Trip - You and Yellowstone

[dandi]

As of the 25th of January there were widespread signatures that are outside the norm  at Yellowstone and seen to extend well beyond the footprint of the park itself.

These most recent events are preceded by an extended period of extraordinary uplift, from 2004 to 2010 .

But hasn't that uplift stopped and started to go back down?

[dandi]

Yellowstone is the old caldera(s), two actually.

And given the evidences at hand, the current (subsurface) caldera is far outside the boundaries of the total of the previous two calderas, and well outside of the entirety of Yellowstone Park itself.

I was under the impression that it was still under the park itself.  Can you clarify?

ETA:  Under Yellowstone Lake.

[RightCoast]

That's what's so scary, that it could be the end of civilization, this would have worldwide effects.

The hollyweird term would be globalkiller, like an asteroid the size of Rhode Island hitting Earth, not much left when it's done, certainly nothing humans can do but crawl into holes and maybe try and start over.

[formerlurker]

The University of Utah's Bob Smith, who is an expert in Yellowstone's volcanism told National Geographic, "It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high."

Smith went on to say, "At the beginning we were concerned it could be leading up to an eruption. Once we saw the magma was at a depth of ten kilometres, we weren't so concerned. If it had been at depths of two or three kilometre we'd have been a lot more concerned."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/01/25/benzinga804560.DTL#ixzz1CkR5QZG3

[formerlurker]

There you go. Yellowstone is pretty calm as giant caldera systems go. We have such a small record of the behavior of a "restless caldera" that this inflation at Yellowstone could very easily fall into the realm of normal, non-eruption-causing behavior. And if you ever worry, Yellowstone is also well-wired to see all the real time data, including earthquakes in the region and in the park, temperatures of hot springs, webcams, deformation within the caldera and hydrologic changes in the area. You would expect that if Yellowstone were headed towards an eruption, we would see lots of rapid inflation, lots of constant seismicity that gets shallower through time, a change in the temperature/composition of the hydrothermal systems and possibly even cracks forming in the land around the caldera. In other words, there will be lots of signs. So, the next time you see a doomdays article about Yellowstone, remember, calderas are busy places and the media loves its disasters.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/26641

[Trip]

I was under the impression that it was still under the park itself.  Can you clarify?

ETA:  Under Yellowstone Lake.

I wish I could clarify with absolute certainty, however in early 2009 when they did a seismic refraction survey, the magma chamber then was 20% bigger than their largest estimation.

Since that 2009 mapping, there has been the extraordinary deformation that occurred, the barrage of 2,000+ earthquakes in January of 2000, and now these harmonic tremors with other signatures of fracturing rock, both from solid rock, and also hybrid signatures of rock that is semi-melted and/or surrounded by magma.  And again this goes on well beyond the park into the Tetons on the east, and quite a lot further into Idaho and extending even 200 miles into nothern Utah.

This is ether a major expanded magma chamber, or the intrusion of one, or several adjacent magma chambers fed by  the evident W/SW extension of the primary plume body itself.

While the mere appearance of harmonic tremors alone might not be enough to have a Geo team rush up to Yellowstone, the extension of those tremors outside the park, along with clear evidences of rock fracturing seismic events, is clear cause for immediate concern.

3-D model of 2009 Refraction Mapping of Magma Chamber "Magma Pocket 20% Larger Than Thought"

JAVA Animation of Magma chamber and Plume.





The above image shows the ash outfall of the eruptions various million years ago.  What we're looking at is, theoretically, an eruption capable of being the size of those two biggest eruptions, ........  combined,  
  

[Trip]

There you go. Yellowstone is pretty calm as giant caldera systems go. We have such a small record of the behavior of a "restless caldera" that this inflation at Yellowstone could very easily fall into the realm of normal, non-eruption-causing behavior. And if you ever worry, Yellowstone is also well-wired to see all the real time data, including earthquakes in the region and in the park, temperatures of hot springs, webcams, deformation within the caldera and hydrologic changes in the area. You would expect that if Yellowstone were headed towards an eruption, we would see lots of rapid inflation, lots of constant seismicity that gets shallower through time, a change in the temperature/composition of the hydrothermal systems and possibly even cracks forming in the land around the caldera. In other words, there will be lots of signs. So, the next time you see a doomdays article about Yellowstone, remember, calderas are busy places and the media loves its disasters.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/26641

All of that is, and has been occurring.
A resident of UTAH on the further western edge of the state, has had his tapwater go from 9.0 to 11.1 alkalinity, inside 6 months.   Additionally his irrigation well has gone from requiring his powered pump, to now being artesian, requiring no power whatsoever once it is opened.

That's one hell of a lot of hydrostatic head pressure in a month's time,, not to mention a major leap in pH.

Oh, and Bob Smith is indeed very concerned about the signs sine the 25th. While he's not at Yellowstone, others are and left there abruptly without any advanced indication given them.

[dandi]

I wish I could clarify with absolute certainty, however in early 2009 when they did a seismic refraction survey, the magma chamber then was 20% bigger than their largest estimation.

Since that 2009 mapping, there has been the extraordinary deformation that occurred, the barrage of 2,000+ earthquakes in January of 2000, and now these harmonic tremors with other signatures of fracturing rock, both from solid rock, and also hybrid signatures of rock that is semi-melted and/or surrounded by magma.  And again this goes on well beyond the park into the Tetons on the east, and quite a lot further into Idaho and extending even 200 miles into nothern Utah.

This is ether a major expanded magma chamber, or the intrusion of one, or several adjacent magma chambers fed by  the evident W/SW extension of the primary plume body itself.

While the mere appearance of harmonic tremors alone might not be enough to have a Geo team rush up to Yellowstone, the extension of those tremors outside the park, along with clear evidences of rock fracturing seismic events, is clear cause for immediate concern.

3-D model of 2009 Refraction Mapping of Magma Chamber "Magma Pocket 20% Larger Than Thought"

JAVA Animation of Magma chamber and Plume.





The above image shows the ash outfall of the eruptions various million years ago.  What we're looking at is, theoretically, an eruption capable of being the size of those two biggest eruptions, ........  combined,  
  

So, if I understand you correctly, the current caldera could be joining with an adjacent magma chamber or it has grown larger than originally thought.  Is that correct?

[Ballygrl]

I have to ask, are underground volcano's rare? or are there a lot more underground than we realize? and any idea how large this volcano is say in comparison to Mt. St. Helen's size-wise?

[RightCoast]

Yellowstone, in theory, makes Mt St Helen's look like a pimple. As far as calderas there are several large ones, any of those could, in theory, wipe us out almost overnight.

[RightCoast]

Read this...

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/toba2.html

[Trip]

So, if I understand you correctly, the current caldera could be joining with an adjacent magma chamber or it has grown larger than originally thought.  Is that correct?

The seismic signatures indicate that it has grown larger than originally thought, and that this may be either a much lager magma chamber and/or additional chamber offshoots adjacent to this location.

[Ballygrl]

Read this...

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/toba2.html

Well that stinks!

[RightCoast]

Well that stinks!

It would be the 2008 election all over again.

[dandi]

The seismic signatures indicate that it has grown larger than originally thought, and that this may be either a much lager magma chamber and/or additional chamber offshoots adjacent to this location.

Okay, thank you.

[Trip]

Below is a Satellite Interferometry survey done in 2009, shown overlain on the Yellowstone Park footprint.

Note that the "extraordinary caldera deformation" episode I mention in post #18 is in the northern end of the lake.

The expansion of the volcanics westward into Idaho, S/W into Utah, and overall beyond the existing caldera footprint, can be clearly seen in the below image ... and this was in 2009, before all the major events climaxing in 2010.

[Trip]

That wasn't in his sig line, but an attachment. I do that sometimes because I loathe having to get into photobucket and do all of that mundane stuff to get a pic posted.

Over at the "other place" there are rules as to limits for images in a post: one image 300x300 pixels. I'm habituated to attaching large images to a post, which provides a clickable thumbnail for the image..

I wasn't sure how to place that thumbnail into the thread itself here. not that that rule applies here.

[Ballygrl]

What do all the colors represent?

[Trip]

What do all the colors represent?

Wave interference patterns, and unfortunately I do not have the specific scale.

Essentially what it does is map out the magma area.

[Thor]

There's barely containment of regular, every day nature.  Many, many years spent at sea has taught me just how insignificant we really are.

It took you THAT long?!?!?!?!? I learned that on my first Med cruise when we hit 60 ft seas......  Damned dense-assed Blackshoe!!

[RightCoast]

It took you THAT long?!?!?!?!? I learned that on my first Med cruise when we hit 60 ft seas......  Damned dense-assed Blackshoe!!

Squids.

[dandi]

It took you THAT long?!?!?!?!? I learned that on my first Med cruise when we hit 60 ft seas......  Damned dense-assed Blackshoe!!

No, you Brownshoed cretin, I was merely making a point.

 

And i really don't want to hear an aircraft tender rider whine about heavy seas.  Ride out 3 typhoons on a LST and get back to me, sissy-mary.

Bitchslap for being a carrier rider.

 

[dandi]

Squids.

Yes, squids.

We swim around and shit on the Marine-life.

 

[RightCoast]

Yes, squids.

We swim around and shit on the Marine-life.

 

that's a security violation.

[dandi]

that's a security violation.