A Bit More Than the Usual Rumbling Hits Yellowstone
In the past week or so, some 400 earthquakes have added to the already precarious land at Yellowstone National Park. Although the area is the largest supervolcano in North America, the rumbling is a bit more than normal.
Like bees, when earthquakes occur in great amounts in one area, it’s called a swarm, reports NPR. But this swarm is bigger than the usual that would happen. The swarm has a magnitude of 3.9 on the Richter scale, and the quakes have happened at greater frequency than the norm.
And all of the earthquakes have occurred under Yellowstone Lake. The last time something like this happened was 20 years ago, reports Wyoming’s Local News 8. Said one geologist on the station: “We think it’s where more magma heat and steam escaped through cracks in the crust. That’s probably what’s causing the earthquakes.”
No one knows for sure why this is happening, though. But no worries to the people living around Yellowstone - the last huge volcano eruption was about 640,000 years ago.
Earlier in the year, around April, the same thing happened in Oregon, except it was 600 earthquakes in 10 days. That one, though, was different - it didn’t occur around any places where tectonic plates meet, the vast land areas that form the Earth’s crust. Three of those quakes had a magnitude of 5.0 or higher. Most, however, happened out at sea, and were barely felt on land.
>> See Also: United States Opening 190 Million Acres to Geothermal Energy Development
Casualties of global warming? Who knows. There’s not much anyone can really do about these, except wait them out.
Photo Credit: moonjazz at Flickr under a Creative Commons License
UGH - global warming?!? Ever had a conversation with someone you know isn’t listening to you and they just make a statement like that? Awesomeness.
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Casualty of Global Warming?
What on earth does a bunch of little earthquakes and steam venting in Yellowstone and off the coast of Oregon have to do with Global Warming??
Well Amanda, what can I say…
There are some rather scathing remarks already left for you here. Some of them use reliable information and suppositions, while others do not.
I read your profile and I understand that you’re a senior at college “involved” with Environmental Journalism. Involved with but not majoring in? Even your profile is a little hazy. But I digress…
First, a swarm of volcano related earthquakes occur in great numbers, not amounts. Second and more importantly, a swarm is not measured as an entity unto itself. A swarm consists of hundreds or thousands of quakes, and EACH is measured and given separate values on a numerical scale.
The on-line source of information you evidently buzzed through, without attention to detail, said that the LARGEST individual quake, within the recent swarm of earthquakes, measured 3.9 in magnitude. It is improper and incorrect to say that the SWARM measured 3.9 in magnitude. There’s a huge difference, dear.
As for your assessment of the Oregon quakes, your statements here are also very much in error. If as you say, the quakes in question occurred both on land and at sea, then they are certainly in proximity to a subduction zone, involving both plate activity and potential coastal magma movement. I don’t intend to give you a lengthy lesson in geology here, but again, I highly recommend that you consult with a patient geology professor.
Oh, and then came your parting shot and arbitrary inclusion of global warming, as if climate change was at fault for volcanic activity… Oh… my…
Seriously – If this short article is indicative of the quality of your writing in general, stop trying to write. Just stop. Because it’s likely that some poor, naïve student out there will take what you say as being authoritative on the subject. And sadly, you’re not even close.
You would do better to plagiarize directly instead of paraphrasing inaccurately about something you clearly don’t understand. If you’re truly interested in environment concerns, you might think about taking up vermiculture as an alternative form of expression. The earthworms love shredded paper.
~ T.C. Kennedy
Casualty of Global Warming?
What on earth does a bunch of little earthquakes and steam venting in Yellowstone and off the coast of Oregon have to do with Global Warming??
It really is just crazy how much we don’t really know about our own earth and its processes and functions.
“It’s being proven that the earth is actually cooling not warming…”
Please don’t be rediculous. Ice shelfs are melting, volcanos are misbehaving all over the world, we had the most devasting fires in history in Melbourne this year, and I still don’t need a jumper in Perth and it’s April.
THERE IS SUCH A THING A GLOBAL WARMING!! It may not be farting cows that is causing it, but whether it’s us or a natural phenomina, it’s happening.