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Nov. 2019 - Two Small Energetic Swarms and a Strange Event

12/4/2019

Yellowstone has been fairly quiet in past months. However, there were 2 minor rapid-fire swarms in November 2019 along with a strange event I cannot wrap my head around. Please click the title of this post or "read more" to continue...

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Please click a post title to view the data pertaining to that event!

This is the seismic events page for Yellowstone National Park and Caldera, which resides in northwest Wyoming. Yellowstone is an absolutely massive caldera super-volcano. It sits at a shocking perimeter of 34 by 45 miles (55 by 72km) and that is only the caldera boundary! A caldera is created when land immediately erupts and collapses, while the magma chamber almost completely empties, creating a crater imprint called a caldera. Some calderas around the world are small in comparison (i.e. Kilauea) to other calderas formed by super-volcanic eruptions (i.e. Yellowstone in Wyoming or Long Valley in California). Yellowstone is theorized to contain a magma chamber and a much deeper, much larger magma reservoir just beneath the chamber. This two-chamber system is also theorized to be caused by a "magma plume". Magma plumes are thought to draw their eruptive ability from deep within our planet, possibly from our lower mantle. That is why volcanoes caused by magma plumes are much more dangerous and far more unpredictable than their counterparts that are caused by normal tectonic forces. Yes, many volcanoes are caused by tectonic forces as one plate attempts to breach or dip beneath another one. A perfect example of this is the Cascade Range on the West Coast of the United States. Many volcanoes in the world are caused by this but some, the more unpredicatble ones, are caused by magma plumes.

Remember to always pay attention to all chart labels! All images were generated by myself using the IRIS DMC seismic archive and the FREE seismic program S.W.A.R.M.

Yellowstone Caldera, WY

Nov. 2019 - Two Small Energetic Swarms and a Strange Event

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