Seismic readings

[HeeBGBz]

Does anyone know how to decipher them? Check this one out. Yesterday at Mary Lake in Yellowstone.



Busy day or not?

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Increased magma flow?

However, without a set of benchmarks, the dataset is almost meaningless.

It would also be helpful to have about a month's worth of previous tracings.

BUT ... if you're counting down to the Great Yellowstone Supereruption, you'll have to guess, just like the rest of us. :(

--p!

[wschalle]

2. Not sure but...

I think there are more than 2000 small earthquakes a week there. Thats an earthquake every 5 minutes.

[Up2Late]

3. VERY, That looks like a Volcano about to blow!

I hope it's not the Mega Volcano that takes up about half of the Red States!

On a normal day, you MIGHT get ONE line like the Black one at the 14:00 line. The rest would look like section between 21:00 to the end (23:59).

Good Luck!:hide:

[Dogmudgeon]

5. I'm not so sure

It is a nasty-looking chart, but all we know is that each vertical division of deflection is 100 uv. What that 100 uv corresponds to is not indicated.

So we might be seeing a microtremor chart, which could give geologists a sense of anything from magma flow to the traffic into Yellowstone National Park.

My own interest has shifted a little -- there has been a big increase in activity in the Indenesian subduction zone; and the Cascadia zone (off the Pacific Northwest) has also been active. And seismologists are of course reluctant to make any guesses, since nearly every new finding these days comes as a surprise.

--p!

[shraby]

4. It was a 1.7 at Yellowstone

<http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/uu04131052.htm>

[Up2Late]

7. Seismic Hazard Map: Preliminary Earthquake Report

Why do they have their equipment calibrated so low? 1.7 is Tiny!

<http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/recent/uu04131052_z.html>

[eaglenetsupport]

6. We're looking at micro-quakes here

There are like 15-20 seismometers setup around Yellowstone to monitor this activity. They are measuring micro-quakes in the .5 - 2.0 on Richter scale. Over a period of time seismologists can build a set of data that describes what is going on under the ground and begin to assess activity levels and intensity. So far the data indicates continued low level activity that doesn't seem to be increasing in intensity. The bulge under the lake seems to have subsided for the second time in recent years.

In recent years the anecdotal evidence of increased activity caused seismologists to surround the Yellowstone caldera with highly sensitive monitoring devices to assess what was going on. The increased activity, while it hasn't subsided it has not really increased either since the equipment was installed. Kind of a lull before the storm. The question is when and how big not if. It is probably more likely to have a lesser eruption, more like the scale of typical volcanoes we've seen many times, if geologic history is any indicator. There have been 20-30 typical eruptions (size wise)since the last mega-volcanic eruption 640,000 years ago. The most alarming piece of data is the mapping of the magma chamber size by analyzing earthquakes, outside of the region.

Tectonic motions move through solid rock faster then waves moving through molten rock (called harmonic tremors). By looking at the same waves from numerous devices as they pass though the chamber, they can build up an underground picture of size and shape of the chamber. It's sixty miles long and 25 miles wide, (that will ultimately determine the size of the caldera once the roof collapses and thus the size of the "vent") is growing, with an uplift bulge of about one meter over the previous ten years. It is the size of the chamber that has many seismologists concerned, because that kind of size means the unusually large mega chamber structure is still there and will blow. The gradual pressure buildup/bulging, and increased tectonic activity on something of this scale will probably go on for centuries rather than decades before the final bang. I doubt if our great great great grand kids will see this event looking at it from were we are today and were we will have to get to on eruption day.

[HeeBGBz]

8. I looked at similar readings at the other Yellowstone monitors

Most of them looked like this one does from 19:00 to 24:00. Fairly normal. Then I saw this one and it spooked me a little. I don't know much about them but this one had more scribbles than any I'd seen at any of the seismic stations anywhere that I'd looked at previously.

[HeeBGBz]

9. This is in the bootheel of Missouri

How do you tell the severity of these squiggles? Does each colored line represent a type of reading or is it an increment of time?

Ok, I've figured out that the greater the magnitude the longer the blips on the colored lines. That's about all I've deciphered.