Question about anomaly noted in Yellowstone Seismicity Maps

[theHandpuppet]

I've had this site bookmarked for quite some time and check it regularly, usually a couple of times a week: http://www.seis.utah.edu/HTML/YPSeismicityMaps.html

Please note the map for earthquakes processed in the past day and compare that with other maps for the past 30, 90 etc days. The reason I bring this up is that when I checked the map today this very noticeable cluster jumped out at me. I've never seen anything quite like this concentration of quakes and even though they are quite minor, I wonder what if any significance there might be in this anamoly.

Can someone enlighten me?

[spindrifter]

1. Wow!

Have you thought about contacting the seismology lab at whatever university is closest to you? Perhaps it has a webpage that is commenting on unusual activity.

[theHandpuppet]

2. If anyone has a pertinent link, I'd welcome it

Unfortunately the site for the seismicity maps offers no accompanying text. I'm in the boondocks of WV so I don't think there's a lab near me which could provide more info.

[salvorhardin]

5. That's the University of Utah seismographic stations site

Contact info:
University of Utah Seismograph Stations «» 135 South 1460 East, Room 705 WBB
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0111 «» Phone [phone] «» Fax [phone]
[e-mail]

[ThomCat]

3. I sure as hell hope that volcano isn't getting ready to do anything.

Isn't that volcano under yellowstone one of the largest in the world?

That would be amazingly, horribly devastating.

[aquart]

4. Neh.

Lotta low magnitude stuff relieving some of the fault stress, seems to me. It's an active area. You can see a similar tight low level cluster in the year map.

Honestly, I'd be more freaked if I didn't see anything happening. That would mean pressure was building somewhere. I think. Would someone with more than seven credits of geology crit me?

[theHandpuppet]

7. The clusters in the year map differ from this one...

... in that the entire cluster appeared in one day. What appear as other "clusters" were the result of similar small quakes occuring within a concentrated spot but over a period of time.

I know what you mean about lacking the geo background. It's been many moons since I took geology courses in college and my particular interest was paleontology. My knowledge in matters of seismicity is sorely lacking. That's why I figured to find someone here with some expertise in the subject. I'm probably a wee bit alarmed over nothing at all.

[fed-up]

6. Your 1 day map is two-three days old, today there was a 3.2 so the

small quakes may have been leading up to that one. I wouldn't worry if I was you, we get clusters like that in California all the time.

The map at USGS is more up to date, the first link is to the map
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/44.46.-111.-109.php
and if you click on the quake in the map you get this info about the quake

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/uu00007613.php
Magnitude 3.2 - YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING


2006 February 26 01:08:20 UTC
Saturday, February 25, 2006 at 6:08:20 PM
= local time at epicenter
Location
A minor earthquake occurred at 01:08:20 (UTC) on Sunday, February 26, 2006. The magnitude 3.2 event has been located in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING. The hypocentral depth was poorly constrained. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

This is the link to bookmark for all quakes in the US, it gives you the big picture, then just keep clicking on quakes (the maps will cover a smaller area each time) to get to the info on a specific quake.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/


I grew up 1/2 mile from the San Andreas and moved out of San Francisco one year before Loma Prieta...

[theHandpuppet]

8. Thanks very much for the info!

On my way to check out the links you provided.

[theHandpuppet]

9. Found some interesting info about these earthquake swarms

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs100-03/

[Boomer]

10. The notes on the caldera's movements are intriguing

To learn more about the changing ground levels in the Yellowstone area, scientists conducted additional surveys across the eastern part of the caldera nearly every year from 1983 to 1998. In the 1990s, new and revolutionary satellite-based methods for tracking the Earth's changing ground surface—the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR)—were applied by University of Utah, USGS, and other scientists to assemble a more detailed picture of how and when the ground moves above Yellowstone's magma reservoir.

These new data reveal that Yellowstone is in nearly continuous but frequently changing movement—the floor of the caldera continued to rise until 1984, stopped rising during 1984–85, and then subsided for the next 10 years. Parts of the central caldera began rising again in 1995, but a more complex pattern of uplift and subsidence has prevailed since 2000. InSAR data show that between 1995 and 1997 a large area along the northwest rim of the Yellowstone Caldera, centered near Norris Geyser Basin, started to rise. The picture that emerges from all these data is of a dynamic system in which the caldera floor is in almost constant motion—episodes of uplift and subsidence occur at various locations and over different time scales.

What could cause different areas in and around the caldera to go up and down over such short time intervals? A clue to this mystery, and a further indication that the region remains an active volcanic system, is the frequency and distribution of earthquakes at Yellowstone, one of the most seismically active areas in North America.

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Note: emphasis added