email notifications for several eq's in various spots around the northwest in the past couple days. I will post them here in order in case anyone can use the info.
PRELIM: M2.4 14:38 2/11 43.6N 108.2W 2 km W of Thermopolis, WY WYOMING Z=30km MB 9992036 33b24
(been there, is kind of a neat place!)
PRELIM: M3.0 16:51 2/09 44.5N 116.0W 5 km E of Cascade, ID SOUTHERN IDAHO Z=11km US 2009cwcd 33b24
(I think this was a duplicate from yesterday)
PRELIM: M2.1 10:34 2/12 37.4N 114.6W 18 km SE of Helene, NV NEVADA Z=0km NN 00275589 33b24
PRELIM: M2.0 16:08 2/09 39.0N 111.4W 14 km WNW of Emery, UT UTAH Z=10km UU 02091608 33b24
PRELIM: M2.3 07:37 2/06 37.5N 112.3W 17 km SE of Hatch, UT UTAH Z=1km UU 02060738 33b24
They are from the EQ notification service! Pretty handy!
sslearthquake.usgs.gov...
You have to set up an account but its easy. Then you can customize different alerts! This was posted jillions of pages ago, thats why I'm reposting here.


[edit on 13-2-2009 by dodadoom]

reply to post by Hx3_1963


I meant to put this up yesterday so it is probably out of date now.

Indonesia quakes





I don't think this is off topic because they may well have effects on the other side of the plate, and/or cause other earthquakes else where by refracted P waves.

This area is connected by fault lines that run across to the west and then go right up the east coast of Mexico and the US to california.

[edit on 13/2/2009 by PuterMan]

Originally posted by PuterMan

I don't think this is off topic because they may well have effects on the other side of the plate, and/or cause other earthquakes else where by refracted P waves.

[edit on 13/2/2009 by PuterMan]

I agree- I think any geologic topic is fair game, especially during the Yellowstone slow periods.

reply to post by PuterMan


Here is a CNN article on the Indonesian quakes. And they are still rocking and rolling. In the past hour or so we have a 5.0, 4.9 and 5.6.

Powerful quakes rock northeastern Indonesia

edition.cnn.com...

I think it would be considered relevant due to the teliseims (however it is spelled, or as I prefer to call them 'ringers' or 'ringing.'

I'm not sure what is the 'norm' for quakes in the US, but it seems that a part from Cali, there's a whole lot of shaking going on.

I have the email notification going too; though I have it boxed from Nevada over the Inter-Mountain West, over to the far east edge of Texas and it seems like its getting pinged every day. It could be that we're more cognizant of them due to awareness, but its still busy.

M.

How to stay on topic? The Indonesian earthquakes seem swarm-like. With 50 aftershocks with a magnitude of 5+, it seems to be an ongoing process. The USGS summary shows the epicenter is in a unique part of the world.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

www.geology.um.maine.edu...

whatonearth.olehnielsen.dk...

It's like a slow-motion head-on crash of two semi trucks, with a compact car helplessly stalled between them.

The convergence of three major plates, with micro-plates squeezed between these, make this the most dynamic part of the world. It is reasonable to assume that major changes will be taking place all around the ring of fire. One concern is the same fault that produced the 2004 Tsnunami, still has a potential to cause another 9+ magnitude quake.

www.gps.caltech.edu...

edition.cnn.com...

To stay on topic, I quess I should refrence another region which has had recent, unusal swarm earthquakes.

www.sciencedaily.com...

courses.washington.edu...

www.oregonlive.com...

My thoughts on all this, I think we are very near another megathrust earthquake. Where? The two most likely candidates are Sumatra and Vancouver/Oregon. Or maybe all the activity has reduced the stress on the plates and we are in store for a period of quiet to follow. My hope is for the latter, however, I believe the past year has been a series of precursors, which will lead to an event on the scale of the 2004 Tsunami. I believe the current activity in Indonesia will prove to be catalyst for catastrophe. I hope I'm wrong.

And the odds are against a Cascadia Megathrust Earthquake occuring soon.

www.kval.com...





[edit on 13-2-2009 by Robin Marks]

[edit on 13-2-2009 by Robin Marks]

[edit on 13-2-2009 by Robin Marks]

reply to post by Robin Marks


I'll try this again because the mods decided not to post my comment last time.

Anyway, does anyone know why they are still doing urgent ASTER flyovers of Yellowstone? They have at least three flyovers scheduled for February (one day, two at night).

It was mentioned multiple pages back that there were urgent flyovers scheduled in January. Is this normal? I tried using WIST to look at old ASTER data, but it wasn't exactly user friendly and I wasn't able to zero in on Yellowstone.

I don't know what would concern me more-urgent infrequent flyovers or frequent regular flyovers over the area. In either case, they are definitely concerned around thermal readings and ground deformation.

reply to post by Robin Marks
Hi there Robin,

I'm using your post for reply but it's also to answer some other comments.

I think it's fair enough and reasonably on-topic to refer to/discuss quakes in places like Indonesia, especially if they are very strong ones that might produce teleseisms (your spelling was pretty close, Moshpet! ) that could have an influence on YS. We all know that scientists in the relevant fields accept that distant quakes can trigger other ones, and we also know that (for example) major seismic events in Alaska have been observed to cause quakes in Yellowstone. So -- yeah. It's worth discussing for sure.

About possibilities for mega-thrust quakes. I'd agree that the two most like candidates are the Indonesia region and the Juan de Fuca off the US PNW, but seeing as the Indo. region had a huge one only a few years ago and PNW hasn't had one for a little over 300 years, it might suggest that the Juan de Fuca is more likely to give trouble than the other. Even the one off Chile let go less than 50 years back so it might be quiet for a good while longer as well. Certainly, the Juan de Fuca is an ongoing region of concern for the experts, which is one reason why its activities are monitored so extensively, and also why authorities in the potentially-afflicted areas have disaster plans in place that include the effects of a major tsunami following a big quake.

Like quite a few people, that particular fault setup gives me the creeps... It's not just what the effects in the immediate (but large) region might be, there are the possible effects further inland where the PNW volcanoes are, as well as even further afield around Yellowstone itself.

I think we also discussed some way back what might happen to the aforementioned volcanoes if YS had a "big one". Seem to recall there was general agreement that the effects could be quite severe...

Speaking of severe effects, a few posts back a poster (sorry can't recall who) mentioned how the Russians had a load of ICBM Nukes aimed as certain bases, and that YS lies between two of the most important ones, then went on to say that if the Russians launched those nukes and one by chance landed on YS then it would be very bad for the world.

Well, just my opinion, but if the situation ever arises that the Russians (or whoever) decide to launch large numbers of nukes against the US, then frankly most people won't give a damn about old Yellowstone, for the simple reason that most people will either already be dead or hiding in bunkers. So, while the "Russian nuke accidentally triggering a Yellowstone mega-eruption" scenario is feasible, let's hope that no-one ever has to find out if it's true.

Finally ("Hooray", says all!), just a quick comment about the wind issue. Many thanks to those who've posted data and info that seem to show a strong correlation between wind conditions in the YS and the "pollock" traces on some webis. Thank you!! It's good to see that one taken care of.

Best regards,

Mike

reply to post by Hx3_1963
Not quite sure what you mean by "big rollers", Hx3_1963, but Indonesia does get a heck of a lot of quakes even at the best of times. Pound for pound, it's probably the most seismically and volcanically active region in the world. I recall it has about half of the world's active volcanoes, and they are a fair indication of how busy things are around there.

Lower-range mag 4's are a dime a dozen in Indonesia, and they usually have at least a couple of mag 5's a week on average as well. According to accounts I've read in the past the locals hardly notice "mere" lower-range mag 5's, but the mag 6-plus quakes make life pretty miserable for them by triggering mudslides (often due to illegal logging), disrupting earth dams, or actually collapsing buildings. But when there's been a mag 7-plus, it's pretty normal that there'll be hundreds of after-shocks over the next few days, so that would account for your mountain of emails.

Best regards,

Mike

Originally posted by rigel434

Originally posted by PuterMan

I don't think this is off topic because they may well have effects on the other side of the plate, and/or cause other earthquakes else where by refracted P waves.

[edit on 13/2/2009 by PuterMan]

I agree- I think any geologic topic is fair game, especially during the Yellowstone slow periods.

DITO!!!.....this info is highly appreciated..

Originally posted by operation mindcrime

Originally posted by rigel434

Originally posted by PuterMan

I don't think this is off topic because they may well have effects on the other side of the plate, and/or cause other earthquakes else where by refracted P waves.

[edit on 13/2/2009 by PuterMan]

I agree- I think any geologic topic is fair game, especially during the Yellowstone slow periods.

DITO!!!.....this info is highly appreciated..

Absolute agreement!

I'm going to Pull a Andy Rooney Here...

Ya Ever Notice When That One Spot in Indonesia gets Really Active, Puerto Rico Acts Up Too...Now What's Up With That? One of Those Global Angular Core Recipricating Wave Fronts?

reply to post by Hx3_1963
Maybe, yeah. The problem is that Puerto Rico has been pretty active for some months now, even when Indonesia has not had any larger quakes (ie mag 7-plus). All the same, Puerto Rico is not too far off being antipodal to parts of Indonesia, so the more-or-less constant seismic activity it has been experiencing could be linked to what's going on in that that Asian-Pacific region.

reply to post by Hx3_1963


You may have a good point there Hx3. I just did a very rough comparison of Puerto Rico and Indonesia (Mag 1.0+) over the last 7 days.



I will investigate this further.

Sorry the pic is a bit big but making it smaller makes it unreadable. DL it.

Changed it, so may be better.


[edit on 14/2/2009 by PuterMan]

The graph below show Indonesia eqs and Puerto eqs spaced for times based on days to 3 decimal places. I am not sure that you can infer anything from this, but no eq between the two occurs at the same time and there is always a gap, if small between the indo eq and the next pr eq.



Vertical is Mag and horizontal is days to 3 dec places.

DL to get the full pic


[edit on 14/2/2009 by PuterMan]