Whats going on at yellowstone?

And another - 2.8

2.8
Date-Time

* Monday, February 01, 2010 at 12:17:52 UTC
* Monday, February 01, 2010 at 05:17:52 AM at epicenter

Location 44.583°N, 110.984°W
Depth 9.7 km (6.0 miles)
Region YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
Distances

* 13 km (8 miles) SE (132°) from West Yellowstone, MT
* 30 km (18 miles) ENE (72°) from Island Park, ID
* 55 km (34 miles) SSW (203°) from Gardiner, MT
* 432 km (268 miles) N (10°) from Salt Lake City, UT

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.3 km (0.2 miles); depth +/- 1.8 km (1.1 miles)
Parameters NST= 26, Nph= 26, Dmin=10 km, Rmss=0.15 sec, Gp= 83°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=4
Source

* University of Utah Seismograph Stations

reply to post by MoorfNZ


This one however looked visibly larger than the previous one which was in the same location and at a more shallow depth. I wonder if the magnitude will be revised later.

[edit on 2010-2-1 by Shirakawa]

guess the swarm took a cup of caffe yesterday in the middle of the park????..
YMR is active again...

I think another M2.8-2.9 just occurred at about the same location as the previous two ones.

[edit on 2010-2-1 by Shirakawa]

Earthquake frequency has dimished a lot, but I wonder if daily earthquake energy has. I'm waiting for updated data.

[edit on 2010-2-1 by Shirakawa]

Hey guys...compare these two webicorders from today

YMR

YSB

Specifically the times: 13:20, 15:50 and 16:18 on YSB, then compare those times to YMR. It appears to me that it is not local noise and keep in mind that YSB is at 1333 microvolts. So what is it? I don't know enough about reading those to even guess. I would think that if it were 'blasting' it would show up much stronger on the 100 microvolt YMR, or the 1066 microvolt YMP which is right next to it.

WOW...here comes another bigger one right now. Looks to be over 3.0

reply to post by westcoast


Experts, would a trend of shallower earthquakes be an indication of POSSIBLE magma on the rise? Or could it be just a new set of fractures settling? Would love a practical explanation for what rising depth could/could not mean...

Yellowstone Road Conditions

Per information on the National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park web page all roads into the park including the west entrance from West Yellowstone, MT are closed to wheeled vehicle traffic which passes YMR on the way to the Old Faithful area. The exception is the road from Mammoth (North Entrance) towards Cooke City which remains open during the winter which passes near YSB.

The only traffic using the road passing YMR are over snow vehicles - snowmobiles and snow coaches which do daily tours to Old Faithful area and sometimes Canyon. This activity concentrates in the morning then again in the afternoon and is identifiable on YMR during daylight hours as small by small, low amplitude, prolonged traces/blips on the display. Although I agree about cultural 'noise' I am curious about the larger traces/blips such as the one occurring routinely at about 1240am, as well as other periods in the evening, is likely cultural I suspect it is not snowmobiles - perhaps industrial or perhaps large, heavy over snow vehicles caring supplies to the lodges or materials for construction projects.

Here are links to current road conditions and expected times when roads will reopen to wheeled traffic

www.nps.gov...

www.nps.gov...

For those of you interested in more Yellowstone images.

travel.webshots.com...





[edit on 1-2-2010 by Arluk]

reply to post by westcoast


I've checked those signals on YSB and to me most of them seem the trace of a large truck passing or something similar. Like YMR, YSB is located very close to a road:

www.iris.edu...

Again, probably it's that close to the road because it's used also to monitor vehicle access to YNP.

reply to post by Shirakawa


Okay, thanks for that. I'm not familiar with what they are near. That makes sense!

I can't help but wonder, looking at the list of recent quakes, if it is at all concerning that most of the small, micro-quakes seem to have faded but we now have a seemingly consistent stream of larger/shallower quakes? Or are these still small enough to be considered small releases?

After recently doing some more reading on Yellowstone, I understand now that while you tend to hear about the 'erruption' potential in the media, we are MUCH more likely to see some sort of hydrothermal release. (I think those on here with more knowledge have said this previously many times over.....I can't remember that far back ) I know the park may be somewhat overdue for this, geologically speaking. It would be cool to witness that, so long as it was small enough so that no one was hurt...plus it would be a good pressure-release valve!!

[edit on 1-2-2010 by westcoast]

I saw the Drudge Report linked a story about the swarm today- should give it a lot more attention. I personally was much more concerned about the swarm a year or so ago- it was in a more likely spot for a super-eruption and, most of all, the seismographic readings looked suspiciously like harmonic tremor. Although it later developed that those reading were most likely wind- did some research on that myself that I posted on this board.

This current swarm just *feels* tectonic in nature to me- this one hasn't got me concerned yet.

reply to post by rigel434


Latest depth was 2.4 km...

www.seis.utah.edu...

In the past day, there was also a 4.0 km and a 7.2 km...

Scratch that... Latest quake must have been reviewed... In the course of writing this, it was revised to a 7.2... Still three quakes in the last day that are significantly shallower... Previous quakes were mostly around 9-10km... Something to watch for sure, but I'm not quite as edgy seeing that 2.4km revised to a 7.2...

Granted, I'm a novice so this may not even be unusual at all... Just wondering what would/could indicate magma? What variance would be considered normal in a tetonic swarm?

[edit on 1-2-2010 by pantangele]

The swarm is not over,
Yellowstone paused for the moon.
Three raps to wake us up-
We sing a different tune.

The sky has been ablaze
Mars rising and two moons of blue,
Ebbing tides and tiny shakes,
And soon the moon will be anew.

Don't worry about YMR. I've been watching all of this last year and it's always noisy. And since I just watch the webicorders, I have to realize that they are not all the same sensitivity. Let's face it, they are a mess. I'll just mention one. YLKW. If your reading this Peter, I hope you get your money soon and bore some holes and update everything.
I saw the YMR from 2003, but it looked like most I've seen. Lot's of background noise. If something weird is going on I'm hoping Shirakawa will point it out. They revised that shallow quake deeper. If I have any advise (ha), study 1985.

Shirakawa, could you please tell me if there is a daily RSAM. If not, tell me where they're posting it, and when they upadate it. And if you could, I love bar graphs, could you please make a chart with only the 2.5+ quakes for this swarm? Just the number of quakes each day for the entire swarm.


I said don't let this swarm fool you. Still think it won't beat the last one in terms of culmulative energy? More and more this swarm is resembling 1985. The thing I don't like about that, is that during the 1985 swarm there was evidence of fluid migration. Is there an archive for the siesmographs from that swarm anywhere? I've been meaning to hunt for as much info on the subject but have been distracted and busy.

The following is not rational.

I just want them to stop already. I feel like I caused the swarm because I predicted it. My cocky cofindence is no match for my anxieties and my other imaginings for the future. You can't help but feel small when you're looking eye to eye with the world's biggest volcano smack dab in the middle of the continent you live on. The geologists watch the volcano and are confident in the data the rocks and shakes give them. They've run the numbers over to the statisticians and gotten the odds. But in the end, they have to admit that they don't know for sure. It's their best guess, a really educated and informed guess, but they don't know. There's never been a witness. Except our early ancestors who survived the TOBA eruption. Only one story may have survived until this day. In the tale of the Phonenix.

Our legends and myths are data. Just really fuzzy data. Kinda like the webicorders.


[edit on 1-2-2010 by Robin Marks]

I like your poem!

The USGS is posting daily updates which include daily RSAM plots. My thanks to them for listening and sharing!

volcano.wr.usgs.gov...

Originally posted by westcoast
reply to post by Shirakawa

 

I can't help but wonder, looking at the list of recent quakes, if it is at all concerning that most of the small, micro-quakes seem to have faded but we now have a seemingly consistent stream of larger/shallower quakes? Or are these still small enough to be considered small releases?

These earthquakes can still be considered small.
As for why there as been a change in the type of activity (reduction of small ones but consistent stream of larger ones) to tell the truth I have no clue, but I can speculate that at the moment less fractured, larger faults are involved than in the first part of this swarm (if you've noticed, the location of the last few earthquakes is a bit different too).

Originally posted by Robin Marks
Shirakawa, could you please tell me if there is a daily RSAM. If not, tell me where they're posting it, and when they upadate it. And if you could, I love bar graphs, could you please make a chart with only the 2.5+ quakes for this swarm? Just the number of quakes each day for the entire swarm.

There is unfortunately no daily RSAM, only for the entire duration of this swarm. As for the chart, I've made one.

It's based on incomplete data though.

By the way ... according to my calculations, the current swarm has now surpassed in earthquake energy the 2008-2009 one
And still many more earthquakes need to be added (1000+)!

[edit on 2010-2-1 by Shirakawa]

The swarm is not over,
Yellowstone paused for the moon.
Three raps to wake us up-
We sing a different tune.

The sky has been ablaze
Mars rising and two moons of blue,
Ebbing tides and tiny shakes,
And soon the moon will be anew.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Funny Robin hihi... poem's in quatrains???? let me guess nostradamus ????
for whom is interresting in it...here a link to all century's and quatrains of him... :-) perhaps there are some relavants to yelly in it

nostradamusquatrains.com...

I wanted to jump in here and say that I have been following this thread for the last five months. It is one that I have to check out several times a day. It is very well ran with a lot of knowledgeable people and with professionalism.
Keep up the incredibly fantastic job of keeping people like myself informed on a daily basis.
Thanks to all of you for keeping the public informed....

Century 9 Quatrain 83
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sun in twenty degrees of Taurus, there will be a great earthquake; (the trigger)
the great theater full up will be ruined. ( the park itself)
Darkness and trouble in the air, on sky and land, (pyroclast clouds)
when the infidel calls upon God and the Saints.


[edit on 1-2-2010 by ressiv]

Here's the kind of seismogram from the Dec 2008-Jan 2009 event that had me biting my fingernails at the time (look at the bottom part of the seismogram):

www.isthisthingon.org...

Apparently wind caused those readings, but, at the time, it seemed like what you'd expect from magma moving underground. I was really worried.

[edit on 1-2-2010 by rigel434]

reply to post by ressiv

Quatrain 6:97

The sky will burn at forty-five degrees,
Fire approaches the great New City.
Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up
When they want to have proof of the Normans.

45 degrees is the definition of Yellowstone's northern edge (its latitude). The "huge scattered flame" is obvious. There are quite a few "great new cities" (ones that didn't exist in Michel's time) near enough to Yellowstone to be affected; Butte, MT is probably the most-vulnerable, but also Salt Lake City and Boise and maybe even Denver. The last verse is a time marker, like quite a few quatrains have in the form of celestial alignments or landmark world events. The Normans are the French; dunno how they fit in. Possibly it'll happen while someone's demanding proof of something from them. So that's all we can watch for... besides seismometers and harmonic tremors. I think I'd rather trust science on this one.

reply to post by rigel434


I remember that seismograph vividly . I kept thinking that it looked just like St. Helen's before she blew.