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  • Yellowstone Bison Stampede: Could Volcano Be Active?

    Many are suspecting the worse when recalling that animals are often said to have a kind of sixth sense for disaster. They flee when something is about to occur.

    With the recent 4.8 magnitude earthquake in the vicinity of the super volcano in Yellowstone National Park, many have been on edge about a possible eruption of one of the biggest volcanoes on our planet.

    Others are wondering if the Bison are trying to tell us something.

    A visitor to Yellowstone National Park caught a stampede on camera, and now it has people wondering: Is the Yellowstone caldera is about to blow?

    If it were to erupt, the effects would be disastrous.

    According to Yellowstone spokesman Dan Hottle, “Those bison are running because that’s what they do every day in Yellowstone.”

    And Al Nash, another spokesman for Yellowstone National Park, said: “We have heard about some pretty wild rumors – including one concerning the animals.

    “We do have bison, elk and other animals that have moved outside the park recently, but they’re doing that because we’re in the depths of winter and food is a little hard to find in places.

    “At this time of year, they tend to migrate to lower elevations where they think there might be something to eat that’s easier to get at. When the snow melts off and things start to green up, those very same animals will walk right back into the park.”

    According to the US Geological Service (USGS), there has been an uplift in earthquake activity around Yellowstone’s caldera.

    The super volcano last erupted 70,000 years ago and another one is likely to deposit huge quantities of ash across much of the country.

    Nash said there were “no signs” tectonic activity was about to cause Yellowstone’s volcano to erupt.

    “We see between 1,000 and 3,000 earthquakes a year in Yellowstone and most of them are so small no one ever feels them,” he said.

    Adding, “we’ve had this recent earthquake near the Norris geyser basin, but there were no injuries or damage and … it’s just part of the geology of Yellowstone.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Yellowstone Earthquake Won’t Cause Volcanic Eruption

    Yellowstone National Park was struck by a magnitude 4.8 earthquake on Sunday morning and scientists say that it is the strongest earthquake to strike the area in 34 years. The quake struck at 6:34 a.m. with an epicenter about 23 miles from Yellowstone, Montana, and at a depth of 4.2 miles.

    The quake is considered fairly small and only a few people reported feeling it. Those who did feel it compared it to the rumble of a passing train. Several smaller quakes were also felt that morning, but no damage or injuries were reported. There were only a few visitors in the park at the time of the quake.

    Although many people feared that the quake might have triggered the mega volcano underneath the park to erupt, geophysicists say that there is nothing to worry about and the volcano is not going to erupt because of the earthquake.

    Geologists are monitoring the volcano and say that when it does erupt, it could do so with 2,000 times the force of Mount St. Helens in Washington. In 2013, geologists determined that the magma chamber underneath the volcano was much bigger than they had originally thought.

    Scientists know that the volcano will erupt again but are not sure when. Each earthquake that occurs makes the volcano more likely to erupt. The biggest earthquake to hit Yellowstone National Park happened on August 17, 1959. The Yellowstone volcano last erupted 640,000 years ago.

    The volcano experiences up to 20 small earthquakes each day. Most of them measure less than 3.0 on the Richter scale and are not felt by people. Geologists study the effects these earthquakes have on the volcano to determine if they are likely to trigger an eruption. They have no way of predicting when the volcano will erupt or if a large earthquake will trigger an eruption.

    Do you think an earthquake will trigger the Yellowstone volcano to erupt?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons