One can hardly expect a place atop a giant plume of magma, and that has several times in geologic history literally blown the stuffings out of the local crust in super-volcanic caldera-forming eruptions, to sit there like a church mouse under a pew when the cat prowls by. But when a swarm of earthquakes jiggles Yellowstone National Park, and jiggles it again, and then again, that’s news.

It’s been shivering and rumbling since the day after Christmas. It evokes in the memories of attentive TV watchers the hyperdramatic depiction on the Discovery Channel/BBC a few years ago what a replay of the last big’un would look like. That was scary. Check out this still from the movie, with more here.

Stories:

• Scientific American – David Biello:  Multiple tiny earthquakes rattle Yellowstone. Could the big one be far behind? ; (Answer: No….probably.)
• Telegraph (UK) : Yellowstone Park shaken by hundreds of earthquakes / Scientists are monitoring a cluster of earthquakes that have rattled Yellowstone National Park over the past few days amid concerns that a larger earthquake could be brewing.
• US News & World Report – James Pethokoukis ; Earthquakes Still Swarm Yellowstone Supervolcano Caldera / Earthquakes. Supervolcanoes. Calderas. The End of Civilization.
• AP – Mead Gruver : Scientists eye unusual swarm of Yellowstone quakes ;
• Bloomberg – Chris Dolmetsch :  Yellowstone Park Hit by Hundreds of Small Earthquakes (Update1) ;
• KSL TV (Salt Lake) – John Daley : Utah scientists studyng unusual Yellowstone earthquakes;

Grist for the Mill: University of Utah Seismographic Stations Press Release ; Main Page for updated map ;

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.