Scientists are montioring over 250 small earth quakes that have occurred in Yellowstone national park over the last few days.
While minor earthquakes are quite ‘common’ in this area, this level of seismic activity has not been witnessed before.
Reading this reminded me of a Horizon programme I watched years ago, about ‘Supervolcano’s’…
“It is little known that lying underneath one of America’s areas of outstanding natural beauty – Yellowstone Park – is one of the largest supervolcanoes in the world. Scientists have revealed that it has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago… so the next is overdue.
And the sleeping giant is breathing: volcanologists have been tracking the movement of magma under the park and have calculated that in parts of Yellowstone the ground has risen over seventy centimetres this century. Is this just the harmless movement of lava, flowing from one part of the reservoir to another? Or does it presage something much more sinister, a pressurised build-up of molten lava?”
Midway Geyser, Grand Prismatic, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
The Mad Hatters 