A Brief FAQ About Recent News Reports February 28, 2014

Recent weeks have seen a flurry of news, real and imagined, about the Yellowstone volcanic system. We present here a brief FAQ about several topics that have appeared in recent news reports.

Has earthquake activity at Yellowstone increased dramatically over the last month?

No. Earthquake activity is normal. When earthquakes occur, they appear on the University of Utah's Yellowstone Earthquake Map, or on the YVO monitoring page. Also see our February 5, 2014 Information Statement about the misinterpretation of noise from a broken seismometer.

Is the recent episode of ground deformation worrisome?

No. Current rates of ground deformation are well within historical norms. Please see our February 18, 2014 Information Statement, for more information about ground deformation at Yellowstone

Do helium emissions at Yellowstone signal an impending eruption?

No. YVO Scientist-in-Charge Jacob Lowenstern and colleagues recently published research on helium (He) emissions at Yellowstone in the journal Nature. The new research looked at apparent changes in the helium output of the Yellowstone area during its two-million-year volcanic history, compared with the previous two billion years of comparative stability. The research has nothing to do with current activity at Yellowstone, and has no implications about volcanic hazards. For a humorous and informative take on the new research, watch this video, or read this news article.

Per the "internet", the buffalo are running away from the Yellowstone Caldera. I have yet to see any corrobative statements. They might be feeling frisky and playing also.

Just because Yellowstone has produced three very large eruptions over the last 2.2 million years doesn’t mean that you should expect such an eruption. The caldera system has had plenty of smaller, dome-forming or explosive eruptions in the intervening years (and since the last caldera-forming eruption; see above), so in terms of the likeliest events, that is what to expect. In the paper by Guillaume Girard and John Stix in GSA Today, they suggest that the likeliest events to happen at Yellowstone in the near future are small, dome-forming eruptions or phreato-magmatic (water-influenced) explosions that follow pre-existing faults in the caldera, especially along the western rim. In fact, another study by Christiansen and others (2007) showed that probabilistically, another caldera-forming eruption is the least likely scenario for future activity at Yellowstone.

Just received an email that indicates the Yellowstone Caldera is getting ready to pop. Since this would be an extinction level event, seems it would be hard to contain the info but it is what it is. Anyone else heard anything or is this just someone pushing this catastrophic possibility yet again.
The email linked to: Supervolcano activity in Yellowstone/

My friend thinks that because we're in SOCAL we should survive the Yellowstone Super-volcano cooking off. We may survive the initial blast, but what do our local earthquake faults do in reaction. I don't know, but medium to long term global winter comes to mind. Global warming? How about a prolonged cooling... Thoughts? Comments? Beating a dead horse?

My POV is that if I have no ability to control, influence, or mitigate the outcome, then I won't waste my energy worrying about it. Life is too short.

As a PREPPER, I'm able to mitigate the personal effects that most man or natural made incidents can have on me and my family. I leave everything else in God 's hands to have us where we are supposed to be at that time.

.... snip> They might be feeling frisky and playing also.