Industry News
Yellowstone National Park, MT/WY/ID has been pounded by earthquakes recently. A swarm of 464 earthquakes between June 12th and June 19th.
On June 15th, Yellowstone saw a 4.5-magnitude earthquake.
“The epicenter of the shock was located in Yellowstone National Park, eight miles north-northeast of the town of West Yellowstone, Montana.
The earthquake was [reportedly] felt in the towns of West Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana, in Yellowstone National Park, and elsewhere in the surrounding region.” – Scientists from the University of Utah, which monitors Yellowstone Volcano, said in a statement
This earthquake on June 12th, 2017 was the strongest quake to hit Yellowstone since March 30th, 2014 when a 4.8-magnitude earthquake occurred near Norris Geyser Basin.
“[The 4.5] earthquake is part of an energetic sequence of earthquakes in the same area that began on June 12. This sequence has included approximately thirty earthquakes of magnitude 2 and larger and four earthquakes of magnitude 3 and larger, including today’s magnitude 4.5 event.” – Scientists from the University of Utah, which monitors Yellowstone Volcano, said in a statement
Ongoing Yellowstone Earthquake Swarm North of West Yellowstone, MT.
Posted on June 19, 2017 by Jamie Farrell
June 19, 2017 UPDATE: The University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) is monitoring an earthquake swarm which is currently active on the western edge of Yellowstone National Park. The swarm began on June 12th, 2017 and, as of 13:30 MDT on June 19th, 2017, is composed of 464 events with the largest magnitude of ML 4.4 (MW 4.4) (Figure 1). The swarm consists of one earthquake in the magnitude 4 range, 5 earthquakes in the magnitude 3 range, 57 earthquakes in the magnitude 2 range, 238 earthquakes in the magnitude 1 range, 157 earthquakes in the magnitude 0 range, and 6 earthquakes with magnitudes of less than zero. These events have depths from ~0.0 km to ~14.5 km, relative to sea level. At the time of this report, there were 115 felt reports for the M4.4 event that occurred on June 16, 2017 at 00:48:46.94 UTC (June 15, 2017 at 18:48:46.94 MDT). The M4.4 event has an oblique strike-slip moment tensor solution (Figures 1 & 2).
Figure 1. Location of the earthquakes that are part of the swarm as of June 19, 2017 at 13:30 MDT (red symbols).
Figure 2. Moment Tensor solution for the M4.4 event showing the fit between data (black) and synthetics (red dashed).
Moment Tensor for M 4.5
Earthquake swarms are common in Yellowstone and, on average, comprise about 50% of the total seismicity in the Yellowstone region.
UUSS will continue to monitor this swarm and will provide updates as necessary.
