Yellowstone Earthquakes

[Delta4Embassy]

This recent earthquake at Yellowstone has once again found a place in my conscious mind lettingme worry some more about the supervolcano underneath the park. Recently discovered the magma chamber's twice as vast as previously thought. And it's still like 40,000 years overdue for a supervolcano eruption. The result of which would be a northern hemisphere extinction level event. Not so much from the immediate effects, and resulting effects from all the ash blocking sunlight, temps dropping, crops and livestock dying out, and everything requiring clean air to function (cars, power stations, and of course people) choking on the ask and breaking or dying. And with several feet of ash in the streets, and on top of every roof, not only would buildings collapse, and travel be impossible (every step kicking up the ash which interfers with breathing until you've inhaled so much it turns into liquid cement in your lungs and you die) but the ensueing volcanic winter would create a powerless winter of 3 or more years. If you don't die from the inhalation of the ash, something collapsing on top of you, social order breakdown (if you can't get around neither can the police,) starvation, or thirst, you'll die from the long winter cold and lack of power to generate heat.

The 4.7 quake isn't expected to cause an eruption (so they say, would they really tell us, "this is it, we're fucked!") But alarming events like ground deformation indicated magma's rising below so that the ground above literally raises up as with one of the lakes in the park sloshing to one side. They say the magma chamber (55 miles long by 15 or so miles wide) is just 8 miles beneath the surface. In geologic terms that's not very deep. And the whole thing's basically a pressure chamber. All the magma produces explosive gas which builds up over time so that any little hole making it to the surface could cause an eruption of the whole thing. And everytime an earthquake happens, there's that possibility.

 

[strollingbones]

and there aint a damn thing that can be done about it...have you looked at the contour maps showing the rising land? that is just plain scarey

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=usgspubs


pg 10 ia=sh

lunar eclipse april 14

 

[Freewill]

How will the effect climate change?

Will this have an effect on the stock market?

I think, as usual, the scientific community has painted the worse possible scenario. It would be bad but life ending? Doubtful. But maybe that is just what I want to believe being as I really have no control over the situation.

 

[orogenicman]

This recent earthquake at Yellowstone has once again found a place in my conscious mind lettingme worry some more about the supervolcano underneath the park. Recently discovered the magma chamber's twice as vast as previously thought. And it's still like 40,000 years overdue for a supervolcano eruption. The result of which would be a northern hemisphere extinction level event. Not so much from the immediate effects, and resulting effects from all the ash blocking sunlight, temps dropping, crops and livestock dying out, and everything requiring clean air to function (cars, power stations, and of course people) choking on the ask and breaking or dying. And with several feet of ash in the streets, and on top of every roof, not only would buildings collapse, and travel be impossible (every step kicking up the ash which interfers with breathing until you've inhaled so much it turns into liquid cement in your lungs and you die) but the ensueing volcanic winter would create a powerless winter of 3 or more years. If you don't die from the inhalation of the ash, something collapsing on top of you, social order breakdown (if you can't get around neither can the police,) starvation, or thirst, you'll die from the long winter cold and lack of power to generate heat.

The 4.7 quake isn't expected to cause an eruption (so they say, would they really tell us, "this is it, we're fucked!") But alarming events like ground deformation indicated magma's rising below so that the ground above literally raises up as with one of the lakes in the park sloshing to one side. They say the magma chamber (55 miles long by 15 or so miles wide) is just 8 miles beneath the surface. In geologic terms that's not very deep. And the whole thing's basically a pressure chamber. All the magma produces explosive gas which builds up over time so that any little hole making it to the surface could cause an eruption of the whole thing. And everytime an earthquake happens, there's that possibility.

Earthquakes happen at Yellowstone all the time. There is nothing unusual or abnormal about this event. As for the "overdue" part, you must realize that that is based on a statistical estimate, like a 100 year flood. Just because we haven't seen a Yellowstone super eruption in 640,000 years does NOT mean that it is overdue. We simply don't know enough about super eruptions to make such a prediction. One thing is certain, and that is that no one should be losing any sleep over it.

And I seriously doubt that one eruption can lead to a super eruption. To get a super eruption, the entire roof of the magma chamber would have to unzip in a major fissure. There have been many small eruptions at Yellowstone in the intervening time since the last super eruption, and I would be very surprised if we don't see more small eruptions that don't, in fact, lead to a large eruption.

 

[strollingbones]

How a supervolcano can threaten Earth - CNN.com

 

[Delta4Embassy]

This recent earthquake at Yellowstone has once again found a place in my conscious mind lettingme worry some more about the supervolcano underneath the park. Recently discovered the magma chamber's twice as vast as previously thought. And it's still like 40,000 years overdue for a supervolcano eruption. The result of which would be a northern hemisphere extinction level event. Not so much from the immediate effects, and resulting effects from all the ash blocking sunlight, temps dropping, crops and livestock dying out, and everything requiring clean air to function (cars, power stations, and of course people) choking on the ask and breaking or dying. And with several feet of ash in the streets, and on top of every roof, not only would buildings collapse, and travel be impossible (every step kicking up the ash which interfers with breathing until you've inhaled so much it turns into liquid cement in your lungs and you die) but the ensueing volcanic winter would create a powerless winter of 3 or more years. If you don't die from the inhalation of the ash, something collapsing on top of you, social order breakdown (if you can't get around neither can the police,) starvation, or thirst, you'll die from the long winter cold and lack of power to generate heat.

The 4.7 quake isn't expected to cause an eruption (so they say, would they really tell us, "this is it, we're fucked!") But alarming events like ground deformation indicated magma's rising below so that the ground above literally raises up as with one of the lakes in the park sloshing to one side. They say the magma chamber (55 miles long by 15 or so miles wide) is just 8 miles beneath the surface. In geologic terms that's not very deep. And the whole thing's basically a pressure chamber. All the magma produces explosive gas which builds up over time so that any little hole making it to the surface could cause an eruption of the whole thing. And everytime an earthquake happens, there's that possibility.

Earthquakes happen at Yellowstone all the time. There is nothing unusual or abnormal about this event. As for the "overdue" part, you must realize that that is based on a statistical estimate, like a 100 year flood. Just because we haven't seen a Yellowstone super eruption in 640,000 years does NOT mean that it is overdue. We simply don't know enough about super eruptions to make such a prediction. One thing is certain, and that is that no one should be losing any sleep over it.

And I seriously doubt that one eruption can lead to a super eruption. To get a super eruption, the entire roof of the magma chamber would have to unzip in a major fissure. There have been many small eruptions at Yellowstone in the intervening time since the last super eruption, and I would be very surprised if we don't see more small eruptions that don't, in fact, lead to a large eruption.

Sometimes I envy ignorance.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

and there aint a damn thing that can be done about it...have you looked at the contour maps showing the rising land? that is just plain scarey

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=usgspubs


pg 10 ia=sh

lunar eclipse april 14

Haven't seen the contour maps, can't say I want to. Have a vivid imagination and no difficulty imagining it.

As to nothing we can do about it, I still like the 'cover the magma chamber with high-yield nukes and try vaporizing the magma. Screwed anyway, worth a shot.

 

[Mr. H.]

There are 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes recorded at Yellowstone each year.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Microquakes. But the reason earthquakes are worrisome is when they come in 'swarms.' Earthquake swarms are one of the isgns of an imminent eruption. Those don't happen often. Big enough quake though can open fissures. If one opens up a path to the magma chamber to the surface, the pressure vessel fails and you get an eruption. Any part of the magma chamber erupting will open a larger hole allowing a cascade failure and the whole thing goes off.

Drill down as close to the chamber as you dare without setting it off, place 20 Mt nukes all over it and try vaporizing as much of the magma as you can if an eruption is deemed imminent. Underground tests at the Nevada test site show how much earth is vaporized during such tests, and it's not like we're running out of nukes any time soon. A local nuclear explosion will devastate the immediate area, and fallout will be bad, but if you can minimize ash release, instead of looking at a northern hemisphere extinction you might simply have a major but not super volcano event.

 

[orogenicman]

Microquakes. But the reason earthquakes are worrisome is when they come in 'swarms.' Earthquake swarms are one of the isgns of an imminent eruption. Those don't happen often. Big enough quake though can open fissures. If one opens up a path to the magma chamber to the surface, the pressure vessel fails and you get an eruption. Any part of the magma chamber erupting will open a larger hole allowing a cascade failure and the whole thing goes off.

Drill down as close to the chamber as you dare without setting it off, place 20 Mt nukes all over it and try vaporizing as much of the magma as you can if an eruption is deemed imminent. Underground tests at the Nevada test site show how much earth is vaporized during such tests, and it's not like we're running out of nukes any time soon. A local nuclear explosion will devastate the immediate area, and fallout will be bad, but if you can minimize ash release, instead of looking at a northern hemisphere extinction you might simply have a major but not super volcano event.

Earthquake swarms by themselves almost never indicate that an eruption is imminent. And actually, earthquake swarms happen all the time in many places around the world. They have no singular cause, but rather, are caused by several different phenomena, such as dyke emplacement in the subsurface, lateral and/or vertical movement of magma or hydrothermal fluids; even the construction of a reservoir can cause earthquake swarms.

As for your scenario for Yellowstone, it isn't that simple. First of all, the size of any eruption depends on the amount of eruptible magma present in the subsurface, and the presence and volume of volatile gases. The massive amount of magma in Yellowstone's magma chamber is not likely to be all eruptible. It is highly likely that only a small fraction of it is eruptible at any one particular time. Moreover, in the case of an imminent super volcanic eruption, there would be many more hydrothermal basins within the caldera than there currently are, as well as many large fractures developing at the surface and in the subsurface - we don't see any of that occurring at the present time. Most importantly, an 8 mile thick cap on the magma chamber is not a small cap. It is the entire breadth and width of the caldera, 34 by 45 miles. It will take a significantly larger event than a single eruptive episode to destabilize the cap, and that too will depend on the presence of eruptible lava; and that will depend on the volume of volatile gases present at depth. There is currently no indication that a significant build up of volatile gases is occurring beneath Yellowstone.

As for your nuke scenario, I think you watch too much science fiction.

 

[longknife]

How will the effect climate change?

Will this have an effect on the stock market?

I think, as usual, the scientific community has painted the worse possible scenario. It would be bad but life ending? Doubtful. But maybe that is just what I want to believe being as I really have no control over the situation.

I certainly don't consider myself an alarmist.

But, if there WAS to be an eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, it would be an Earth-changing event. Remember, when Krakatoa blew its top, it affected the Earth's climate for more than a year.

Nobody for hundreds of miles around would survive.

And, with the swarm of quakes currently going on in California, it could signal major problems for them.

 

[strollingbones]

During the last five months, station NRWY GPS has recorded about 3.5 inches of lift (the land is rising) and about 1 cm (0.4 in) of movement toward the southeast.

Measurements from other stations in northern Yellowstone show smaller movements forming a circular pattern of deformation of the park floor.

Not only has there been a sudden rise in elevation and the development of new cracks, but Yellowstone has suddenly started issuing huge amounts of helium-4, a very rare form of helium.

It’s the presence of this gas that interests scientists.

What surprised scientists is that Helium-4 appears to be the strongest predictor of activity, as demonstrated with other volcanoes.

For example, at the volcanic island of El Hierro , the smallest of the Canary Islands of Spain, which rumbled and shook during seven months in 2011 and 2012, the gas silently filtered through the soil and groundwater on the island.

Eventually, a new underwater volcano erupted off the south coast of the island.

When the eruption started, gas flow at the surface increased dramatically.

The latest reports show that the emission rates of crustal helium- 4 from Yellowstone exceed (by orders of magnitude) any conceivable generation within the crust.

During the last five months, station NRWY GPS has recorded about 3.5 inches of lift (the land is rising) and about 1 cm (0.4 in) of movement toward the southeast.

Measurements from other stations in northern Yellowstone show smaller movements forming a circular pattern of deformation of the park floor.

Not only has there been a sudden rise in elevation and the development of new cracks, but Yellowstone has suddenly started issuing huge amounts of helium-4, a very rare form of helium.

It’s the presence of this gas that interests scientists.

What surprised scientists is that Helium-4 appears to be the strongest predictor of activity, as demonstrated with other volcanoes.

For example, at the volcanic island of El Hierro , the smallest of the Canary Islands of Spain, which rumbled and shook during seven months in 2011 and 2012, the gas silently filtered through the soil and groundwater on the island.

Eventually, a new underwater volcano erupted off the south coast of the island.

When the eruption started, gas flow at the surface increased dramatically.

The latest reports show that the emission rates of crustal helium- 4 from Yellowstone exceed (by orders of magnitude) any conceivable generation within the crust.

http://piccolaeraglaciale.wordpress...-inquietanti-dalla-caldera-dello-yellowstone/

 

[orogenicman]

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/

Do helium emissions at Yellowstone signal an impending eruption?

No. YVO Scientist-in-Charge Jacob Lowenstern and colleagues recently published research on helium (He) emissions at Yellowstone in the journal Nature. The new research looked at apparent changes in the helium output of the Yellowstone area during its two-million-year volcanic history, compared with the previous two billion years of comparative stability. The research has nothing to do with current activity at Yellowstone, and has no implications about volcanic hazards. For a humorous and informative take on the new research, watch this video, or read this news article.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7488/full/nature12992.html

Helium is used as a critical tracer throughout the Earth sciences, where its relatively simple isotopic systematics is used to trace degassing from the mantle, to date groundwater and to time the rise of continents1. The hydrothermal system at Yellowstone National Park is famous for its high helium-3/helium-4 isotope ratio, commonly cited as evidence for a deep mantle source for the Yellowstone hotspot2. However, much of the helium emitted from this region is actually radiogenic helium-4 produced within the crust by α-decay of uranium and thorium. Here we show, by combining gas emission rates with chemistry and isotopic analyses, that crustal helium-4 emission rates from Yellowstone exceed (by orders of magnitude) any conceivable rate of generation within the crust. It seems that helium has accumulated for (at least) many hundreds of millions of years in Archaean (more than 2.5 billion years old) cratonic rocks beneath Yellowstone, only to be liberated over the past two million years by intense crustal metamorphism induced by the Yellowstone hotspot. Our results demonstrate the extremes in variability of crustal helium efflux on geologic timescales and imply crustal-scale open-system behaviour of helium in tectonically and magmatically active regions.

 

[mamooth]

I think, as usual, the scientific community has painted the worse possible scenario.

Nah. The scientific community keeps pointing out nothing unusual is going on. It's more the tabloid-type media and conspiracy crowd that keeps telling us we're all doomed.

Current Alerts for U.S. Volcanoes

Yellowstone is "green". There are 3 volcanoes rumbling in remote parts of Alaska, one in the Marianas, and Kilauea.

Also, the helium releases at Yellowstone haven't changed. The "sudden release" quoted by the paper used "sudden" in the geological sense. As in it started a mere 2 million years ago, when the magma moved into the area and started cooking the rocks.

 

[longknife]

Is The Yellowstone Super Caldera Getting Ready to Blow?

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Seriously, troubling signs but guesses are that such a major event is far in the future.

Part of Grand Teton National Park near Yellowstone supervolcano closed after massive fissure opens

It’s a 100 foot crack in the earth.

More @ Part of Grand Teton National Park near Yellowstone supervolcano closed after massive fissure opens

 

[Billy_Bob]

Is The Yellowstone Super Caldera Getting Ready to Blow?

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Seriously, troubling signs but guesses are that such a major event is far in the future.

Part of Grand Teton National Park near Yellowstone supervolcano closed after massive fissure opens

It’s a 100 foot crack in the earth.

More @ Part of Grand Teton National Park near Yellowstone supervolcano closed after massive fissure opens

YVO geologists are looking at the rift. They are most certainly worried about what cross plate stressors are present across the region. A tear is far more likely to open up Yellowstone than simple quakes would be.

 

[Markle]

This recent earthquake at Yellowstone has once again found a place in my conscious mind lettingme worry some more about the supervolcano underneath the park. Recently discovered the magma chamber's twice as vast as previously thought. And it's still like 40,000 years overdue for a supervolcano eruption. The result of which would be a northern hemisphere extinction level event. Not so much from the immediate effects, and resulting effects from all the ash blocking sunlight, temps dropping, crops and livestock dying out, and everything requiring clean air to function (cars, power stations, and of course people) choking on the ask and breaking or dying. And with several feet of ash in the streets, and on top of every roof, not only would buildings collapse, and travel be impossible (every step kicking up the ash which interfers with breathing until you've inhaled so much it turns into liquid cement in your lungs and you die) but the ensueing volcanic winter would create a powerless winter of 3 or more years. If you don't die from the inhalation of the ash, something collapsing on top of you, social order breakdown (if you can't get around neither can the police,) starvation, or thirst, you'll die from the long winter cold and lack of power to generate heat.

The 4.7 quake isn't expected to cause an eruption (so they say, would they really tell us, "this is it, we're fucked!") But alarming events like ground deformation indicated magma's rising below so that the ground above literally raises up as with one of the lakes in the park sloshing to one side. They say the magma chamber (55 miles long by 15 or so miles wide) is just 8 miles beneath the surface. In geologic terms that's not very deep. And the whole thing's basically a pressure chamber. All the magma produces explosive gas which builds up over time so that any little hole making it to the surface could cause an eruption of the whole thing. And everytime an earthquake happens, there's that possibility.

Earthquakes happen at Yellowstone all the time. There is nothing unusual or abnormal about this event. As for the "overdue" part, you must realize that that is based on a statistical estimate, like a 100 year flood. Just because we haven't seen a Yellowstone super eruption in 640,000 years does NOT mean that it is overdue. We simply don't know enough about super eruptions to make such a prediction. One thing is certain, and that is that no one should be losing any sleep over it.

And I seriously doubt that one eruption can lead to a super eruption. To get a super eruption, the entire roof of the magma chamber would have to unzip in a major fissure. There have been many small eruptions at Yellowstone in the intervening time since the last super eruption, and I would be very surprised if we don't see more small eruptions that don't, in fact, lead to a large eruption.

All true but this eruption caused a large enough fissure to open that, as a precaution, part of the park was closed. So this was an unusual and abnormal event. Constant measurements have shown that the dome has expanded in recent years. There has been an unusual increase in activity around the Ring of Fire and Hawaii is 700 acres larger than it was a year ago.

I'm not losing any sleep and I've already had a great life. But to say, scientists, are overestimating the coming severity of the eruption is foolish. They have underestimated as many disasters as they have overestimated.