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Yellowstone is rising

yellowstonepic.jpgThe surface of the Yellowstone caldera is now rising at 7 cm a year, according to a paper in this week’s Science. Wu-Lung Chang and colleagues used satellite measurements to measure uplift between 2004 and 2006 and found a rate three times faster than that measured in the 1920s. Chang thinks the results imply magma chambers below the surface are recharging.

So should we be worried about the volcano popping its top? Probably not. “There is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion. That’s the bottom line,” according to study author Robert Smith of the University of Utah (press release). “A lot of calderas worldwide go up and down over decades without erupting.”

yellowstonediagram.jpgThe Salt Lake Tribune thinks the results “in no way should be construed as a harbinger of a natural disaster”. Not so, says the Daily Utah Chronicle, they could indicate earthquakes a-comin’. Kenneth Pierce of the US Geological Survey has a nice take on the importance of the results. “We have information of the longer term, millennial scale inflation/deflation cycles of the caldera, which might be called ‘heavy breathing’.”

“For now, it appears that Yellowstone is just reminding us that it’s worth paying attention to,” says ARS Technica.

This is not the first ‘unprecidented uplift’ in Yellowstone history, the USGS says “In the 1970s, a resurvey of benchmarks discovered the unprecedented uplift of the Yellowstone Caldera of more than 28 inches (72 cm) over five decades.” Conventional surveying of Yellowstone began in 1923. Nature last year published an article on the pattern of uplift and magma intrusion.

Top image: Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park / Photo by Henry Holdsworth, courtesy of Robert B. Smith

Lower image: The orange in this image represents the magma chamber. Rusty circles within the caldera represent the resurgent volcanic domes above the chamber. Credit: Wu-Lung Chang, University of Utah

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    Silas said:

    As I write this comment on Dec.30th, 2008, there is a report by the Associated Press of an unusual earthquake swarm in Yellowstone.

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