Yellowstone Earthquakes gain in Frequency and Intensity - Could they Trigger Supervolcano?

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All eyes or motion detectors are focused on Yellowstone National Park and the recent increase in earthquakes as well as the very recent increase in the intensity of earthquakes.  With the well documented massive magma deposit nearing the surface of the earth and the exceptional geologic structure of the park, offering over 400 various types of vents for releasing the massive pressure from below, Yellowstone is the most and best monitored natural disaster zone in the world.

Just last September the earthquake activity picked up substantially and it has been increasing ever since.  In September earthquakes averaged about 2.0 in magnitude.  By January the average magnitude moved up to 2.3 and in the last few days it has reached 2.7 to 2.9.

Cause for alarm, nobody knows.  Cause for concern, you better believe it!

There are perhaps 20 supervolcanoes around the world but none has the massive size and danger potential as Yellowstone.  Since the most recent eruptions have been 640,000, 1.2 million, and 6 million years ago, we are most certainly way overdue.

Here is what the media are reporting on the most recent developments at Yellowstone.  Ironically, the European media is far more interested in Yellowstone than the American media snf they do s much better job of reporting on activity.

Yellowstone earthquake: Fears for deadly SUPERVOLCANO ERUPTION after TEN quakes in one day

FEARS for a Yellowstone supervolcano eruption have been sparked after a swarm of 10 earthquakes struck the seismically volatile US national park today following another quake yesterday.

By JOEY MILLAR

PUBLISHED: 17:10, Sun, Feb 18, 2018 | UPDATED: 17:18, Sun, Feb 18, 2018

Yellowstone has been hit by 10 small earthquakes today, setting alarm bells ringing with the park’s fearsome supervolcano already “under strain” according to one expert. 

While all the quakes were relatively small, it does point to an increasingly volatile geological landscape at the park. 

All of today's earthquakes struck near Maple Creek and measured 2.9 of less magnitude. 

Yesterday Yellowstone was also hit by a 2.6 magnitude earthquake.

Below the surface of the park lies the fearsome Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano which last erupted approximately 630,000 years ago. 

Experts warn it erupts roughly every million years, with some geologists claiming it is already showing signs it could be ready to blow once again. 

Yesterday's earthquake roughly 20 miles from the supervolcano will add to concerns of an imminent - and devastating - eruption. 

Earlier this week seismologists from UNAVCO, a nonprofit university-governed consortium, said the site was “under strain”. 

They said “the strain signal is larger than would be expected if the crust under Yellowstone were completely solid”.

However these findings are "no cause for alarm”,  they said, and reflect the expected measurements of a volcano which has been building up for close to a million years.

If the Wyoming volcano were to erupt an estimated 87,000 people would be killed immediately and two-thirds of the USA would immediately be made uninhabitable due to a huge ash cloud sparking rapid climate change.

The large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter” for huge parts of Earth - not simply the American West. 

The massive eruption could be a staggering 6,000 times as powerful as the one from Washington’s Mount St Helens in 1980 which killed 57 people and deposited ash in 11 different states and five Canadian provinces.

If the volcano explodes, a climate shift would ensue as the volcano would spew massive amounts of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, which can form a sulphur aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight.

Movie Clips of Yellowstone Eruption

Scientists 'DON'T KNOW' how big a 'tremendous' eruption from Yellowstone volcano could be

A “TREMENDOUS” super eruption could be about to take place in Yellowstone, US, as local experts admit they “don’t know” how big the volcanic blast will be.

By DAN FALVEY

PUBLISHED: 02:06, Mon, Dec 4, 2017 | UPDATED: 07:03, Mon, Dec 4, 2017

Fears are growing a huge eruption is due from Yellowstone, 630,000 years after the last blast sent debris flying hundreds of miles across America.

A study by a team of scientists from Bristol University found these deadly eruptions may happen every 17,000 years or so.

This means our next super-eruptions could be overdue after the two most recent super-eruptions to rock Earth happened somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago.

Michael Poland, Scientist-in-Charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, has now admitted they do not know how large an eruption could be about to take place.

He said: “We don’t know whether there’s enough magma beneath the surface to have a super eruption.”

What if it erupted?

Explaining exactly how large eruptions are measured he continued: “Super volcanos, or super eruptions, are these eruptions that are on the eruption intensity scale, there’s something called the volcano explosivity index (VEI) and eruptions that have a VEI of eight are considered super eruptions.

“And that’s pretty massive, most eruptions that we see would be VEI three, four. Big ones are five and then once a century or so there’s a six, so a VEI eight is really, really tremendous.”

The confession from Mr Poland that experts are unsure how big an eruption from the volcano would be is unlikely to put people living in the US at ease.

Denver City is the biggest city at direct risk of a major blast, located around 500 miles to the south-east of the volcano.

However, Salt Lake, Cheyenne, Rapid City, Billings and Boise would all also potentially be at risk.

Denver is home 600,000 people with as many as two million others living in the metro area surrounding Colorado’s capital.

Salt Lake City, located one state west in Utah, could see as much as three feet of ash could fall, smothering the city and blotting out the sun if a VEI eight erupted.

More than 180,000 people live in the city with more than one million inhabiting the surround metro area.

Doctor Harley Benz of the US Geological Survey said huge eruptions in the past had left nothing in its wake.

He said: “We’re talking about a huge area that was covered in tens of feet of ash, in a very large area out to 100 miles from the centre.”

However Mr Poland has said he hopes no such event takes place.

He said: “The evidence suggests that a lot of the magma reservoir is actually solid, and about 50 percent of it is molten, so there may not be enough down there to have a super eruption.”

‘UFO’ spotted over Yellowstone Volcano

in SHOCKING video

UFO hunters are convinced that they have spotted an alien spaceship taking off at Yellowstone National Park after witnessing a bright, pulsating light which was caught on a webcam live stream.

By SEAN MARTIN

PUBLISHED: 13:33, Mon, Feb 12, 2018 | UPDATED: 14:46, Mon, Feb 12, 2018

A video uploaded to conspiracy YouTube channel The Hidden Underbelly shows what appears to be a bright light lifting from the ground in the hills in the background.

The light then moves towards the camera slowly, before veering off to the left of the screen.

Viewers of the video were convinced that the bright light is definitely a UFO, and believe that the authorities have some answering to do.

Somme Bomb posted: “Would love to see them explain that one. You can see clearly the light interferes with the clouds and you can see the reflection in the river.”

Twilights daughter added: “They must have been checking out the geysers and scenery just like the humans were.”

Yellowstone has also piqued the interest of many around the globe over fears that it could soon erupt.

The Yellowstone Caldera supervolcano last erupted 70,000 years ago but a spike in seismic activity around the national park has unsettled nerves.

If the Wyoming volcano were to erupt it would kill an estimated 87,000 people immediately and make two-thirds of the USA immediately uninhabitable. 

The large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter”.

The massive eruption could be a staggering 6,000 times as powerful as the one from Washington’s Mount St Helens in 1980 which killed 57 people and deposited ash in 11 different states and five Canadian provinces.

If the volcano explodes, a climate shift would ensue as the volcano would spew massive amounts of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, which can form a sulphur aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight.

Yellowstone timebomb - Over 11,000 MILES of magma just waiting to spew from park

MORE than 11,000 cubic miles of magma is waiting to burst from beneath the world's most dangerous volcano in Yellowstone National Park in the US.

By JON AUSTIN

PUBLISHED: 14:23, Fri, Jun 2, 2017 | UPDATED: 15:36, Fri, Jun 2, 2017

Deep magma reservoirs, such as that below the Yellowstone caldera, are the key to causing volcanic ‘super-eruptions’, that could threaten millions of lives, new research suggests.

If a mega eruption of Yellowstone, one of the world’s largest supervolcanoes, happened so much toxic ash and moult on rock would be hurled into the atmosphere it could block out sunlight and trigger a nuclear-winter type effect or even a mini ice age. 

An international team of geologists carried out the study which shows the importance of large magma reservoirs in creating Earth’s most powerful volcanic eruptions.

The researchers claim that the most powerful volcanic eruptions, dubbed ‘super-eruptions’, are triggered by a slow and steady drip feed of magma from large reservoirs deep within the Earth’s crust into smaller reservoirs closer to the surface.

These large reservoirs draw in hot magma from the Earth’s mantle and exist as large volumes of partially molten rock that are able to store magma like a sponge.

By conducting a number of numerical simulations of this process, the research team showed that these large reservoirs are crucial to generating the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth.

But, fortunately, the team also showed that these large reservoirs can take millions of years to form, hence why ‘super-eruptions’ happen so rarely.

Yellowstone is believed to have seen super eruptions at intervals of two million, 1.2 million and 640,000 years ago, meaning another one could be due any time.

It is believed the new findings could help to understanding why some volcanoes erupt frequently and at certain magnitudes.

The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, found the amount of magma that is stored in the upper layer of the Earth’s crust determines the frequency and magnitude of volcanic eruptions. 

Small eruptions that erupt less than one cubic kilometre of material occur very frequently (from daily to yearly), while the largest eruptions that erupt hundreds of cubic kilometres of material are infrequent, with hundreds of thousands of years between them.

Co-author of the study Dr Wim Degruyter, from Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, said: “Our current understanding tells us that hot magma can be injected from the Earth’s lower crust into colder surroundings near the surface. 

"At this point, the magma can either erupt or cool down to such a point that the magma solidifies and an eruption does not occur.

“Up until now, this theory hasn’t been able to explain how the magma can maintain its heat in these near-surface reservoirs and thus produce extremely powerful eruptions.

“Our study has shown that the key to this is much larger reservoirs deeper below the surface that are able to slowly increase the temperature in the upper part of the crust such that it becomes more amenable to the storage of magma.

"When the crust has become fully mature, giant reservoirs are able to form in the upper crust and thus we see extremely powerful eruptions.”

Previous research revealed that a deeper magma body connects to a magma reservoir in the upper part of the crust underneath Yellowstone, which spreads across the sates of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

The deeper magma body sits 12 to 28 miles below the surface and it’s believed that the hot molten rock could fill the 1,000-cubic-mile Grand Canyon 11.2 times. 

It is believed that the last super eruptions at Yellowstone were fed by the volcanic plumbing system that sits beneath it.

Dr Degruyter added: "Our calculations appear to agree with the observations that have been made at Yellowstone.” 

The study, Lifetime and size of shallow magma bodies controlled by crustal-scale magmatism, was led by researchers at ETH Zurich, and also included researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology.