GLOBAL VOLCANISM: "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" - Is Yellowstone Supervolcano Awakening?!

Scientists have analysed the molten rock within the dormant supervolcano beneath Yellowstone and found that eruption is possible without any external trigger.

April 7, 2016 - PACIFIC NORTHWEST - Less than 48 hours after public display of volcanic activity at Yellowstone was intentionally taken OFFLINE from public view, we now know why:

© SuperStation95

Looks like "there's a whole lot a shakin' goin' on!"

Take a look at this reading from Bore Hole 944 inside the super-volcano at Yellowstone National Park:

Yellowstone Bore Hole 944. © SuperStation95

Folks within 500 miles of Yellowstone National Park may want to keep close watch on the super-volcano there. With readings like you see above, now closed-off to the public, it seems there's something taking place at the deadly volcano.


- SuperStation95.

 

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Yellowstone Supervolcano Eruptions Were Even Bigger Than We Thought - Geological Society Of America Bulletin!

Scientists have analysed the molten rock within the dormant supervolcano beneath Yellowstone
National Park and found that eruption is possible without any external trigger.

March 26, 2016 - PACIFIC NORTHWEST - A recent study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin identifies an area of great volcanic activity along the Snake River Plain between Oregon and Yellowstone.

While scientists have long known that the supervolcano now under Yellowstone left a trail of mega-eruptions across the Pacific Northwest, an international research team has found evidence of only 12 distinct eruptions, contradicting earlier theories that the eruptions were more numerous and less extreme.

“The size and magnitude of this newly defined eruption is as large, if not larger, than better known eruptions at Yellowstone,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Thomas Knott, in a University of Leicester press release, “and it is just the first in an emerging record of newly discovered super-eruptions during a period of intense magmatic activity between 8 and 12 million years ago.”Scientists used paleomagnetic data, radioisotope dating, and rock and mineral chemistries to identify the size and location of these ancient eruptions. One eruption, called the Castleford Crossing eruption, produced a volcanic sheet that covers approximately 14,000 square kilometers – an area the size of Connecticut – in southern Idaho.

Knott and his team identified 11 other super explosions that they say were likely similar in size to the well known, massive super explosions at Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park.

“While it is well-known that Yellowstone has erupted catastrophically in recent times,” said Knott, “perhaps less widely appreciated is that these were just the latest in a protracted history of numerous catastrophic super-eruptions that have burned a track along the Snake River eastwards from Oregon to Yellowstone.”Yellowstone certainly remains volcanically lively. In 2013, a study found that Yellowstone’s “supervolcano” was even larger than scientists had previously believed, with a magma chamber stretching 55 miles long, and 18 miles wide.

If the Yellowstone supervolcano explodes, says the 2013 study, the resulting eruption could be up to 2,000 times as violent as the Mt. St. Helens eruption several decades ago.

In the spring of 2015, scientists discovered an even deeper magma chamber.

Beautifully exposed succession of stacked Snake River eruption-units within a typical deeply incised canyon in southern Idaho. Each cliff forming unit represents a single
eruption, the deposits of which can be traced from 100’s of kilometres. This terrain is typical of that which researchers are faced with when characterising
the individual eruption deposits. David Finn/University of California, Santa Cruz

The last Yellowstone eruption occurred 640,000 years ago – a blink of an eye in the geologic time scale, compared to the Snake River Plain explosions 8 to 12 million years ago – some remain concerned that this destructive supervolcano is ripe for an eruption.

"Three super-eruptions at Yellowstone appear to have occurred on a 600,000-700,000 year cycle starting 2.1 million years ago," explains the BBC. "The most recent took place 640,000 years ago – suggesting Yellowstone is overdue for an eruption."This new study, with evidence of 12 volcanoes in about 3 million years, suggests that the Yellowstone supervolcano can erupt catastrophically on a much shorter cycle of about every 250,000 years. - CS Monitor.

 

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Ticking Time-Bomb - Yellowstone Super-Volcano Could Kill Millions!

Yellowstone caldera.© USGS

January 8, 2016 - YELLOWSTONE, UNITED STATES - The US is in more immediate danger from "super-volcanos" like the one in the Yellowstone National Park, than other natural disasters -- as it may go off within the next 80 years, scientists say.

Experts from the European Science Foundation have determined that the likelihood of an eruption happening at one of the major volcanoes within 80 years is around 5-10%, due to a "volcano season" of increased activity.

A new report, called "Extreme Geo-hazards: Reducing the Disaster Risk and Increasing Resilience," also warns that preparations for such an occurrence are nearly non-existent. [The report in PDF format can be downloaded here]


WATCH: New Study - Yellowstone Volcano Could WIPE OUT TWENTY AMERICAN STATES!

"Although in the last few decades earthquakes have been the main cause of fatalities and damage, the main global risk is large volcanic eruptions that are less frequent but far more impactful than the largest earthquakes," the report states.

"Due to their far-reaching effects on climate, food security, transportation, and supply chains, these events have the potential to trigger global disaster and catastrophe," it continues. "The cost of response and the ability to respond to these events is beyond the financial and political capabilities of any individual country."

Volcanic eruptions at Yellowstone National Park in the US, Mt. Vesuvius in Italy or Popocatépetl in Mexico would not only kill millions, but also would affect global weather and harm food production, according to the report.

Yellowstone volcano - potential ash fallout© USGS

A major eruption would do more damage to the environment than 1,000 years of human activity and global warming, the report warns.

"Hence extreme volcanic eruptions pose a higher associated risk than all other natural hazards with similar recurrence periods, including asteroid impacts." - Sputnik News.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: "This Giant Volcano Is Very Much Alive" - Scientists Find Missing Link In Yellowstone Plumbling; Massive New Magma Reservoir And Hot Rock Found Beneath The Supervolcano!

The gorgeous colors of Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic hot spring are among the national park’s myriad hydrothermal features created by the Yellowstone supervolcano. A
new University of Utah study reports discovery of a huge magma reservoir beneath Yellowstone’s previously known magma chamber.
(“Windows into the Earth,” Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel)

April 23, 2015 - WYOMING, UNITED STATES - Yellowstone National Park is the home of one of the world's largest volcanoes, one that is quiescent for the moment but is capable of erupting with catastrophic violence at a scale never before witnessed by human beings. In a big eruption, Yellowstone would eject 1,000 times as much material as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. This would be a disaster felt on a global scale, which is why scientists are looking at this thing closely.

On Thursday, a team from the University of Utah published a study, in the journal Science that for the first time offers a complete diagram of the plumbing of the Yellowstone volcanic system.

The new report fills in a missing link of the system. It describes a large reservoir of hot rock, mostly solid but with some melted rock in the mix, that lies beneath a shallow, already-documented magma chamber. 

The newly discovered reservoir is 4.5 times larger than the chamber above it. There's enough magma there to fill the Grand Canyon. The reservoir is on top of a long plume of magma that emerges from deep within the Earth's mantle.


WATCH: University of Utah seismologists funded by the National Science Foundation found a pool of magma beneath Yellowstone's supervolcano that they say is big enough to fill the Grand Canyon more than 11 times. (National Science Foundation/University of Utah)

This system has been in place for roughly 17 million years, with the main change being the movement of the North American tectonic plate, creeping at the rate of roughly an inch a year toward the southwest. A trail of remnant calderas can be detected across Idaho, Oregon and Nevada, looking like a string of beads, marking the migration of the tectonic plate. A similar phenomenon is seen in the Hawaiian islands as the Pacific plate moves over a hot spot, stringing out volcanoes, old to new, dormant to active.

“This is like a giant conduit. It starts down at 1,000 kilometers. It's a pipe that starts down in the Earth," said Robert Smith, emeritus professor of geophysics at the University of Utah and a co-author of the new paper. The lead author is his colleague Hsin-Hua Huang.

This new picture doesn't change, fundamentally, the risk assessment of Yellowstone, but it will help scientists understand the mechanics of the volcano.

“Really getting an idea of how it works and understanding how these large caldera-forming eruptions may occur, and how they might happen, would be a good thing to understand," said paper co-author Jamie Farrell, another geophysicist at the university. "No one's ever witnessed one of these really large volcanic eruptions. We kind of scale smaller eruptions up to this size and say, 'This is probably how it happens,' but we really don’t know that for sure.”

A new study provides the first complete view of the plumbing system that supplies hot and partly molten rock from the Yellowstone hotspot to the Yellowstone supervolcano.
The study revealed a gigantic magma reservoir beneath the previously known magma chamber. This cross-section illustration cutting southwest-northeast under Yellowstone
depicts the view revealed by seismic imaging. Seismologists estimate the annual chance of a Yellowstone supervolcano eruption is 1 in 700,000.
(Hsin-Hua Huang/University of Utah)

The next major, calderic eruption could be within the boundaries of the park, northeast of the old caldera.
“If you have this crustal magma system that is beneath the pre-Cambrian rocks, eventually if you get enough fluid in that system, enough magma, you can create another caldera, another set of giant explosions," Smith said. "There’s no reason to think it couldn’t continue that same process and repeat that process to the northeast.”

The report is based on the equivalent of an MRI of the crust beneath Yellowstone. Nature itself supplies the key diagnostic tool: Earthquakes. The Yellowstone region is seismically active, and in any given year there can be hundreds of small earthquakes. These tremors send seismic waves racing through the planet's crust. Seismographs stationed around Yellowstone and across the United States record the arrival of these waves and carefully measure how long it took for them to reach the instruments. The speed of the waves carries information: When the seismic waves hit hot rock, they go slower; when they pass through cold rock, they're faster. By combining the data from many sensors, scientists can get a picture of the hot and cold rock beneath Yellowstone. This is known as "seismic tomography."

This is a volcano that can erupt either in a big way or a truly colossal and catastrophic way. The big eruptions can send lava flowing over a big portion of the park; the really huge ones can form a giant crater, or caldera. The last time Yellowstone had a calderic eruption was 640,000 years ago, and the misshapen hole it created was about 25 miles by 37 miles across. This caldera has since been filled in by lava flows and natural erosion, and Yellowstone Lake covers a portion of the area. The main visual evidence of the old caldera is the striking absence of mountains at the heart of the park: They were literally blown away in the last eruption.

Risk assessment is tricky for low-probability, high-consequence events like volcanic eruptions. The big Yellowstone eruptions occur on time scales of many hundreds of thousands of years. Smith said the repeat time for a caldera explosion at Yellowstone is roughly 700,000 years. But the smaller eruptions, with lava flowing over the surface, are more frequent. There have been at least 50 such smaller eruptions since the caldera exploded 640,000 years ago. The most recent was about 70,000 years ago.

Geological processes don't follow clocks. These are chaotic systems, with strain building unpredictably as distant faults break and the geological stresses shift here and there.

Bottom line: Yellowstone is unpredictable. There's no sign at all that this old volcano is going to erupt anytime soon, either in a big way or a huge, show-stopper way. But neither is there any evidence that it's running out of steam. - Washington Post.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: "It Would Be A Huge Disaster" - What Would Happen If The Yellowstone Supervolcano Actually Erupted?!

What would happen if the Yellowstone supervolcano actually erupted?

December 18, 2014 - UNITED STATES - If the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone National Park ever had another massive eruption, it could spew ash for thousands of miles across the United States, damaging buildings, smothering crops, and shutting down power plants. It'd be a huge disaster.

A super-eruption would be very bad - though also pretty unlikely

But that doesn't mean we should all start freaking out. The odds of that happening are thankfully pretty low. The Yellowstone supervolcano - thousands of times more powerful than a regular volcano - has only had three truly enormous eruptions in history. One occurred 2.1 million years ago, one 1.3 million years ago, and one 664,000 years ago.

And despite what you sometimes hear in the press, there's no indication that we're due for another "super-eruption" anytime soon. In fact, it's even possible that Yellowstone might never have an eruption that large again.

Even so, the Yellowstone supervolcano remains an endless source of apocalyptic fascination - and it's not hard to see why. In September 2014, a team of scientists published a paper in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems exploring what a Yellowstone super-eruption might actually look like.

Among other things, they found the volcano was capable of burying states like Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Colorado in three feet of harmful volcanic ash - a mix of splintered rock and glass - and blanket the Midwest. That much ash could kill plants and animals, crush roofs, and short all sorts of electrical equipment:

Ash, ash, everywhere

An example of the possible distribution of ash from a month-long Yellowstone supereruption.  © US Geological Survey

An example of the possible distribution of ash from a month-long Yellowstone supereruption.

When I called up one of the study's co-authors, Jacob Lowenstern of the US Geological Survey, he stressed that the paper was not any sort of prediction of the future. "Even if Yellowstone did erupt again, you probably wouldn't get that worst-case scenario," he says. "What's much, much more common are small eruptions - that's a point that often gets ignored in the press." (And even those small eruptions are very rare.)

Lowenstern is the Scientist-In-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory in Menlo Park, California. So I talked to him further about what we actually know about the Yellowstone supervolcano, what its eruptions might look like, and why the odds of disaster are low.

What is the Yellowstone supervolcano?

© National Park Service

Lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park is a reservoir of hot magma five miles deep, fed by a gigantic plume of molten rock welling up from hundreds of miles below. That heat is responsible for many of the park's famous geysers and hot springs. And as magma rises up into the chamber and cools, the ground above periodically rises and falls.

The vast, vast majority of Yellowstone eruptions are small

On rare occasions throughout history, that magma chamber has erupted. The vast, vast majority of those eruptions in Yellowstone have been smaller lava flows - with the last occurring at Pitchstone Plateau some 70,000 years ago.

But the reason why Yellowstone gets so much attention is the remote possibility of catastrophic "super-eruptions." A super-eruption is anything that measures magnitude 8 or more on the Volcano Explosivity Index, in which at least 1,000 cubic kilometers (or 240 cubic miles) of material gets ejected. That's enough to bury Texas five feet deep.

These super-eruptions are thousands of times more powerful than even the biggest eruptions we're used to. Here's a chart from USGS comparing the Yellowstone super-eruptions with the Mt. St. Helens eruption of 1980. The difference is staggering:

Super-eruptions vs ordinary eruptions

© (US Geological Survey)

Yellowstone has had three of these really massive eruptions in its history - 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 664,000 years ago. The last of those, at Yellowstone Lava Creek, ejected so much material from below that it left a 34-mile-by-50-mile depression in the ground - what we see today as the Yellowstone Caldera:

Location of past Yellowstone super-eruptions

© National Park Service

It's worth noting that Yellowstone is hardly the only supervolcano out there - geologists have found evidence of at least 47 super-eruptions in Earth's history. The most recent occurred in New Zealand's Lake Taupo some 26,000 years ago.

More dramatically, there was the gargantuan Toba eruption 74,000 years ago, caused by shifting tectonic plates. That triggered a dramatic 6- to 10-year global winter and (according to some) may have nearly wiped out the nascent human race.

On average, the Earth has seen roughly one super-eruption every 100,000 years, although that's not an ironclad law.

So what would a Yellowstone eruption look like?

Let's reiterate that the odds of any sort of Yellowstone eruption, big or small, are very low. But if we're speaking hypothetically...

The most likely eruption scenario in Yellowstone is a smaller event that produced lava flows (similar to what's happening at Iceland's Bárðarbunga right now) and possible a typical volcanic explosion. This would likely be precipitated by a swarm of earthquakes in a specific region of the park as the magma made its way to the surface.

A super-eruption is capable of sending ash many thousands of miles

Now, in the unlikely event of a much bigger super-eruption, the warning signs would be much bigger. "We'd likely first see intense seismic activity across the entire park," Lowenstern says. It could take weeks or months for those earthquakes to break up the rocks above the magma before an eruption.

And what if we did get a super-eruption - an event that was 1,000 times more powerful than a regular volcanic eruption, ejected at least 240 cubic miles of material, and lasted weeks or months? The lava flows themselves would be contained within a relatively small radius within the park - say, 40 miles or so. In fact, only about one-third of the material would actually make it up into the atmosphere.

The main damage would come from volcanic ash - a combination of splintered rock and glass - that was ejected miles into the air and scattered around the country. In their new paper, Lowenstern and his colleagues looked at both historical ash deposits and advanced modeling to conclude that an eruption would create an umbrella cloud, expanding even in all directions. (This was actually a surprising finding.)

A super-eruption could conceivably bury the northern Rockies in three feet of ash - devastating large swaths of Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, and Utah. Meanwhile, the Midwest would get a few inches of ash, while both coasts would see even smaller amounts. The exact distribution would depend on the time of year and weather patterns:

Modeling the spread of ash from a Yellowstone super-eruption

© Mastin et al 2014

Any of those scenarios would be terrible news. That much volcanic ash is capable of killing people, plants, and animals and crushing buildings. Even a few inches of ash (which is what much of the country can get) can destroy farms, clog roadways, cause serious respiratory problems, block sewer lines, and even short out transformers. Air travel would have to shut down across much of North America.

An eruption that big would also cool the planet temporarily

A volcanic eruption that big would also have major effects on the global climate. Volcanoes can emit sulfur aerosols that reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere cool the climate. These particles are short-lived in the atmosphere, so the effect is only temporary, but it can still be dramatic.

When Pinatubo erupted in 1991, it cooled the planet by about 1°C (1.8°F) for a few years. The Tambora eruption in 1815 cooled the planet enough to damage crops around the world - possibly leading to famines in some areas. And those were relatively tiny eruptions compared to what a supervolcano is, in theory, capable of.

Yikes! So what are the odds of a Yellowstone super-eruption?

Very, very low. In fact, it's even possible Yellowstone might never erupt again.

'Odds are very high that Yellowstone will be eruption-free for the coming centuries'

Right now, there's no sign of a pending eruption. Yellowstone park does continue to get earthquakes, and the ground continues to rise and fall, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. "Yellowstone is behaving as it has for the past 140 years," the USGS points out. "Odds are very high that Yellowstone will be eruption-free for the coming centuries."

The USGS also notes that, if you simply took the past three eruptions, the odds of Yellowstone erupting in any given year are 0.00014 percent - lower than the odds of getting hit by a civilization-destroying asteroid. But even that's not a good estimate, since it's not at all certain that Yellowstone erupts on a regular cycle or that it's "overdue" for another eruption. In fact, there might never be a big eruption in Yellowstone again.

"The Earth will see super-eruptions in the future, but will they come in Yellowstone? That's not a sure thing," says Lowenstern. "Yellowstone's already lived a good long life. It may not even see a fourth eruption."

Volcanoes, after all, do die out. The magma chamber below Yellowstone is being affected by two opposing forces - the heat welling up from below and the relative cold from the surface. If less heat comes in from below, then the chamber could conceivably freeze, eventually turning into a solid granite body.

It's also worth noting that the volcanic hotspot underneath Yellowstone is slowly migrating to the northeast (or, more accurately, the North American tectonic plate above the hotspot is migrating southwest). You can see the migration below:

The volcanic hotspot is sloooooowly moving northeast

© USGS

On a long enough time scale, the hotspot will move out from under Yellowstone - and the Yellowstone supervolcano would, presumably, die out. Of course, it's possible that another supervolcano could emerge further in the northeast, but the hotspot would first have to heat up and melt the cold crust first. And that process could take a million years or longer.

"It's hard to get our minds around something like a million years," Lowenstern says. "Humans are a relatively brand-new species. But Earth's been around a very long time, and these systems take a long time to do what they do." - VOX.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Earthquake Swarm Detected At Yellowstone National Park - 98 Tremors Revealed In Latest Report By USGS!

November 4, 2014 - UNITED STATES - In the latest update of the Yellowstone volcano by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), October registered 98 total earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region. This seismic activity shows 21 more earthquakes than those reported in September. Although there was more activity in October, the highest magnitude was lower than the one reported in September.

The volcano’s current alert level is “normal” and current aviation color code is “green.” This is indicates that no massive eruption of the supervolcano is imminent.

According to the USGS, their information comes the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and is responsible for the operation and analysis of the Yellowstone Seismic Network.

“During October 2014, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, responsible for the operation and analysis of the Yellowstone Seismic Network, reports 98 earthquakes were located in the Yellowstone National Park (YNP) region. The largest event was a small earthquake of magnitude 2.7 on October 29, at 3:55 PM MDT, located about 17.5 km (11 miles) south-southwest of West Thumb, YNP. This earthquake is part of a small swarm of 15 earthquakes that occurred over six hours.
“Yellowstone earthquake activity in October is at low background levels.”

As the Inquisitr reported for September, nearly half the earthquakes were registered for the Yellowstone volcano in September than there was in August. August had 207 and 71 were reported in September. The strongest earthquake that month was September 24 when it reached a magnitude of 3.2 about 9 miles south of Mammoth.; no earthquake swarms were reported in September.

Ground deformations were updated by the USGS as well in the October report.

“Ground deformation was also reported in north-central Yellowstone. The rate of subsidence is holding steady at about 5 centimeters a year.

“The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) provides long-term monitoring of volcanic and earthquake activity in the Yellowstone National Park region. Yellowstone is the site of the largest and most diverse collection of natural thermal features in the world and the first National Park. YVO is one of the five USGS Volcano Observatories that monitor volcanoes within the United States for science and public safety.”

The National Park Service posted a notice on its website that Yellowstone volcano won’t erupt anytime soon despite rumors implying otherwise.

“Though another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely to occur in the next thousand or even 10,000 years.

“The most likely activity would be lava flows such as those that occurred after the last major eruption. Such a lava flow would ooze slowly over months and years, allowing plenty of time for park managers to evaluate the situation and protect people. No scientific evidence indicates such a lava flow will occur soon.”

- Inquisitr.

MAJOR GLOBAL VOLCANISM ALERT & DISASTER PRECURSORS: Earthquake Swarm Detected At Yellowstone National Park - Nearly 100 Small Tremors In Just A Few Days!

June 04, 2014 - YELLOWSTONE, UNITED STATES - Seismographs have picked up a swarm of earthquakes in the northwestern corner of Yellowstone National Park, including dozens early Tuesday.

The University of Utah Seismograph Station reported five small earthquakes including those with magnitudes of 3.4, 2.7 and 3.2 in a 20-minute period starting at 3:33 a.m. in an area 16 to 18 miles south of Gardiner.

Earthquake information specialist Paul Roberson says there were another 20 to 30 small quakes Tuesday morning that hadn't yet been posted on the university's website.

A U.S. Geological Survey map shows the location of one of the small earthquakes that
shook Yellowstone National Park recently. (Associated Press)

He called it a fairly normal swarm for Yellowstone. He didn't expect there to be any damage.

Seismographs recorded 31 quakes in the same area south of Gardiner on Saturday, while another 23 were reported last Wednesday and Thursday in an area between 18 and 19 miles east-southeast of West Yellowstone. - Oregon Live.

PLANETARY TREMORS: The Puente Hills Thrust Fault - Following More Than 100 AFTERSHOCKS, Californians Fear "The Quake From Hell"!

April 01, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Experts now fear that the 5.1 magnitude earthquake that rocked Southern California on Friday evening could be a mere sampling of what’s to come if more seismic activity occurs along the Puente Hills thrust fault.

Schematic block diagram showing the association of GPS site motions with blind thrust faults in metropolitan Los
Angeles. The blind thrust faults are in bold orange lines and other active faults are thin orange lines. Large
earthquakes prior to the magnitude 5.1 are shown as orange stars with the date and magnitude. The large
white arrows show the direction of shortening across Los Angeles with the expected motion from the
strike-slip faults removed. The size of those arrows does not relate to any particular scale.
Figure modified from Fuis et al., 2001

That break in the Earth’s crust is far less renowned that the more famous San Andreas fault that has been a major cause of concern for residents of the Los Angeles area for ages. Activity along the Puente Hills thrust is now being blamed for last week’s quake, however, and in turn has rekindled discussion about the potential catastrophes that could occur if a larger tremor takes LA by surprise once again.

Although the Puente Hills thrust is far less famous than the San Andreas fault, experts say another serious tremor there could cause grave consequences for Southern California.

Friday evening’s incident was reportedly centered near the city of La Habra, around 20 miles southeast of downtown LA, and spawned upwards of 100 aftershocks throughout the region. The Puente Hills fault extends through a critical part of Southern California, though, and could have caused exponentially more damage if it was stronger and its epicenter was elsewhere.

“This fault actually produces a worse earthquake than the San Andreas can,” United States Geological Survey Seismologist Lucy Jones told the Los Angeles Times. “It won't be quite as big magnitude, but because we have so many people on top of it...it will be worse.”

Seismologists say the Puente Hills thrust fault stretches across northern Orange County into downtown Los Angeles all the way into Hollywood, and has the potential to affect a number of older, more vulnerable buildings that aren’t expected to withstand a serious quake.

According to the USGS, a hypothetical magnitude-7.5 quake along that same fault could potentially kill 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage — roughly double the death toll that experts would expect from a similar sized tremor along the San Andreas fault.

Broken bottles are seen on the floor after falling off the shelves at a CVS pharmacy, following a magnitude
5.1 earthquake in Fullerton, California March 29, 2014. (Reuters / Gene Blevins)

Such a quake, Jones told the Times, would “hit all of downtown” and “everywhere from La Habra to Hollywood.”

Friday’s event, Jones said, occurred when the Puente Hills fault slipped for only half a second, causing around 10 full seconds of shaking on the surface. Had the quake been stronger — say, magnitude 7.5 — then Jones said the fault could have slipped for upwards of 20 full seconds.

Serious disturbances along the lesser-known fault are expected only once every 2,500 years, according to the Times’ report, but scientists aren’t too sure when the last major one occurred.

“We can’t predict earthquakes,” Southern California Earthquake Center director Thomas Jordan told KCAL9, “but you know, I’d say we’re a little bit nervous.”

“It would be very damaging to central Los Angeles,” Jones added to the local news network, “An earthquake engineer once told me this could be the earthquake from Hell.”

On Monday, the Times reported that about 19 residents from the town of Fullerton remained displaced after their homes were damaged by Friday’s quake. Around 13 water lines broke as a result of the tremor, the paper reported, but all were back in business by Saturday. - RT.

MAJOR GLOBAL VOLCANISM ALERT & DISASTER PRECURSORS: Yellowstone Volcano Eruption In 2014 - Some Believe Animals Are Fleeing The Park [VIDEO], See It As "An Alert"!

April 01, 2014 - YELLOWSTONE, UNITED STATES - A number of bloggers are posting videos that show bison and other animals allegedly leaving Yellowstone National Park, prompting theories that as earthquakes ramp up the seismic activity will set off the Yellowstone supervolcano.

Hot springs are evidence of the gigantic supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park. (NPS)

Two of the main bloggers behind the discussion stress that there’s no way to know when the supervolcano will go off but note that the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that hit on March 30 seemed to set off a reaction from the animals, who are moving for a reason.

“Whether I believe this, or whether I don’t believe the story or not, I don’t know. I can tell you this story I saw this morning about the buffaloes running the street … whether or not it’s because of any activity in Yellowstone or not, I don’t know,” said blogger Jay Lee, who posted a story on his site tatoott1009.com.

“But I’ll tell you this, whatever the case may be, that their running away from Yellowstone is an alert of some sort.”


WATCH:  Buffaloes running for their lives in Yellowstone. Animals can often sense trouble long before humans. These bison are coming down the hills in droves and fleeing on the road to get away from Yellowstone. Is the volcano there going to erupt?

 


“It also could be from this video, where poachers are killing them, chasing them, abusing them, running them around,” he said. “Could be hundreds of things for them to be running. I wanted you to listen [to the videos] and make up your own mind on what to think. “

A series of smaller quakes have hit the region over the past few weeks, and those quakes have been linked to the recent 5.1 magnitude quake (and aftershocks) that hit in the Los Angeles region.

Tom Lupshu, who describes himself as a “noted Ohio survivalist and search-and-rescue expert,” said on YouTube that nearly one quarter of the northern elk herd at Yellowstone National Park are missing, according to the annual winter count.

“Biologists aren’t sure if there’s been a stunning decline in the herd or if other factors have skewed the tally,” he said. “Current Helium releases at 1000 times above normal. Complete media blackout. Herds of bison running for their lives on the public roadways and they were not being chased or rounded up, the bison were running down the mountain slopes onto roadways running right past a filming crew. They detect something vast and deadly. The Yellowstone Supervolcano is the only thing there that would fit the bill.”

Lupshu said in a later video that scientists say they can’t predict when the Supervolcano will erupt.

(USGS)

(USGS)

“But one thing is for sure. The more the Earthquakes in the region, the more are the chances of the volcano being activated from its dormant state. Last time an earthquake struck in 1980. But the force of nature has acted up once again.”

The supervolcano refers to the huge magma chamber beneath the park, which is in Wyoming.

Researchers recently discovered that the supervolcano is far bigger than previously thought, about 2.5 times.

“We’ve been working there for a long time, and we’ve always thought it would be bigger… but this finding is astounding,” said Bob Smith of the University of Utah.

The findings point to the potentially disastrous consequences if the volcano were ever to blow.

The last major eruption is thought to have happened around 640,000 years ago and sent ash across the entire North America.

Smith said researchers are unsure when the supervolcano would erupt again. Two other eruptions happened, one 2.1 million years ago, and the other 1.3 million years ago, Smith said. One theory is that eruptions happen every 700,000 years ago, but Smith said more data is needed to back that theory up.

The United States Geological Service’s Yellowstone Observatory emphasized in February bulletin that earthquake activity in and around Yellowstone is normal, because between 1,000 and 3,000 typically occur each year.

That includes several each year of magnitudes between 3 and 5.

This map from the U.S. Geological Service shows the range of the volcanic ash that was deposited after the biggest of the Yellowstone National Park eruptions around 2.1 million years ago. "These eruptions left behind huge volcanic depressions called “calderas” and spread volcanic ash over large parts of North America," it said. "If another large caldera-forming eruption were to occur at Yellowstone, its effects would be worldwide. Thick ash deposits would bury vast areas of the United States, and injection of huge volumes of volcanic gases into the atmosphere could drastically affect global climate. Fortunately, the Yellowstone volcanic system shows no signs that it is headed toward such an eruption in the near future. In fact, the probability of any such event occurring at Yellowstone within the next few thousand years is exceedingly low."

“Although rising magma and hot-ground-water movement cause some earthquakes, many occur as the result of Basin and Range extension of the western U.S. This tectonic environment has created a series of regional faults that are responsible for large and devastating earthquakes in the Yellowstone region along the Teton and Hebgen Lake Faults. Most recently, a devastating Mw7.3 (Ms 7.5) earthquake in 1959 killed 28 people and caused $11 million in damage (1959 dollars). The majority of the damage occurred as a result of a large landslide that was triggered by the quake,” it said.

“Geologists conclude that large earthquakes like the Hebgen Lake event are unlikely within the Yellowstone Caldera itself, because subsurface temperatures there are high, weakening the bedrock and making it less able to rupture. However, quakes within the caldera can be as large as magnitude 6.5. A quake of about this size that occurred in 1975 near Norris Geyser Basin was felt throughout the region.”

Example of Yellowstone earthquake multiplets (families of repeating earthquakes) that can occur over periods
of tens of years from similar seismic sources on the same geological structure. (USGS)

The 4.7 quake on Sunday happened four miles north-northeast of the Norris Geyser Basin. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations termed it “a light earthquake.” It also said that it was part of a series of quakes that includes at least 25 quakes.

The service previously said that research shows earthquakes often happen in clusters in the park, calling them multiplets, or families of repeating earthquakes. Over 15,000 of the more than 33,000 earthquakes that happened between 1984 and 2010 happened in the same location with similar motions from the same seismic sources.

The service also says on its website that “Tere is no evidence that a catastrophic eruption at Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is imminent. Current geologic activity at Yellowstone has remained relatively constant since earth scientists first started monitoring some 30 years ago. Though another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely to occur in the next thousand or even 10,000 years.

“The most likely activity would be lava flows such as those that occurred after the last major eruption. Such a lava flow would ooze slowly over months and years, allowing plenty of time for park managers to evaluate the situation and protect people. No scientific evidence indicates such a lava flow will occur soon.”

It did admit that the Yellowstone Volcano is still active, and that nothing can be done to prevent an eruption.

The National Park Service says that:

“At Yellowstone and some other volcanoes, some scientists theorize that the earth’s crust fractures and cracks in a concentric or ring-fracture pattern. At some point these cracks reach the magma ‘reservoir,’ release the pressure, and the volcano explodes. The huge amount of material released causes the volcano to collapse into a huge crater—a caldera.”

The Geological Service adds: “The youngest, the Yellowstone Caldera, was formed 640,000 years ago. Since then, about 80 eruptions of rhyolite (thick, sticky lava) and basalt (more-fluid lava) have occurred. The caldera’s interior is largely covered by rhyolites, most erupted in the past 160,000 years. Large hydrothermal (steam)-explosion craters formed in the past 14,000 years are located near Yellowstone Lake and in major geyser basins.

“Any renewed volcanic activity at Yellowstone would most likely take the form of such mainly nonexplosive lava eruptions. An eruption of lava could cause widespread havoc in the park, including fires and the loss of roads and facilities, but more distant areas would probably remain largely unaffected.”

Referring to helium emissions, the agency said that the research into helium conditions that was published earlier this year “has nothing to do with current activity at Yellowstone, and has no implications about volcanic hazards.” - The Epoch Times.

PLANETARY TREMORS & GLOBAL VOLCANISM: "This Is The Fault That Could EAT Los Angeles" - 12 Signs That Something Big Is Happening To The Earth’s Crust Under North And South America!

March 31, 2014 - NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA - Why are fault lines and volcanoes all over North and South America suddenly waking up?  Are we moving into a time when major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will become much more common? 

For the past several decades, we have been extremely fortunate to have experienced a period of extremely low seismic activity along the west coast of the United States.  You see, the west coast lies right along the infamous Ring of Fire.  Approximately 75 percent of all the volcanoes in the world are on the Ring of Fire, and approximately 90 percent of all global earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. 

Scientists tell us that it is inevitable that "the Big One" will hit California someday, but people have gotten very apathetic about this because things have been so quiet out there for so many years.  Well, now it appears that things are changing in a big way - and not just along the California coast.  The following are 12 signs that something big is happening to the earth's crust under North and South America...

#1 The 5.1 earthquake that shook Los Angeles on Friday was the worst earthquake that the city had seen in many years.

#2 Following that earthquake, there were more than 100 aftershocks.

#3 A 4.1 earthquake shook Los Angeles on Saturday.  Scientists are hoping that this earthquake swarm in southern California will end soon.

#4 Earlier this month, a 4.4 earthquake rattled Los Angeles so badly that it caused news anchors to dive under their desks.

#5 A 6.9 earthquake just off the coast of northern California in early March was the largest earthquake to hit the west coast of the United States since 2010.

#6 Up in Oregon, Mt. Hood recently experienced more than 100 earthquakes over the course of just a few days.

#7 During the past month, there have also been some other very unusual geologic events that have been happening up in Oregon...

• Two large landslides – one in the Columbia River Gorge dumped about 2,000 cubic yards of rock and debris on highway I84 just 3 miles west of the Hood River, and another blocked US30 near Portland.

• Loud booms and ground shaking reported by people from Lincoln to Tillamook Counties; some reported hearing a rumble, as well (No earthquakes recorded by the USGS in the area at the time.)

• A 20 ft. deep sinkhole swallowed a woman and her dog in her Portland backyard.

#8 A 4.8 earthquake rattled Yellowstone National Park on Sunday, and there have been at least 25 earthquakes at Yellowstone since Thursday.

#9 Scientists recently discovered that the Yellowstone supervolcano is now releasing far more helium gas than they had anticipated.

#10 Over the past month, there have been more than 130 earthquakes in the state of Oklahoma.  This is highly unusual.

#11 There have been several dozen earthquakes in Peru over the past month, including a 6.3 earthquake that made headlines all over the globe.

#12 Earlier this month, the northern coast of Chile was hit by more than 300 earthquakes in a seven day stretch.  41 of those earthquakes were stronger than magnitude 4.5.

Fortunately, the quake that hit Los Angeles on Friday did not cause too much lasting injury.  But it sure did shake people up.  The following is how the Los Angeles Times described the damage...

The quake, centered near La Habra, caused furniture to tumble, pictures to fall off walls and glass to break. Merchandise fell off store shelves, and there were reports of plate glass windows shattered.

In Brea, several people suffered minor injuries during a rock slide that overturned their car. Fullerton reported seven water main breaks. Carbon Canyon Road was closed.

Residents across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire reported swinging chandeliers, fireplaces dislodging from walls and lots of rattled nerves. The shake caused a rock slide in Carbon Canyon, causing a car to overturn, according to the Brea Police Department.

Why this particular earthquake is of such concern is because it occurred along the Puente Hills fault line.  According to one seismologist, this is the fault line that would be most likely to "eat L.A."...

Experts said that the earthquakes occurred on the Puente Hills thrust fault, which stretches from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles.

Last night's quake was shallow, which 'means the shaking is very concentrated in a small area,' said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson.

Hauksson revealed that the earthquake was unusual because the 5.1 quake was preceded by the weaker foreshock.

Scientists such as Hauksson are very concerned about the Puente Hills fault because it runs directly under downtown Los Angeles.

'This is the fault that could eat L.A.,' seismologist Sue Hough told The LA Times in 2003.

The fact that this fault appears to be waking up is really bad news.

According to seismologists, a major earthquake along this fault line could cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damage...

Video simulations of a rupture on the Puente Hills fault system show how energy from a quake could erupt and be funneled toward L.A.'s densest neighborhoods, with the strongest waves rippling to the west and south across the Los Angeles Basin.

According to estimates by the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center, a massive quake on the Puente Hills fault could kill from 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage. Under this worst-case scenario, people in as many as three-quarters of a million households would be left homeless.

For years, we have watched as the rest of the Ring of Fire has been absolutely ravaged by major seismic events.

We all remember the earthquakes that caused the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 and the Japanese tsunami of 2011.

And the world mourned when major earthquakes devastated New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Japan and the Philippines.

Scientists assured us that it was only a matter of time before the west coast started to become seismically active again, and now it is happening.

If you live on the west coast, I hope that you will consider these things very carefully.

Just because the earth under your feet has been relatively quiet for a very long time does not mean that it will always be that way.

Something big appears to be happening to the earth's crust, and you won't want to be in the "danger zone" when things finally break loose. - TEC.

PLANETARY TREMORS & GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Volcanic Awakening - 4.8 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Yellowstone National Park; Most Powerful Tremor To Hit The Area Since 1980; Four Aftershocks Recorded!

March 30, 2014 - YELLOWSTONE, UNITED STATES - A 4.8 magnitude quake rocked Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming near the border with Montana, the US Geological Survey said. There were several aftershocks with a magnitude over 3.

USGS earthquake location map.

The earthquake occurred 37 kilometers northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana at 6:34 am local time (1234 GMT) Sunday.

The quake was centered almost in the middle of Yellowstone National Park, near the Norris Geyser Basin, said Peter Cervelli, a spokesman for the USGS Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, NBC News reported.

He added that any damage from the temblor would likely be minor, noting there are not many visitors in the park at the moment.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

The Yellowstone River Lower Falls is seen at sunrise in Yellowstone National Park. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)

According to USGS there were four aftershocks recorded with a magnitude from 3.1 to 3.3. The USGS said that more are expected.

The secondary shockwaves are usually less violent than the main quake but can be strong enough to do additional damage to weakened structures, the USGS said.

Cervalli stated that the quake is not expected to trigger any volcanic activity.

Yellowstone National park, North America's largest volcanic field, is the home to a caldera, sometimes referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano. Due to the volcanic and tectonic nature of the region, the caldera experiences 1 to 20 earthquakes every day, according to Yellowstone observatory. However they are very weak often measuring much less than magnitude 3.

The quake on Sunday was the most powerful to hit the park since 1985. In the fall of 1985 in the northwest rim of the caldera during a three-month period of increased earthquake activity over 3000 events of magnitude 0 to 4.9 were recorded by seismologists.

Geologists are closely monitoring the rise of the Yellowstone Plateau. The upward movement of the Yellowstone caldera floor between 2004 and 2008 was almost 3 inches (about 7 cm) each year, according to a University of Utah scientists report in the journal Science in November 2008. That was more than three times greater than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923.

"Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock," said seismologist Robert B. Smith, lead author of the study and professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.

"But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again," he added. - RT.

USGS Additional Commentary

USGS earthquake shakemap intensity.

YELLOWSTONE VOLCANO OBSERVATORY INFORMATION STATEMENT
Sunday, March 30, 2014 10:31 AM (Sunday, March 30, 2014 16:31 UTC)
YELLOWSTONE VOLCANO (VNUM #325010)
44°25'48" N 110°40'12" W, Summit Elevation 9203 ft (2805 m)

Current Volcano Alert Level: NORMAL

Current Aviation Color Code: GREEN

The University of Utah, a YVO member agency, sent out the following press release about a magnitude 4.8 earthquake that occurred this morning at 6:34 AM MDT.

PRESS RELEASE
University of Utah Seismograph Stations
Released: March 30, 2014 08:15 AM MDT

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that a light earthquake occurred at 06:34 AM on March 30, 2014 (MDT). The epicenter of the magnitude 4.8 shock was located 4 miles north-northeast of Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. This earthquake is part of a series of earthquakes that began in this area on Thursday, March 27. As of 8:15 am today, this series has included at least 25 earthquakes in addition to the main shock, with the largest of magnitude 3.1. The magnitude 4.8 main shock was reported felt in Yellowstone National Park and in the towns of West
Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana.

Anyone who felt the earthquake is encouraged to fill out a survey form on either the Seismograph stations web site: www.quake.utah.edu or the U.S. Geological Survey web site: earthquake.usgs.gov.

____________________________________________________________________

Today's event is the largest earthquake at Yellowstone since February 22, 1980, and occurred near the center of a region of recent ground uplift described in a YVO Information Statement on February 18, 2014. The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory has been tracking this uplift episode for about 7 months.

As discussed in the March 3, 2014 YVO Monthly Update, seismicity in the general region of the uplift has been elevated for several months. A previous period of uplift in this area occurred between 1996 and 2003, and it was also accompanied by elevated seismicity.

A USGS field team is in Yellowstone and will visit the area near the earthquake's epicenter today. The team will look for any surface changes that the earthquake may have caused, and for possible effects to the hydrothermal system at Norris Geyser Basin.

Based on the style and location of today's earthquake, at this time YVO sees no indication of additional geologic activity other than continuing seismicity.

The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) provides long-term monitoring of volcanic and earthquake activity in the Yellowstone National Park region. Yellowstone is the site of the largest and most diverse collection of natural thermal features in the world and the first National Park. YVO is one of the five USGS Volcano Observatories that monitor volcanoes within the United States for science and public safety.

YVO Member agencies: USGS, Yellowstone National Park, University of Utah, University of Wyoming, UNAVCO, Inc., Wyoming State Geological Survey, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Idaho Geological Survey. - USGS.

MAJOR GLOBAL VOLCANISM ALERT: The Super Volcano That Could Blow Up America - Land Is Rising In Yellowstone National Park As Helium Emissions Increase!

March 04, 2014 - YELLOWSTONE, UNITED STATES - More interestingly, helium-4 emissions have increased dramatically.

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.

"This means that the helium -4 comes from very far under the ground, a clear sign that something big is happening what did not happen to Yellowstone in our lives.

On top of that, just last week a strong earthquake struck just a few miles from Yellowstone demonstrating that the flow of hot magma is moving. - Ice Age Now.

MAJOR GLOBAL VOLCANISM ALERT: The Super Volcano That Could Blow Up America - Yellowstone Belches Ancient Helium, A THOUSAND TIMES More Than Anticipated; Days After Sudden Rise In Elevation And Development Of New Cracks!

February 23, 2014 - YELLOWSTONE, UNITED STATES -  Some worrying developments are taking place at the Super Volcano located beneath Yellowstone National Park; the kind of developments that were seen shortly before other volcanoes erupted.

Not only was there a sudden rise in the elevation of the ground, and development of new cracks, but a gas called Helium-4, a very rare type of Helium, has begun coming out of the surface.  It is the presence of this gas that has scientists quite concerned.  If the Yellowstone Super Volcano were to erupt, it would be 2,000 times bigger than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in the 1980′s.  Everything within 500 miles would be dead or destroyed within minutes, 2/3rds of the entire United States would be covered in volcanic ash and the climate of the entire planet would cool within a month.  On top of that, just this past week, the largest earthquake in the US took place just a few miles from Yellowstone proving hot magma is on the move. 

Here’s what has scientists concerned:
Since late summer 2013, the Yellowstone GPS network has tracked a small ” ground deformation episode” in north-central Yellowstone National Park.

During the past five months, the NRWY GPS station has recorded about 3.5 cm (1.4 in) of uplift (the ground is rising) and about 1 cm (0.4 in) of southeastward ground movement, relative to a stable reference station north of the Park.

Measurements from other GPS stations in northern Yellowstone show smaller displacements, forming a circular pattern of deformation (circular — as in the round mouth of a volcano) consistent with a minor pressurization (building-up underground), about 6 to 10 km (4-6 miles) deep, near Norris Junction.

What has scientists very concerned is that Yellowstone has suddenly begun emitting massive amounts of Helium-4.  Helium-4 seems to be the predictor of activity, as proved with other volcanoes.

For instance, as the volcanic island of El Hierro, the smallest of Spain’s Canary Islands, rumbled and groaned over the course of seven months in 2011 and 2012, gases silently percolated up through the island’s soil and groundwater.

Eventually, a spectacular plume appeared off the southern coast of the island, a sign that El Hierro volcano, an underwater volcano just offshore, had finally erupted. [link to www.livescience.com]

Gas stored in the Earth’s crust for hundreds of millions of years is released by volcanic hotspot.

The team’s analyses show that, as the El Hierro volcano began to stir, the crust fractured and helium, mostly from the mantle, flowed to the surface. As the actual eruption began, gas flow at the surface increased dramatically, and gas pressure beneath the island dropped. Then as seismic activity at El Hierro picked up again, the crust fractured and deformed extensively, and helium-4 became a larger component of the total helium released on the island. 

Looking at the past ratios of helium at Yellowstone 1978:
Helium isotope ratios (³He/4He) in Lassen Park and Yellowstone Park volcanic gases show large ³He enrichments relative to atmospheric and crustal helium indicating the presence of a dominant mantle-helium component. [link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com]

Study released today on Yellowstone helium: [link to www.nature.com]
The scientists who revealed today’s information report the quantity of helium-4 in Yellowstone’s gas emissions is hundreds to thousands of times greater than it should be — a sign that the crust is releasing its ancient stores of the rare isotope, the researchers said.”However, much of the helium emitted from this region is actually radiogenic helium-4 produced within the crust by decay of uranium and thorium. Today’s report shows 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.”  This means the Helium -4 is coming from very far beneath the ground, a clear signal that something big is happening that hasn’t happened in Yellowstone in our lifetime.

Plumes of steam rise up from many spots along the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.
(Ken McGee, U.S. Geological Survey).

 In areas where there is little groundwater or movement in Earth’s crust, helium-4 can remain trapped and build up over time. This is especially true at Yellowstone, where inactive rocks, or what geologists call “craton,” have been estimated to be 2.5 billion years old. (The park is located primarily in Wyoming.)  

Things began to change roughly 2 million years ago, however, when hot magma intruded on the crustal system from below and triggered several enormous volcanic eruptions, the most recent about 640,000 years ago.

For scientists, there are important implications to the recent developments at Yellowstone. Helium and other noble gases are used to estimate groundwater residence times—for example, scientists assume that the more helium-4 present in water, the longer that water has been sitting in the rocks surrounding it.

But the study of helium at Yellowstone shows that some of these assumptions—specifically helium-4 produced by the steady decay of elements found only within the rocks and sediments of the local aquifer — aren’t quite right. Helium can suddenly come into a system from unexpected places—a pocket of ancient rock, for instance, or a  magma source — so the dates in past calculations, particularly those from aquifers in volcanic regions or near earthquake faults, might be way off because of that extra helium.  Scientists, though, are used to dealing with new data that changes long-held theories; that’s the nature of science, after all.

One of the largest earthquakes in the US this week, at just M3.6, occurred close to Yellowstone crater, on 11 February. The area, which overlies a hotspot (where hot magma from the mantle rises to the surface) is characterized by frequent earth tremors, which often occur in clusters (or ‘swarms’) such as those of 2004, 2009 and 2010.

Gas bubbling up through a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park is collected through a funnel.
Credit: J. Lowenstern, U.S. Geological Survey.

WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS NEWS
1) The ground inside the gigantic mouth of the Yellowstone Super Volcano is rising and moving southeastward.

2) Helium -4,  not normally present, has suddenly appeared at Yellowstone  in unbelievably large amounts never seen before.

3) When Helium -4 was seen at other volcanoes, it appeared shortly before major eruptions of those volcanoes.

4) Prior to most volcanic eruptions, earthquakes occur near the volcano and just this past week, one of the largest earthquakes in the US  at just  M3.6, occurred close to Yellowstone crater, on 11 February.

Naysayers beware, the evidence is stacking up.  if you’re waiting for an mass-media announcement….it has now happened and wont get any more direct. These words don’t come lightly from experts who appreciate that such statements – if wrong – can undermine the jobs these scientists do.

We have previously (within the last week) been warned an eruption could occur suddenly with no warning….that was the warning!

All those living locally should not expect anything more but the evidence above!!

Tectonically speaking, Yellowstone lies to the east of most of the major earthquake zones which characterize western North America and the earthquake swarms around Yellowstone are related to movements of the magma which lies beneath.

Residents of the Yellowstone area, however, probably wish researchers would just hurry up and figure out whether or not the supervolcano that’s simmering below them and last erupted 640,000 years ago is going to blow again anytime soon. - PWU.


NOTE: Post contributed by Pam & Pat.