Whats going on at yellowstone?

reply to post by Thought Provoker


Well, at least if it's possible to obtain it in a legal way and how?
It looks very interesting, in fact that's something I've always wanted.

So it seems that it is just a single 3.6. I thought it would be bigger than that personally.

The seismologist has kept the depth at 0 for the moment. I say for the moment because I don't think we've seen the last look at this particular quake.

Edit - Well blow me down. Downgraded to a 3.5 at a depth of 9.3 kms

[edit on 19-1-2010 by Ape_Man]

So what does this mean?

Does this swarm of earthquakes mean that a big one is coming that could possibly set off an eruption?

That quake we all thought was near a 4.0, well it's been pegged at 3.5 after review. I do not have the expertise to argue, but it sure seemed bigger than that to me. It looked much bigger than the 3.3. Well, does it seem correct to you guys?



Oh I see what they've done. They split it into three events. 2.1 ,3.5, and 2.5.

[edit on 19-1-2010 by Robin Marks]

So according to this article at the Denver Post, last year's swarm (of which started this thread) consisted of:

"...813 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging up to 3.9."

First, is that accurate?

Secondly, considering this current swarm is now at over 430 quakes (half way there) in 3 days, are we on track to having this be a "bigger" swarm than last year?

[edit on 19-1-2010 by harrytuttle]

Just got the 3.5 downgrade from e-Quake on my Mozilla browser.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

reply to post by Robin Marks


It has been deemed as 2 separate quakes with the 2.5 happening less than a minute after the 3.5.

Interesting is the 2.5 was 1 km shallower. Is that the something moving, or opening, up.

[edit on 19-1-2010 by Ape_Man]

Originally posted by Robin Marks
That quake we all thought was near a 4.0, well it's been pegged at 3.5 after review. I do not have the expertise to argue, but it sure seemed bigger than that to me. It looked much bigger than the 3.3. Well, does it seem correct to you guys?

To me is seemed much bigger, but it's true that 0.2 difference in magnitude means over 50% difference in wave amplitude, so it might be right.

Originally posted by HarryTuttle
First, is that accurate?

Yes. To be precise, the largest earthquake occurred during last year's big swarm was M3.87.

Secondly, considering this current swarm is now at over 430 quakes (half way there) in 3 days, are we on track to having this be a "bigger" swarm than last year?

Earthquake swarms can last for weeks or even months, so we'll know as time passes. It doesn't (at least in my opinion) appear to be as energetic as the 2008/2009 Lake swarm, though, not yet at least.

[edit on 2010-1-19 by Shirakawa]

reply to post by Shirakawa

I'm not sure if it would be legal; I was just told not to give it out. It's not so much the app itself (probably); it's just that they don't want half a million people hitting their wave data servers at once. I've never looked at GEE, though; doesn't it do real-time too? If so, it probably has its own wave servers. Might even be Swarm-compatible. They might not mind in that case, since it doesn't come with any defined wave servers; you have to know the right hostname and port number to add as a data source. All I can do is ask them... but they're probably pretty busy right now...

reply to post by Thought Provoker


No problem, I have already solved that with some luck and digging.
My version appears to be able to use IRIS DMC servers, which are the same I use to download SAC data to generate sound files.
I'll try to keep my mouth shut about it, after all you're right, except for some very specific features this program has, GEE should be more than enough, and it's in real time too.

[edit on 2010-1-19 by Shirakawa]

Another one at yellowstone

Magnitude 2.5

YVO has issued a statement about this swarm:

YELLOWSTONE VOLCANO OBSERVATORY INFORMATION STATEMENT
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 3:41 PM MST (Tuesday, January 19, 2010 2241 UTC)


Yellowstone Volcano
44°25'48" N 110°40'12" W, Summit Elevation 9203 ft (2805 m)
Current Volcano Alert Level: NORMAL
Current Aviation Color Code: GREEN

Earthquake swarm on the northwest edge of Yellowstone Caldera continues.


PRESS RELEASE FROM YVO PARTNER UNIVERSITY OF UTAH SEISMOGRAPH STATIONS


Released: January 19, 2010 03:00 PM MST


The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports an update of information on an ongoing earthquake swarm in Yellowstone National Park that began January 17, 2010 (1:00 PM MST). The swarm is located about 10 miles northwest of Old Faithful, WY and 9 miles southeast of West Yellowstone, MT. The largest earthquake in the swarm as of 3 PM, January 19, 2010, was a magnitude 3.7 event that occurred at 2:31 PM, MST, January 19, 2010. and there have been 469 located earthquakes in the swarm of magnitudes 0.5 to 3.7. This includes 5 events of magnitude larger than 3, with 34 events of magnitude 2 to 3, and 430 events of magnitude less than 2. There have been multiple personal reports of ground shaking from observations inside Yellowstone National Park and in neighboring communities in Montana and Idaho for some of the larger events. Earthquake swarms of this nature are relatively common in Yellowstone National Park.


At this time the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory does not consider the swarm to be unusual and the earthquakes are likely related to tectonic fault sources. Also there is no indication of premonitory volcanic or hydrothermal activity, but ongoing analyses will evaluate these different sources.


Information on the earthquake can be viewed at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations: www.seis.utah.edu...


Seismograph recordings from stations of the Yellowstone seismograph station can be viewed online at: quake.utah.edu...


Anyone who has felt earthquakes in the swarm are encouraged to fill out a form on the USGS Community Felt reports web site: earthquake.usgs.gov...

This press release was prepared by the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory partners of the U.S. Geol. Survey, the University of Utah, and the National Park Service: volcanoes.usgs.gov...

Sorry, deleted out-dated information


[edit on 19-1-2010 by odd1out]

reply to post by Shirakawa


You wrote, "
On GEE I saw in a very fast sequence a small earthquake, the big earthquake and then immediately following a medium-small one. It looked like the perfect foreshock-mainshock-aftershock sequence"

I tend to agree with you. Which means this may have been main shock and the quakes should decrease in magnitudes like aftershocks.

Sounds reasonable. In the report you posted the said the was a 3.7. But on this list it's 3.5. There still seems to be some discrepencey.

I just looked over the achieves for last years swarm and there isn't much difference in intensity. Last year's swarm my have a slight edge but this one's trying hard to keep up and match it.


[edit on 19-1-2010 by Robin Marks]

This is my cumulative seismic energy chart based on the most recent earthquake list:

reply to post by Shirakawa



Check AVO for SWARM. It has bugs but is very usable and is currently available to informed and resourceful parties.

reply to post by Arluk


Thanks for your help, but I've already obtained a newer version from another institutional website. I'm retrieving waveforms in realtime for a few stations from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory network directly from IRIS DMC, but I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do, although programs such as VASE do the same thing.

HI, Occasional Lurker here...It seems that last years swarm was notable , ( and scary) because it occurred in an area of no known faults & the EQs were atop each other at various depths from near the surface down to about 7.2 klicks. That indicated an old vertical chimney opening up under tremendous pressure from rising magma.....Is the current swarm occurring in an area of known faults, which would indicate tectonic quakes like thousands of previous swarms & no big deal???.Are the EQs occurring at the same location but at different depths???It would seem to me that if the EQs are occurring along a known fault line then this is a big nothingburger....However if there is no known fault there and the EQs are occurring virtually atop one another, then it may be another old vertical chimney opening up........What say you lay experts??? Thanks

reply to post by WorkinStiff

I believe there are no faults there. They're actually occurring under the caldera, under its western side and about as deep as the bottom of the magma chamber, I think. Maybe even inside it. Note to self: find 3D map of magma chamber!

But if it is a chimney, it's still pretty deep. Start worrying when it gets up to about half a kilometer.

3.1 just now:

3.1 - local magnitude (Ml)
Time Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 6:35:37 PM (MST)
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 1:35:37 (UTC)
Distance from West Yellowstone, MT - 14 km (9 miles) SE (136 degrees)
Island Park, ID - 30 km (18 miles) ENE (75 degrees)
Gardiner, MT - 56 km (35 miles) SSW (202 degrees)
Warm River, ID - 57 km (36 miles) NNE (28 degrees)
Salt Lake City, UT - 431 km (268 miles) N (10 degrees)
Coordinates 44 deg. 34.2 min. N (44.569N), 110 deg. 58.7 min. W (110.979W)
Depth 9.3 km (5.8 miles)
Location Quality Good
Location Quality Parameters Nst= 37, Nph= 37, Dmin=10 km, Rmss=0.29 sec, Erho=0.4 km, Erzz=0.6 km, Gp=68.4 degrees
Event ID# uu00000766