CHEYENNE, Wyo., Dec. 30, 2008
250 Small Quakes Rattle Yellowstone
Scientists Keep Close Eye On Earth Under Park, In Case It Was "Something Precursory"
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Old Faithful geyser erupts in this 2006 file photo from Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. (AP Photo)
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Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone. But Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, said it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days.
"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory.
"Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity? We don't know. That's what we're there to do, to monitor it for public safety."
Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around Yellowstone National Park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.
The strongest of dozens of tremors Monday was a magnitude 3.3 quake shortly after noon. All of the quakes were centered beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.
"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."
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Geophysicist, University of Utah
A park ranger based at the north end of Yellowstone Lake reported feeling nine quakes over a 24-hour period last weekend, according to park spokeswoman Stacy Vallie.They're certainly not normal. We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years.
Robert Smith,Geophysicist, University of Utah
Vallie said no damage was reported.
"There doesn't seem to be anything to be alarmed about," she said.
Smith said it's difficult to say what might be causing the tremors. He pointed out that Yellowstone is the caldera of an active volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago.
He said Yellowstone remains very geologically active - and its famous geysers and hot springs are a reminder that a pool of magma still exists five to 10 miles underground.
"That's just the surface manifestation of the enormous amount of heat that's being released through the system," he said.
Yellowstone has had significant earthquakes as well as minor ones. In 1959, a magnitude 7.5 quake near Hebgen Lake just west of the park triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.
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Add a Comment See all 76 Comments
- Funny how just beneath the idyllic and legendary park at Yellowstone, you have a seething and ticking time bomb that could wipe out half the country were it to blow.
- Reply to this comment
WOW!
I never believed that idiots like you really existed!
So,God put all of tht ancient strata,and the dinasours there to fool us,and test our faith, RIGHT????????????????
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Wow. So someone was alive 640,000 years ago to document this event? Wow.
You people who believe the earth is that old are completely brainwashed by darwinian dogma. It''''''''s truly sad- Reply to this comment
- religion is not real. You may as well read a hardy boys novel. There is as much substance. Anyone who is still saying that earthquakes and droughts are a sign of the apocalypse, heres a fact for ya. These have been happening for centuries!
Also find it funny how they all love to say that 2012 will be when it happens. They get these ideas from the Mayan Calendar. A pagan religion that all good christians are out to destroy. Pathetic. They cannot even see that they are being sold on the imaginary. - Reply to this comment
- Oh well...I''''m good with it. Let what''''s gonna happen happen.
Posted by Khanghi at 12:58 PM : Jan 01, 2009
It''s been my experience that folks crying that moral values are outdated no matter what the source really have a lifestyle issue.
Simply they have a lifestyle monkey on their back that they will defend to the death. No use arguing with them as they will twist logic in order to justify what they want.
Yea,I know this law or this book on moral values is supposedly outdated, foolish, crazy or for nutjobs. But the real is something else. - Reply to this comment
- What a great way to start off the new year; reading posts from those who confuse a belief in God with religion! (always good for a chuckle!)
Let me leave you with a bit of wisdom from someone as close to God as anyone else here can claim to be.
"Those who know don''t say. Those who say don''t know."
In other words, for those of you self-rightous nut jobs with the "if you don''t believe like I believe you''ll burn in Hell for eternity" attitude, that very attitude negates what you think you know and want to foist upon the rest of us.
I feel as sorry for those of you who place all their faith in a book that''s been written and re-written by MAN so many times it probably bears little resemblence to the truth as I do for those who don''t really know what God is all about.
Oh well...I''m good with it. Let what''s gonna happen happen. - Reply to this comment
- What a great way to start off the new year; reading posts from those who confuse a belief in God with religion! (always good for a chuckle!)
Let me leave you with a bit of wisdom from someone as close to God as anyone else here can claim to be.
"Those who know don''t say. Those who say don''t know."
In other words, for those of you self-rightous nut jobs with the "if you don''t believe like I believe you''ll burn in Hell for eternity" attitude, that very attitude negates what you think you know and want to foist upon the rest of us.
I feel as sorry for those of you who place all their faith in a book that''s been written and re-written by MAN so many times it probably bears little resemblence to the truth as I do for those who don''t really know what God is all about.
Oh well...I''m good with it. Let what''s gonna happen happen. - Reply to this comment
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Posted by stinginrich at 08:26 PM : Dec 30, 2008
Wow. So someone was alive 640,000 years ago to document this event? Wow.
You people who believe the earth is that old are completely brainwashed by darwinian dogma. It''''s truly sad
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Posted by Christ_Truth at 03:20 AM : Jan 01, 2009
+ report abuse
LOL....Post some more....It''s always entertaining to read the Inane Gibberish of Deluded Dullards who can''t function in reality without the support of their Magical, Invisible, Friends, who relieve them of their paralyzing fear of death......
(Do some about how Men and Dinosaurs walked together in on our few thousand year old Planet. Those are real gut-busters)..... - Reply to this comment
- Yea, that''''s the scary part. Fear is religion''''s source and it''''s fuel and it''''s power. All the more reason to avoid it.
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Posted by Centerfall94
God is against "religion" as well. See the first commandment.
I feel sorry for you. Knowing the Lord has nothing to do with "religion", as you have been brainwashed to believe in your secular upbringing.
No "religion" is required to have faith and trust in the Almighty Lord.
Religion is man-made. The Lord Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6)
You can''t distinguish the difference between "religion", and the TRUTH - Reply to this comment
- The volcano erupts with a near-clockwork cycle of every 600,000 years. The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago, we are overdue for annihilation.
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Posted by stinginrich at 08:26 PM : Dec 30, 2008
Wow. So someone was alive 640,000 years ago to document this event? Wow.
You people who believe the earth is that old are completely brainwashed by darwinian dogma. It''s truly sad - Reply to this comment
- 250 Small Quakes Rattle Yellowstone
-Christ warned that this would increase folks. Stay tuned.
Mark 13:8 (NIV)
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. - Reply to this comment
- I could feel a few seconds of tremor this early morning.
It might not be related but I think something is going on down there ....
Posted by ghalie123 at 08:26 PM : Dec 30, 2008
Yur laxative is starting to work? - Reply to this comment
- I would like to suggest a special convocation of all people who still support GWB to meet at Yellowstone.
Posted by apple2pie at 01:11 PM : Dec 31, 2008
I''d rather they met in Iran. - Reply to this comment
- It has started!
Posted by JesusEyes at 07:23 PM : Dec 30, 2008
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Good! I, for one, am ready, not prepared. All of the different bad and negative things happening around the world lately have me thinking of a song written in the 1970s by Hoyt Axton:
Oh Lord,
Come down in a hurry
All the earth''s in trouble
And your People in pain
Been rought so long
I''m beginning to worry
We need a little help
Won''t you come back again - Reply to this comment
- Kinda coincides nicely with the sudden interest in vacation homes in Bahrain ( the place that had those few survivors the last time a super Volcano went off).
Maybe it also neatly coincides with the money-masters of the world suddenly cashing in their chips for hard goods- stocking up for a very long cold winter maybe??
Ironic really, that we''re being "reassured" while W and his cronies are all buying "vacation property" in Paraguay and the Middle East shoreline, the "reconstruction" corporations like Haliburton are bailing out of this country and even certain "good guys" like Colin Powell have a place in Panama or similar locations.
Maybe their leaving (with all the nations wealth) was for a different reason than boredom with the American way of life or avoiding prosecution?
The rats are the first to jump ship, the "cognitively fit" soon follow and the "expendable" are reassured that all is well as they blindly ride to extermination. - Reply to this comment
- If there is an eruption, it could melt the snow, sending flood waters into New Orleans. This would give Bush a second chance after Katrina.
- Reply to this comment
- I''m sure Bush and his family like to move over there near the super volcano after get evicted from the White house.
- Reply to this comment
- You global warming hoax lovers will see, AL Gort can shove it up his liberal as$!
libssuck3
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Wow, a little science and you come unglued. Love the liberal reference too :) - Reply to this comment
- What happened during the last eruption of a Super Volcano?
The last eruption of a super volcano was in Toba, Sumatra, 75,000 years ago. It had 10,000 times the explosive force of Mount St. Helens and changed life on Earth forever. Thousands of cubic kilometres of ash was thrown into the atmosphere - so much that it blocked out light from the sun all over the world. 2,500 miles away 35 centimetres of ash coated the ground. Global temperatures plummeted by 21 degrees. The rain would have been so poisoned by the gasses that it would have turned black and strongly acidic. Man was pushed to the edge of extinction, the population forced down to just a couple of thousand. Three quarters of all plants in the northern hemisphere were killed.
When will it next erupt?
Scientist have discovered that the ground in Yellowstone if 74cm higher than in was in 1923 - indicating a massive swelling underneath the park. The reservoir is filling with magma at an alarming rate. The volcano erupts with a near-clockwork cycle of every 600,000 years. The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago, we are overdue for annihilation.
- Reply to this comment
- I am in Glasgow, Scotland now. I could feel a few seconds of tremor this early morning.
It might not be related but I think something is going on down there .... - Reply to this comment
- No, no. Mr.Gore will be able to explain it. To establish the link to our behavior. Didn''t you see all the maps and graphs in his show. "An Inconvenient Truth"? Somehow, he will be able to explain how people can make a super volcano. I have confidence in him.
- Reply to this comment
