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Yellowstone Earthquake Swarm Winds Down

Sunday, 24 January 2010 05:27

With only three recorded quakes in the last 24 hours, the Yellowstone earthquake swarm appears to be dying down, paralleling the slowdown in seismic activity around the globe.

More than 1,000 earthquakes were recorded in a small area 10 miles northwest of Old Faithful and nine miles southeast of West Yellowstone in the last week, but in the last 24 hours only three quakes -- two at 2.5 and one at 2.1 on the Richter scale -- were recorded, indicating the tectonic shifts causing the quakes were slowing down. This parallels the slowdown in seismic activity around the globe; in addition to the Yellowstone swarm, the shifts were thought to be responsible for the Haitian earthquakes as well as earthquakes around the globe, including an earthquake in Oklahoma that was more severe than any earthquake reported in Yellowstone. Monitoring equipment shows no changes or activity in the Yellowstone supervolcano caldera.

Ten of the earthquakes have been magnitude 3.0 or greater, with a 3.8 magnitude earthquake recorded late Wednesday evening. The larger quakes have been felt by people in Old Faithful, West Yellowstone, Canyon, Mammoth Hot Springs, Grant Village, Madison, and Gardiner. No damage or injuries have been reported.

You can view a map chronicling recent seismic activity here, along with the most recent recorded quakes.

Almost 80 swarms have been recorded in Yellowstone since 1995.