Yellowstone National Park – not as tranquil as it looks James Schwabel/Alamy Stock Photo
It鈥檚 shaking so much, it could be renamed Jellystone. Since 12 June, .
The earthquake 鈥渟warm鈥 is occurring in the Hebgen Lake area.聽In 1959, a major quake in this region killed 28 people. But geologists monitoring the activity don鈥檛 think another big one is on the cards.
鈥淯sually, you don鈥檛 get swarms before a big quake like that, and it鈥檚 too soon after the 1959 quake for enough strain to build up for a repeat,鈥 says of the US Geological Survey in California,聽who heads the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 be looking聽at the order of 200 years or so for enough strain to accumulate.鈥
Advertisement
鈥淭his is a large swarm but it is not the largest swarm we鈥檝e recorded in Yellowstone,鈥 says at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. 鈥淓arthquake swarms are fairly common in Yellowstone.鈥
What鈥檚 more, the chances of significant activity associated with the Yellowstone supervolcano are slim, says Farrell. 鈥淭here is no indication that this swarm is related to magma moving through the shallow crust,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he bottom line is that visitors should definitely not be worried about an impending volcanic eruption of the Yellowstone volcanic system.鈥
Lowenstern says the swarm is still active at a low level. 鈥淚t could go on for another month.鈥
Topics:



