Yellowstone Supervolcano Earthquakes 2017: 878 Quakes Recorded in Two Weeks
A total of 878 earthquakes was recorded to have hit Yellowstone in June, the supervolcano lying beneath the national park. The earthquake swarm started on June 12 and ran for two weeks, with 464 earthquakes recorded on its first week.
In a statement released a few days ago, the United States Geological Survey said the earthquake swarm last June was "the highest number of earthquakes at Yellowstone within a single week in the past five years." The magnitude of most of the earthquakes did not go higher than magnitude 1. However, there was one that went as far as magnitude 4.4, the strongest earthquake felt since March 2014 in Yellowstone.
According to the USGS, it is highly unlikely that the series of dense earthquakes will cause any devastating eruption, setting the chances of the supervolcano erupting in the next 12 months at 1 in 730,000. The volcano is also currently kept at alert level green, which means there is no reason for people around the area to panic.
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"Swarms in Yellowstone are a common occurrence. On average, Yellowstone sees around 1,500 to 2,000 earthquakes per year. Of those, 40 to 50 percent occur as part of earthquake swarms," said University of Utah's research professor Jamie Farrell. The University of Utah is affiliated with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
Farrell further explained that while last month's earthquakes were larger than average, that does not mean the magma beneath the surface was actively moving. According to him, evidence of activity includes increased seismicity, noticeable changes in surface deformation and gas output.
"Typically if we see just one of these things, it doesn't necessarily mean there is an eruption coming. If we start to see changes in all these things, then a red flag may be raised," he said. He added that if Yellowstone erupts, it will most likely be a lava flow.
In the past two million years, the Yellowstone supervolcano has only erupted thrice.
