Although the earthquake swarm that rumbled under Yellowstone Lake on Wednesday morning will certainly fire up the conversation about a civilization-ending volcano erupting in the area, officials say not to worry.
The 60-plus earthquakes that hit the area were tiny in magnitudes ranging from 0.1 to 3.7 and happen frequently.
“Earthquake sequences like these are common and account for roughly 50% of the total seismicity in the Yellowstone region,” scientists from the University of Utah said in response to the earthquakes.
Only two of the temblors registered at a mark that someone could be able to feel it with one coming it at 3.0 and another at 3.7. Anything under a 3.0 is difficult for people to sense.
Plus, the earthquakes were under a lake, so unless someone was scuba diving in the area, most likely no one experienced it firsthand.
Additionally, it’s not a great time to scuba dive in Yellowstone Lake as the temperatures were in the lower 20s and it was snowing.
Yellowstone officials were not able to confirm the presence of any scuba divers during the time of the earthquakes.
Happens All The Time
To put this all in perspective, Yellowstone has been home to about 1,000 small quakes a year since 1973. That’s 2.7 a day on average, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The only thing more frequent than Yellowstone earthquake swarms are stories about Yellowstone earthquake swarms possibly signifying the “big one” is right around the corner.
Last month, the concern was upped a level when panicky doomsayers predicted earthquakes would ignite the super-volcano located in Yellowstone.
That made Mike Poland, the scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Observatory, laugh.
“That’s a bunch of hogwash,” Poland told Cowboy State Daily.
“It is very unusual for an earthquake to trigger volcanic activity. We know this, for one, because in 1959 there was a M7.2 on the northwest border of Yellowstone and it did not result in a major eruption,” Poland said, referring to the Hebgen Lake earthquake on Aug. 17, 1959.
“It changed some geyser behavior because it sloshed around underground conduit systems, but that’s about it,” he said.
So for now, humanity can rest easy. The swarm of earthquakes is normal and we shouldn’t explode any time soon.
Carry on.
