(lively music)
Hi, everybody.
I'm Mike Poland, the Scientist-in-Charge
of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory,
and this is the monthly update for June 1, 2022,
coming to you today from Mammoth Hot Springs
in Yellowstone National Park,
where the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory consortium
is having its first face-to-face meeting in four years.
We're getting together to talk about science,
talk about the latest research,
and the plans for the future.
Now, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory
is not just the US Geological Survey.
It's actually a consortium of institutions,
all bringing different skillsets
to try to better understand Yellowstone.
There's the USGS.
There's also Yellowstone National Park,
they have great insights into hydrothermal activity
in Yellowstone.
There's the University of Utah,
which does all the seismic monitoring in the region.
The University of Wyoming and Montana State University
have great geologic expertise
in better understanding Yellowstone.
UNAVCO is an organization that monitors surface deformation
all over the United States, including in Yellowstone.
And then the state geologic surveys
of Idaho and Montana and Wyoming bring incredible skill
and expertise, for this region especially.
So we're here in Mammoth,
talking about our plans for the future,
talking about neat new research,
hydrothermal explosions, seismicity.
It's a really exciting time to finally be able
to meet face-to-face for the first time in four years.
Alright, now let's talk about what happened in Yellowstone
during the month of May 2022.
The University of Utah Seismograph Stations,
which is responsible for the operation and maintenance
of the Yellowstone seismic network,
located 87 earthquakes in the Yellowstone region during
the month of May,
and that's pretty typical background activity for the area.
The largest earthquake of the month was a magnitude 4.2
that occurred on May 11, here on the east side
of Yellowstone National Park,
and that was felt in the park
and in many of the surrounding regions.
Magnitude four events are not uncommon
in the Yellowstone area.
There's one that usually happens every few years or so.
Before this one, there had been a magnitude 4.4
on the west side of the park back in 2017.
Now, the area where this particular earthquake occurred
is the site of some persistent seismicity,
and the most recent magnitude four
in this area was a magnitude 4.4 that occurred back in 2008.
This is not related to magma movement,
but rather to motion along preexisting faults
in this very tectonically active area.
There were also two small swarms in the region during
the month of May,
one just to the west of Old Faithful,
and another to the north of West Yellowstone.
And this too, is pretty normal activity.
About 50% of all earthquakes in the Yellowstone area occur
as part of small swarms.
Turning now to ground deformation,
this is vertical GPS data from the White Lake GPS station
on the east side of Yellowstone caldera,
on the Sour Creek resurgent dome.
This plot spans the past two years,
and each one of these blue dots represents a day of data.
Downward trends indicate subsidence over time,
and upward trends indicate uplift.
And the overall trend during this two-year period
is of subsidence of about two to three centimeters,
that's about one inch per year.
This is a trend that's been ongoing since 2015.
It gets interrupted during summer months,
when snow melt recharges the groundwater
and the ground sort of soaks it up like a sponge.
But then you can see, once the summer's over,
the subsidence resumes,
and we've seen subsidence from the end of last summer
all the way to the end of last month.
Going to the other side of the caldera
and the Mallard Lake resurgent dome
on the west side of the caldera near Old Faithful,
we see the same overall trend of subsidence over time,
interrupted during the summer months
as groundwater recharges the subsurface.
There's a bit of a deviation here at the end of December.
That was caused by very heavy snowfall from
a strong winter storm.
And then looking at the Norris Geyser Basin,
which is north of the caldera,
we don't see a whole lot of change.
There was a little bit of apparent uplift
that occurred during last summer due
to this groundwater recharge,
and that seems to have recovered over the last few months,
but then again, there's this huge deviation
in late December, early January caused by
that very heavy snowfall during a strong winter storm.
So not a whole lot of deformation to report
in the Norris area.
Finally, turning to Steamboat Geyser,
the tallest geyser in the world,
also in Norris Geyser Basin.
We had two major eruptions during the month of May.
This is the temperature
in the outflow channel for the geyser.
All of these little spikes indicate minor eruptive activity.
It culminates in a major right there on May 4,
and then the geyser goes dry
and we see daily temperature variations,
just variations in air temperature.
Then, starting in mid-May,
we start seeing more of the minor activity,
lots of little spikes, rises in temperature,
culminating in a major eruption on May 23,
and after that,
it drops back down as the geyser gets dry again,
and we just see the daily temperature variations.
And, of course, now, occurring at the very end of May,
we're seeing more minor activity,
which should lead to another major eruption sometime during
the month of June.
So far in 2022, Steamboat has erupted six times.
Well, that does it for the monthly update for June 1, 2022.
Now, remember, if you have any questions at all,
you can always feel free to email us at yvowebteam,
that's all one word, @usgs.gov.
Until next month, stay safe, stay healthy,
and we'll see you next time.
Bye bye. Bye!
(chuckling) (lively music)