Yellowstone volcano in the northwest corner of the US sits on top a monstrous supervolcano waiting to erupt. The site is home to some of the world’s most frequent seismic activity and thousands of earthquakes strike each year. Since the start of the new year, in January, Yellowstone seismographs have already noted 84 distinct earthquakes throughout the national park. Even more terrifyingly, 12 of these earthquakes struck eight miles outside of West Yellowstone, in an incredible swarm of tremors.
The earthquake swarm, which ranged in intensity between each individual quake, was recorded between January 22 and January 23.
But much of this seismicity is very much normal and Yellowstone volcano does not appear to be rumbling out of the ordinary.
According to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) branch of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the current alert level is “NORMAL”.
The most powerful of Yellowstone’s recent earthquakes struck outside of the community of West Thumb in Teton County, Wyoming.
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Yellowstone seismographs in the region saw the earthquake peak at magnitude 3.
The USGS said: “During January 2019, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, responsible for the operation and analysis of Yellowstone Seismic Network, located 84 earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region.
“The largest event was a minor earthquake of magnitude 3.0 located five miles south-southwest of West Thumb, in Yellowstone National Park, on January 23 at 3.05am MST.
“January seismicity in Yellowstone included a swarm of 12 located earthquakes during January 22 to 23.
“The swarm events ranged in magnitude from 0.1 to 1.3 and were located eight miles north of West Yellowstone, Montana.”
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Thankfully, the USGS revealed at least 50 percent of all earthquake activity around the volcano comes in the form tremor swarms.
At the moment, Yellowstone earthquake activity “remains at background levels”.
The USGS activity update came with news of three Steamboat Geyser eruptions last month.
The historic Yellowstone landmark spewed scorching jets of water on January 4, January 16 and January 25.
The last geyser eruption was one of the smallest on record since March 2018.
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Yellowstone scientists have also not noted any significant ground deformation in the month leading up to February.
The USGS said: “There were no significant changes in surface deformation in the Yellowstone area as recorded by GPS stations.
“Ground subsidence of Yellowstone caldera continues, as it has since 2015, at a rate of a few millimetres per month.
“In the area of Norris Geyser Basin, GPS data indicate no vertical deformation – the area has shown little net change since September 2018.”