Yellowstone National Park has 11 earthquakes in just 24 hours

Nearly a dozen earthquakes shook parts of Yellowstone National Park in just 24 hours on Friday, May 29.

The US Geological Survey reported 11 quakes in West Yellowstone Montanan, with tremors ranging from 1.6 to 3.1 magnitude on the Richter scale.

The tremors were about three miles deep and hit 15 miles outside of the park.

Altogether, the area has been struck by a total of 34 earthquakes in the past 30 days.

On Friday, May 29 at 6.39am ET, a 3.1 magnitude earthquake was detected 15 miles outside of West Yellowstone in Montana, according to Idaho Statesman.

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Nearly a dozen earthquakes shook parts of Yellowstone National Park in just 24 hours on Friday, May 29. The US Geological Survey reported 11 quakes in West Yellowstone Montana, with tremors ranging from 1.6 to 3.1 magnitude on the Richter scale

‘Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas in the United States,’ reads Yellowstone National Park’s website.

‘Approximately 700 to 3,000 earthquakes occur each year in the Yellowstone area; most are not felt.’

‘They result from the extensive network of faults associated with the volcano and surrounding tectonic features.’

Yellowstone National Park sits in the northwest region of Wyoming and is home to bursting geysers, steam vents and bubbling pools.

The tremors were about three miles deep and hit 15 miles outside of the park. Altogether, the area has been struck by a total of 34 earthquakes in the past 30 days.  'Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas in the United States,' reads Yellowstone National Park's website

The tremors were about three miles deep and hit 15 miles outside of the park. Altogether, the area has been struck by a total of 34 earthquakes in the past 30 days.  ‘Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas in the United States,’ reads Yellowstone National Park’s website

At 3,472 square miles, the park is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Most of the land is in Wyoming, but some of the park spills over into Montana and Idaho.

Earthquakes that strike the park usually happen in swarms and are a result of volcanic fluids flowing along ‘small fractures in the shallow rocks over the magma, a pattern that has been noted in volcanoes around the world,’ according to the park.

However, some of the swarms are associated with water that lubricates the faults, causing them to shake, or tectonic forces that trigger numerous earthquakes at once.

According to the Billings Gazette, tectonic forces are behind most of the swarms hitting Montana, which started in September 2018 and continued through at least March 2020.

Quakes during this time frame raged from 3 to 4.2 in magnitude.

In 2018, Yellowstone National Park was struck by a swarm of 153 mini earthquakes.

Yellowstone National Park sits in the northwest region of Wyoming (pictured) and is home to bursting geysers, steam vents and bubbling pools. Most of the land is in Wyoming, but some of the park spills over into Montana and Idaho

Yellowstone National Park sits in the northwest region of Wyoming (pictured) and is home to bursting geysers, steam vents and bubbling pools. Most of the land is in Wyoming, but some of the park spills over into Montana and Idaho

The largest of these quakes recorded a magnitude of 2.5 on the Richter magnitude scale, which is not enough to cause damage to buildings, but shakes the ground enough to be felt by people in the area.

Below the Yellowstone National Park is a simmering supervolcano.

When it last blew 630,000 years ago, the enormous volcano produced one of the largest known blasts on Earth – spewing more than 2,000 times as much ash as Mount St Helen’s did when it erupted in 1980 and killed 57 people.

And this supervolcano is causing an area the size of Chicago to inflate and deflate by several inches over the past decade.

The Norris Geyser Basin, the oldest, hottest and most dynamic thermal area in the park, was observed to rise 5.9 inches each year from 2013 to 2015 – an unusual event that left researchers baffled.

In a recent study, researchers used satellite radar and GPS data to solve the mystery.

The team found that the ground deformation was caused by magma intrusions trapped below the basin’s surface.

As magma made its way to the surface, the pressure pushed rocks above it up and created an erratic pulsating effect, according to National Geographic.

COULD AN ERUPTION AT THE YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO BE PREVENTED?

Previous research found a relatively small magma chamber, known as the upper-crustal magma reservoir, beneath the surface

Recent research found a small magma chamber, known as the upper-crustal magma reservoir, beneath the surface

Nasa believes drilling up to six miles (10km) down into the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park to pump in water at high pressure could cool it.

Despite the fact that the mission would cost $3.46 billion (£2.63 billion), Nasa considers it ‘the most viable solution.’ 

Using the heat as a resource also poses an opportunity to pay for plan – it could be used to create a geothermal plant, which generates electric power at extremely competitive prices of around $0.10 (£0.08) per kWh.

But this method of subduing a supervolcano has the potential to backfire and trigger the supervolcanic eruption Nasa is trying to prevent.

‘Drilling into the top of the magma chamber ‘would be very risky;’ however, carefully drilling from the lower sides could work. 

This USGS graphic shows how a 'super eruption' of the molten lava under Yellowstone National Park would spread ash across the United States

This USGS graphic shows how a ‘super eruption’ of the molten lava under Yellowstone National Park would spread ash across the United States

Even besides the potential devastating risks, the plan to cool Yellowstone with drilling is not simple.

Doing so would be an excruciatingly slow process that one happen at the rate of one metre a year, meaning it would take tens of thousands of years to cool it completely. 

And still, there wouldn’t be a guarantee it would be successful for at least hundreds or possibly thousands of years.