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.     

Yellowstone - Mother Nature's Dooms Day Weapon

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Yellowstone’s supervolcano could erupt much faster than anyone thought

 Mike Wehner,BGR News Wed, Oct 11 3:32 PM EDT

There’s a dangerous giant sitting dormant in the United States, and when it finally wakes up it has the potential to cause utter devastation. I’m talking of course about the supervolcano hiding beneath Yellowstone National Park, and while it’s long been thought that any hint of a possible eruption would be seen thousands and thousands of years in advance, new research throws that safety buffer right out the window, suggesting that the Yellowstone Supervolcano could go from calm to critical in as little as decades.

The research, which was presented at the IAVCEI 2017 volcanology conference in Portland, focuses on the most recent eruption of the volcano, which is thought to have occurred some 631,000 years ago. But rather than taking several thousands of years to build up, as previously thought, the newest data suggests that the most recent eruption was prompted by new magma pushing into the Yellowstone system just decades ahead of the big event.

This much more rapid timeframe between dormancy and eruption is obviously very troubling, especially when you consider the global impact that the event could have. The most recent eruption of the Yellowstone system spewed an estimated 240 cubic miles of material into the air. 2.1 million years ago an even larger eruption occurred, sending 585 cubic miles of rock and dust skyward. For comparison, that’s approximately 6,000 times the amount of material launched from Mount St. Helens during its 1980 eruption.

“It’s shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption,” Hannah Shamloo, graduate student at Arizona State University and lead author of the study, said of the discovery.

Still, at the moment there’s little reason to be concerned, as the Yellowstone Supervolcano seems to be perfectly content to continue its unusually long quiet spell. When the mighty beast decides to wake back up is anyone’s guess, but now at least we know that we might not have nearly as much warning as we once thought.

Yellowstone Supervolcano Could Erupt Sooner Than We Thought. Here’s What You Need to Know.

 Grace Donnelly 

Did you know there's a supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park? Maybe you've heard that it could erupt with much less advance warning than expected?

Researchers from Arizona State University spent weeks studying fossilized ash deposits from the Yellowstone volcano and recently shared their findings. The minerals in these deposits revealed that the critical changes in temperature and composition preceding an eruption build up over a matter of decades, rather than thousands of years as scientists originally thought.

"It's shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption," Hannah Shamloo, a graduate student at Arizona State University who worked on the research, told The New York Times.

This is an alarming thing for a volcanologist to say. The good news is that scientists are likely just decades away from being able to more accurately predict when an eruption would occur.

Sometimes knowing more about the world around us makes us feel more in control of our lives and survival. And sometimes knowing more only underscores how small and helpless we are compared to the forces of nature on the angry rock where we reside.

Here are some more facts about supervolcanoes that may or may not make you feel any better.

Is Yellowstone the only supervolcano to worry about?

No, of course not. There are about 20 others around the world and three others, besides the Yellowstone supervolcano, in the U.S. Scientists suspect that one of them erupts every 100,000 years or so.

While Yellowstone hasn't had a super-eruption in 631,000 years, others have been active more recently. Campi Flegri, a supervolcano in Italy whose name translates to "burning fields," had a super-eruption 15,000 years ago.

Campi Flegri is in a "critical state," according to researchers in Italy. It's due for an eruption soon, but it would be a minor event compared to the 72 cubic miles of molten rock it spewed in its most notorious eruption 39,000 years ago, called Campanian Ignimbrite, that likely contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals.

What areas would a Yellowstone eruption affect?

If the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, it could shoot out more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock and ash into the air.

That's 250 cubic miles. That's more than three times as large as the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption in Italy, which created a sulfurous cloud that floated more than 1,200 miles away to hang over Russia. That's 2,500 times more material than Mount St. Helensexpelled in 1980, killing 57 people.

An eruption at Yellowstone would result in a cloud of ash more than 500 miles wide, stretching across nearly the entire western United States.

The explosion could be so incredibly large that it could plunge the entire planet into a volcanic winter. That means it would be impossible to grow crops and current food stores would only last about 74 days, according to a 2012 estimate by the United Nations(though innovations in farming may mean that food could be grown underground).

Will a supervolcano eruption end life on Earth?

None of this sounds ideal, but how does it rank in terms of apocalyptic near-future possibilities? According to NASA, supervolcano eruptions are a bigger danger to life on Earth than any asteroid.

Luckily NASA has a plan to neutralize supervolcano threats. It would cost approximately $3.4 billion and involves drilling down just over 6 miles into the volcano in order to release heat and hopefully avoid a violent eruption.

This plan could cool the supervolcano over the course of hundreds or even thousands of years. There’s another bonus: It would become a source of geothermal energy, too. But there are considerable risks, too. It could trigger the eruption it's meant to save us from.

How likely is it that the Yellowstone supervolcano will erupt?

Despite the fact that this new research shows conditions leading up to supervolcano eruption could occur in several decades, the chances that you will personally experience an explosion of this scale are still low.

The odds of the Yellowstone supervolcano erupting within a given year are one in 730,000, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Here’s a little perspective: Those odds are significantly better than your chances of winning the lottery and only slightly worse than the chance you'll be struck by lightning.

TECH & SCIENCE

WHEN WILL YELLOWSTONE ERUPT? SUPERVOLCANO COULD RUMBLE TO LIFE FAR FASTER THAN WE THOUGH

BY HANNAH OSBORNE ON 10/12/17 AT 9:42 AM

Yellowstone supervolcano last erupted 640,000 years ago.JIM URQUHART/REUTERS

Before the Yellowstone supervolcano next erupts, we might have only a few decades to prepare—not thousands of years, as previously thought. By analyzing the last eruption to take place, a team of researchers has estimated how long it took for the required amount of magma to build up in the main chambers. The preliminary findings show it happened startlingly fast.

The last major eruption at Yellowstone—one of the world’s largest active supervolcanoes—took place around 640,000 years ago, sending about 240 cubic miles of volcanic ash, dust and rock into the sky.

If an eruption were to talk place today, experts estimate a blanket of ash would cover most of the U.S. "Ash-fall thicknesses of centimetres throughout the American Midwest would disrupt livestock and crop production, especially during critical times in the growing season,” a 2014 report said. "Thick deposits could threaten building integrity and obstruct sewer and water lines. Electronic communications and air transportation would likely be shut down throughout North America. There would also be major climate effects."

To understand what goes on beneath Yellowstone before an eruption—in a bid to work out what might happen prior to the next one—researchers at Arizona State University analyzed the last big eruption, looking at crystals that show the changes that took place in the run-up to the event.

Hannah Shamloo, a graduate student at the university, and colleagues presented the team’s preliminary findings at a volcanology conference in September. According to The New York Times, she said changes to the crystals indicate there was a fast increase in temperature at the site. The magma appears to have accumulated very quickly, and then an eruption occurred a few decades later. “It’s shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption,” Shamloo said.

The findings do not help scientists predict when the next eruption might take place. They could, however, serve as something of an early warning system. By monitoring what’s going on underneath Yellowstone, they can track changes to the magma and be on alert if it starts accumulating.

Mike Poland, the scientist in charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory at the U.S. Geological Survey, says the research is interesting, and while the results are preliminary, they potentially open the door to many more questions—including what processes actually trigger rapid magma movement and an eruption.

“I think it's important to note that these results say that the rejuvenation of Yellowstone's magma system may have occurred over decades prior to eruption,” he tells Newsweek. “The research does not provide any information about what actually triggered the eruption.

Ground deformation at Yellowstone National Park over the last two years. USGS

“One thing I would emphasize is that even if large eruptions are preceded by only decades of unrest, this is still something we are positioned to detect well in advance. Yellowstone is one of the best-monitored volcanoes in the world, with a host of seismic, deformation, thermal and geochemical sensors and satellite datasets always looking for changes,” Poland says.

An example of this was the earthquake swarm that has been taking place at the supervolcano since June. Since it began, almost 2,500 earthquakes have been recorded at the site—making it the longest and most vigorous swarm since 1985.

“We see interesting things all the time, but we haven't seen anything that would lead us to believe that the sort of magmatic ‘rejuvenation’ event described by the ASU researchers is happening now,” Poland says. “We're in a good position to see that sort of event thanks to the monitoring systems that are in place—seismicity (not just the numbers of earthquakes, but also their types) would change drastically, as would styles of deformation, and there would probably be significant thermal manifestations. 

“The research does a great job of helping us understand the conditions that set up the last large eruption at Yellowstone. Hopefully, the researchers will continue their investigations to see what more the crystals they are studying can tell us, particularly about the specific conditions that led to the eruption.”

Yellowstone supervolcano may be only decades from a catastrophic eruption

 Aris Folley, AOL.com,AOL.com 

Researchers are saying the supervolcano sitting beneath Yellowstone National Park could erupt sooner than thought -- and could possibly plunge the planet into a "volcanic winter."

It's been roughly 631,000 years since Yellowstone's last super-eruption and, until now, scientists thought it would take centuries for the supervolcano to make the transition, according to National Geographic.

Now, after analyzing minerals in fossilized ash from Yellowstone, researchers from Arizona State University are saying the lava-filled mountain could erupt in just a few decades.

The discovery arrives several years after a 2011 study found that the ground above Yellowstone's caldera had risen as much as 10 inches in some places over the course of seven years.

"It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high," the Bob Smith, an expert in Yellowstone volcanism at the University of Utah, told National Geographic at the time.

Researchers are also saying the supervolcano has the ability to produce an eruption of a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helen's eruption in 1980 and eject more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock and ash -- which could blanket large areas of the US.

Arizona State graduate state Hannah Shamloo, who developed the theory that there was a much shorter timeline than once anticipated for an eruption, spent weeks with several colleagues at the site in Yellowstone where they collected and studied fossilized ash from its last eruption.

"It’s shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption," Shamloo told New York Times, while adding that more research is necessary before drawing definite conclusions.

Though the pair presented the study at a recent volcanology conference before the American Geophysical Union in 2016, it has yet to be peer-reviewed.