What's Going On At Long Valley SuperVolcano?

There was just a 3.0 right in the LV caldera, followed by many more sub 1.5 ML quakes, almost like they are mini aftershocks of the 3.0. Watching live seismos now to see if it continues, but appears to be dying down.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Depth: 6.2 km (3.9 miles)

Shallow. Another sub 1.5 just now too.

And just a little while ago there was a 2.3 very close to the 3.0. This keeps up, we might go into swarm mode... And here comes another sub 1.5...Hmm

reply to post by TrueAmerican


okay this just seems like more than "blasts". unless they are fracking in that area which would be stupid.... oh wait.... that doesn't mean they aren't.

what ever it is it doesn't seem like it's good........

reply to post by pasiphae


Oh, these are legitimate quakes- even though they haven't been reviewed yet- but have nothing to do with the blasts. I've seen the waveforms and spectro, and they are quakes. LV does this from time to time. But note that 3.0 was .1 km more shallow than the previous 2+. A 4.0 even more shallow, and I just might have to make a call. Already sent an email.

Huh, and now another one now coming in...estimate 1.5 to 1.6

and now again, another one...estimate 1.7

Here's a webicorder from a station pretty close to the action:
www.iris.edu...

USGS 1.0+ list here:
earthquake.usgs.gov...

They haven't put up the smaller ones yet, probably won't till tomorrow (Mon).

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Looks like I'm between two swarms!

Any links to a EQ monitoring site besides USGS?
It's only showing 2.5 & higher.

Thanks for the heads up TA.

reply to post by don rumsfeld


That 3.0 might have (and probably did) get an auto page sent out from the locating software to at least a couple of people from CalVO (the new name btw for the LVO). Betcha there's some serious eyes on it right about now.

But so far in the last minutes activity is back down to background levels. Of course, this activity probably IS background levels for LV. It's active. Doesn't hurt to keep an eye on it though. It will probably just subside and go away, as usual.

Now it looks like another 2.1 ML or so just hit, further north of the other ones...

Now another estimated 3.0 and then another estimated 1.8 or so... hmm

Wow, that was a 3.2 even more shallow at 5.9...

earthquake.usgs.gov...



Simmer down, baby...

Now another estimated 2.3


Nah, more like 1.8 or so... There is a lot more happening than is being shown, but now subsiding again...


Now another est 1.6 and 1.9 back to back


Their autolocating program is putting them in all in a little clustered group, within less than a km of each other.

Ok, a little more info... location is in a tight cluster about 20 km to the east of the actual LV caldera east boundary... So technically they are not in the caldera...

The quakes are happening close to an unnamed, but mapped, Late Quaternary fault, and about 4 km east of the Quaternary Benton Range fault zone. But the shallow depths are curious, and they might be volcanic rather than tectonic. Could be an unknown extension fault acting up, but the shallow depths... Also, after review those locations and depths could change...

too long to be a mine blast and so even spaced that its hard to believe they are not man made.

Are they(USGS or a geothermal company) doing seismic mapping of the caldera with seismic thumper trucks.(vibroseis trucks )
www.riverreporter.com...
i know there is a geothermal power plant in the long valley caldera because i worked there during its construction.
www.blm.gov...

They use from 3 to 20 of these trucks all radio linked to pound at the same time and would look something like this on a seismometer and might have full spectrum peaks,

I know one time i was working a mine about 3 miles from where thumper trucks were working(geothermal company) and i could clearly hear them from in the mine through the rock.

I just wanted to post the recap of activity for Long Valley/Mono Lake for the month of July.

Long Valley Caldera and Mono-Inyo Chain: Six earthquakes occurred in the southern half of the Long Valley Caldera east of the town of Mammoth Lakes (all M

There looks to be a fair amount of microactivity in the Long Valley region. The monitoring page (CalVO link) shows about 90 small earthquakes over the past week.
I see three small clusters: one near the south rim of the caldera (west of the geothermal plant), a second near Mammoth Mountain, and a third near Red and White Mountain (south of the airport).



The activity has been mainly between 4 and 10 km deep, with a handful of outliers. Check out the activity on the 12th between 22:00 and 23:59 UTC on the chart below-- (try it at the link provided--it's interactive).



Does anyone know if there is a link to access the gas monitoring data? I can't find one on the CalVO site.