6 ms·

Hundreds of Quakes Are Rattling Yellowstone

33 points by ojbyrne 17y ago

uggedal 17y ago
2012?
- est 17y ago
  if I didn't come back to upvote you again in two years, you are probably right.
- david927 17y ago
  Ah, but the other side of Mayan medallion has specific instructions to take back two years to honor the Hebrew God Yahweh. So, 2010. We're screwed.
guns 17y ago
"When the supervolcano at Yellowstone last erupted 640,000 years ago, the magma and ash ejected from the caldera covered most of the United States west of the Mississippi river and part of northeastern Mexico. Another such eruption could threaten civilization." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_civilization,_humans_and_planet_Earth#Supervolcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_civilization,_humans_a...
- coderdude 17y ago
  "The quake zone, [...], has shown little indication, they said, of building toward a larger event, like a volcanic eruption of the type that last ravaged the Yellowstone region tens of thousands of years ago."
  - idlewords 17y ago
    In truth we have no idea what kind of activity would precede such an event. Geology as a predictive science remains in its infancy.
- pavs 17y ago
  All the world-wide destruction predictions on that wikipedia snippet has only one reference from a book by this author: http://www.gregbreining.com/ http://www.gregbreining.com/. From his biography it seems that he is neither a geologist or any kind of scientist by profession. He is a journalist who likes to write science stuff (journalist = automatic BS alert). [ * ] Not that I doubt that something like this can happen, but can anyone give any reference to study or research paper done by (and peer reviewed by) _actual_ scientists? It would probably give more validity to such a claim. * I could be wrong about his profession, I only got those info after less than 5 minutes of googling.
  - Eliezer 17y ago
    er, maybe check the larger Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano
yread 17y ago
I believe that earthquake swarms actually reduce the probability of a larger quake because they release the pressure avoiding a buildup that causes big displacements and tremors
- idlewords 17y ago
  The energy released in the tiny quakes is many orders of magnitude less than in the large ones. It's like throwing an ice cube on a bonfire.
- btilly 17y ago
  The concern at Yellowstone is not a quake, it is an eruption. Earthquake swarms are a sign of magma moving under the ground, which would be a potential precursor to an eruption.
siculars 17y ago
oh shit! a lot oh people died in haiti because of an earthquake... we're next. the nytimes loves to do this sort of thing. it sells papers... or whatever they are selling to stay in business nowadays. here is an article printed a few weeks after the devastating tsunami of dec. 2004, replete with the title of "It Could Happen Here": http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7DD1738F935A25752C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7DD1738F... in other words, "oh shit! a lot oh people died in asia because of a tsunami... we're next."
- electromagnetic 17y ago
  > or whatever they are selling to stay in business nowadays. I simply assumed they'd started fudging their books and dumping newspapers en masse into a deep hole where their gold bullion used to be buried. How else are newspapers supposed to survive today?
Hoff 17y ago
"The current number of daily earthquakes is well above typical daily earthquake activity at Yellowstone. Nevertheless swarms are common at Yellowstone, with magnitudes occasionally above 4.0." "At this time, there is no reason to believe that magma has risen to a shallow level within the crust or that a volcanic eruption is likely. The current swarm earthquakes are likely the result of slip on pre-existing faults rather than underground movement of magma." http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowsto... http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/ http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/ http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/publications/2010/10swarm.php http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/publications/2010/10swarm.php

33 points by ojbyrne 17y ago

uggedal 17y ago

2012?

est 17y ago
if I didn't come back to upvote you again in two years, you are probably right.
david927 17y ago
Ah, but the other side of Mayan medallion has specific instructions to take back two years to honor the Hebrew God Yahweh. So, 2010. We're screwed.

guns 17y ago

"When the supervolcano at Yellowstone last erupted 640,000 years ago, the magma and ash ejected from the caldera covered most of the United States west of the Mississippi river and part of northeastern Mexico. Another such eruption could threaten civilization." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_civilization,_humans_and_planet_Earth#Supervolcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_civilization,_humans_a...

coderdude 17y ago
"The quake zone, [...], has shown little indication, they said, of building toward a larger event, like a volcanic eruption of the type that last ravaged the Yellowstone region tens of thousands of years ago."
- idlewords 17y ago
  In truth we have no idea what kind of activity would precede such an event. Geology as a predictive science remains in its infancy.
pavs 17y ago
All the world-wide destruction predictions on that wikipedia snippet has only one reference from a book by this author: http://www.gregbreining.com/ http://www.gregbreining.com/. From his biography it seems that he is neither a geologist or any kind of scientist by profession. He is a journalist who likes to write science stuff (journalist = automatic BS alert). [ * ] Not that I doubt that something like this can happen, but can anyone give any reference to study or research paper done by (and peer reviewed by) _actual_ scientists? It would probably give more validity to such a claim. * I could be wrong about his profession, I only got those info after less than 5 minutes of googling.
- Eliezer 17y ago
  er, maybe check the larger Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano

yread 17y ago

I believe that earthquake swarms actually reduce the probability of a larger quake because they release the pressure avoiding a buildup that causes big displacements and tremors

idlewords 17y ago
The energy released in the tiny quakes is many orders of magnitude less than in the large ones. It's like throwing an ice cube on a bonfire.
btilly 17y ago
The concern at Yellowstone is not a quake, it is an eruption. Earthquake swarms are a sign of magma moving under the ground, which would be a potential precursor to an eruption.

siculars 17y ago

oh shit! a lot oh people died in haiti because of an earthquake... we're next. the nytimes loves to do this sort of thing. it sells papers... or whatever they are selling to stay in business nowadays. here is an article printed a few weeks after the devastating tsunami of dec. 2004, replete with the title of "It Could Happen Here": http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7DD1738F935A25752C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7DD1738F... in other words, "oh shit! a lot oh people died in asia because of a tsunami... we're next."

electromagnetic 17y ago
> or whatever they are selling to stay in business nowadays. I simply assumed they'd started fudging their books and dumping newspapers en masse into a deep hole where their gold bullion used to be buried. How else are newspapers supposed to survive today?

Hoff 17y ago

"The current number of daily earthquakes is well above typical daily earthquake activity at Yellowstone. Nevertheless swarms are common at Yellowstone, with magnitudes occasionally above 4.0." "At this time, there is no reason to believe that magma has risen to a shallow level within the crust or that a volcanic eruption is likely. The current swarm earthquakes are likely the result of slip on pre-existing faults rather than underground movement of magma." http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowsto... http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/ http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/ http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/publications/2010/10swarm.php http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/publications/2010/10swarm.php