Whats going on at yellowstone?

Originally posted by berkeleygal
Now its at 307... the list I think is only updated every so often.. this is not looking good, seems like a new quake every minute!

It's also possible that they're going back into the past week and adding earlier quakes that weren't in their database yet. After all, that list *should* say well over 900, because there've been that many. So as the USGS adds them, one by one or a batch of several at once, the number goes up. Looks like they're less than a third done now. Also, the USGS, ANSS, NCEDC, UUSS, PBO, YVO, they all have their own sets of data. I wish I could get these people's databases synchronized to each other, one master DB to rule them all... but that's less likely than an eruption. Far less. Maybe if I just offer to do it for free......

reply to post by Shirakawa


Thanks for looking...it just seemed odd to me. It doesn't look like it's harmonic, but noise...only a 'deep' noise. Your suggestion of a distant quake or explosion would make sense. Speaking of patterns...I am noticing a pattern of this noise on the YMC. It seems to start at about 1430 UTC.

Could this possibly be geothermal in nature? Maybe a new geyser?

YVO has created a new page to address a lot of questions like the ones we are posing here. (Sometimes I wonder if they read this forum.)

volcanoes.usgs.gov...

A lot of this is things we had conjectured at, it's nice to have a better idea of what is going on.

Earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 2.5 are automatically located and then automatically plotted on the University of Utah Map of Recent Earthquakes. The smaller events must be analyzed by a seismic analyst to determine what are correct earthquakes from that area. Because the smaller events need to be individually located, they are added to the map later than those that are automatically located. The delay in reporting the smaller earthquakes is usually not very noticeable, except when there are large numbers of very small earthquakes. There are currently seven members of the University of Utah Seismic Stations group who are working 24/7 to analyze the earthquakes. The smaller earthquakes can be viewed on the University of Utah Yellowstone seismic network helicorders. Please keep in mind that all of the earthquakes will be analyzed but it will take time to get to the smaller ones.

Also, there's a handy webicorder image that shows the entire swarm.

I'm not too worried about a lot of the long low rumbling going on at the moment. I noticed with YMR last year, (when the eartquakes were at the other end of the lake) that there was a regular pattern of noise in the park picked up on this webicorder from about 2:00 to sunset, and the same in the early morning. I think it's vehicles. Might actually be worse today because there is so much interest in what's happening under the ground there right now.

If it continues long after sunset then I think we might entertain the idea that any of it is naturally created.

Edited to say: wow that thing before 00:15 was rather spectacular looking, but didn't register anywhere else. Maybe drilling a borehole for monitoring?



[edit on 22-1-2010 by quakewatcher]


...and another thing (last edit I promise) that station they made their graphic from is really great. Very sensitive. If you are using GEE monitor PB.B207. I'm watching the EHZ channel and it's coming through beautifully.

[edit on 22-1-2010 by quakewatcher]

CNN reported earlier this evening that they have closed the roads into yellowstone park because of snow and ice. I googlied google news and found nothing about it yet. I did find this though
billingsgazette.com...

Did y'all see this crazy article, man oh man.... at least i hope he ain't right....


realneo.us...

reply to post by freetree64


I stopped reading as soon as it started with Biblical BS.

reply to post by freetree64


I am glad you provided that perspective! Thank you!

The thought of a terrorist strike there is something I hadn't thought about though.(Let's hope not!)

Then again,everything happens for a reason.

reply to post by freetree64


yeeeeah, the "source" for that Madrid terror suspect story is another 2012 conspiracy site. Don't get me wrong, conspiracy sites can be fun! But more fun when sources come from reputable news sources and really make you go hmmmm.

Having Yellwstone's roads closed in the Winter is more or less the status quo, as far as I know.

Anyway, to get firmly back on topic, I cannot get through to the YVO website at all right now, I suspect it's either overwhelmed with traffic or they are doing some kind of major rearranging. However, I've stil got things going in GEE and the U. of Utah webicorders are up and I don't see anything terribly significant since last night. Still activity, but pretty small. I think we may be approaching the end of another interesting quake swarm. Unless there are some other precursors we aren't aware of I don't think there's any need to start quoting from the Book of Revelations.

Hmm, is it just me, or is the entire volcanoes.usgs.gov domain down? Click here to see if it is for you:

volcanoes.usgs.gov...

I can't get any pages under that domain to load at all.

Also, it appears to me that a whole bank of the Yellowstone Wyoming network (WY) stations are having issues in GEE. Because surely all those can't be calibration signals.

Another thing I have been noticing is the lack of available broadband stations in the park, especially near Madison River (MR). YMR is supposedly a broadband station, but there is no live feed from it at all, almost like they have shut that part off, but are still providing the webicorder images. Most of these EHZ (Extremely Short Period) stations saturate out at either 300 or 600 nanometers, or in other words, any quake above like a 3.5 we really can't gauge from those stations at all. But granted, that's exactly what they are for, to monitor the smaller quakes.

With LKWY down now for a while, and no live feed in GEE from MR, if a big quake happens we're pretty much out of luck in gauging magnitude, other than estimating from H17A or FLWY stations.

There are two signatures on the YMR webicorder today though that have me a bit concerned. They could be trains or big trucks, but I don't think so. Their amplitude is larger than either of the typical signatures for trains or big trucks. And as another poster said, no corroborating USGS quakes would suggest they are teleseisisms either.

So in good conscience I must raise the possibility of harmonic tremor, because they are indeed coming quite close to that signature. And what's worse, is I can't say I saw those in GEE, because I was not attending GEE at that time. To complicate matters further, a local harmonic like that would be picked up of course by YMR, but may register rather weakly at some of the area stations, so it's really difficult to say. In checking around at some of the other stations for corroborating signatures, they appear to be there, but real weak.

So I don't know. Could be. If we get any more of those, it will be interesting to see the USGS/YVO comment on exactly what they are, and I for one will be emailing if I see any more.

reply to post by TrueAmerican



I didn't realize it was the whole domain, but I think you are right about the whole thing being down. I don't know if that's necessarily a sign of anything, just to be devil's advocate there is a lot of stimulus money set aside for improvements to the USGS technology infrastructure and recent events may have pushed the timeline up there. (Or, it's just your garden variety borked server issue.)

I'm also disappointed in LKWY because they made a big deal about getting that station last year. Tax dollars at work. Hopefully this next round of upgrades will actually mean usable stations and not breaking serviceable older technology.

I am watching station PB.B207 in GEE, which has to be pretty close to YMC because when I was watching both the data was virtually identical. (But always looks bigger in B207, it's calibrated differently)

To add that one to GEE, add the PB network, then add PB.B207 in GEE. I like to just watch the EHZ channel (which is coming through loud and clear) but there are many to choose from. There are a few smallish spikes from time to time but mostly it's been pretty boring.

Would harmonic tremor show up on YMR but not YMC/B207? They seem to all be fairly close.

Originally posted by quakewatcher
I am watching station PB.B207 in GEE, which has to be pretty close to YMC because when I was watching both the data was virtually identical. (But always looks bigger in B207, it's calibrated differently)

To add that one to GEE, add the PB network, then add PB.B207 in GEE. I like to just watch the EHZ channel (which is coming through loud and clear) but there are many to choose from. There are a few smallish spikes from time to time but mostly it's been pretty boring.

Would harmonic tremor show up on YMR but not YMC/B207? They seem to all be fairly close.

Station YPM is about the closest to YMR you're going to get, and it's closer than B207. To get it, first choose "extremely short period" in your station chooser, and then add the WY network. You will see it is closer to YMR.

A harmonic of any reasonable size at Madison River would almost certainly show up at YPM, and probably to a lesser degree at 207, YWB, and YMC. But again, I wasn't there to see them, as there are at least two signatures of concern to me, if not more- but the others' magnitudes are too close to man made stuff to worry about. And remember, even if they are HT's, they can go just as easily as they came- it's not the end yet. We'd need to see packs of those things before it's really time to start worrying.

very nice signature at 05:42

gonna call this a 3.3.. gut feeling


probably be listed as 2.8 or close

waiting for it to show up on USGS
suspense is killing me

its been quite for some time now... I was beginning to think the swarm was ebbing



[edit on 22-1-2010 by RickinVa]

[edit on 22-1-2010 by RickinVa]

I am good... popped up as a 2.7 LOL

too bad I have no idea how I do it other than by the seat of my pants


edit...now I got it as a 3.1... I give up.. I am gonna stick to predicting the weather.... better odds

[edit on 22-1-2010 by RickinVa]

Listed as a 3.0 now, here's the report:

3.0
Date-Time
Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 05:41:16 UTC
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 10:41:16 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
44.568°N, 110.972°W
Depth
10.8 km (6.7 miles)
Region
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
Distances
15 km (9 miles) SE (135°) from West Yellowstone, MT
30 km (19 miles) ENE (75°) from Island Park, ID
56 km (35 miles) SSW (201°) from Gardiner, MT
431 km (268 miles) N (10°) from Salt Lake City, UT
Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 0.3 km (0.2 miles); depth +/- 1.2 km (0.7 miles)
Parameters
NST= 26, Nph= 26, Dmin=11 km, Rmss=0.11 sec, Gp= 90°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=4
Source
University of Utah Seismograph Stations
Event ID
uu00001402

I really need to get some work done may have to pretend I can't see it.

Some charts:

Cumulative seismic energy and earthquake count
(warning: still based on incomplete and provisional data)

Earthquake depth seen from the West-East plane

Video of the fifth day of earthquake swarm activity (should be online soon; when it is, quality will improve over time)

Unfortunately at the moment I can't access the YVO website as it appears to be down, but:

Originally posted by quakewatcher

[...]hquakes is usually not very noticeable, except when there are large numbers of very small earthquakes. There are currently seven members of the University of Utah Seismic Stations group who are working 24/7 to analyze the earthquakes. The smaller earthquakes can[...]

I guess this means they will be adding earthquakes this weekend too. Cool!

Also great to know that they clarified how and when they update earthquakes on their official list. Those were recurring questions here, I wonder if some of the YVO staff is monitoring this thread.

interresing link!

www.sciencedaily.com...

reply to post by ressiv


That's "old" news, but it would be interesting to overlay the recently occurred earthquakes over the 3d model of the plume. I wonder if it's available somewhere, I think it should.

has anybody noticed that the whole volcanic section of the usgs has been offline all day?

reply to post by ressiv


I had been getting ready to post that link too since people had been asking about a representation.

People have been wondering about animal activity-

wolves.wordpress.com...

It does mention it being an odd time of year for spotting wolves. It could just be coincidence. A good comparison would be a documentary called Living With Wolves. It doesn't sound like they would usually be out like this this time of winter.

As far as roads closing, it does sound like there's been some bad weather this winter.