Four months in Yellowstone earthquakes do not stop

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A swarm of earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park USA was one of the longest in history. The earthquakes began on June 12 and do not stop still. Over the past three and a half months about 2500 jolts have been recorded in the western part of the park. This value is close to the record when more than 3000 earthquakes occurred in three months.

The swarm in no way signals an impending volcanic eruption and, apparently, is already coming to an end, although scientists are still not quite sure of this.

The monthly report of the US Geological Survey (USGS) on seismic activity in the park says that 115 earthquakes were recorded in September. Of these, 78 was part of an ongoing swarm in 10 kilometers north of West Yellowstone. The most powerful event in the swarm happened last month, its magnitude was 2,3.

"Since the beginning of the 12 swarm, one 4,4 magnitude earthquake was recorded, 12 - in the 3 magnitude range and 185 - in the 2 magnitude range," a service statement said.

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Swarms of earthquakes account for about 50% seismic activity recorded in Yellowstone. A swarm is a series of earthquakes that occur over a period of several weeks or months without a clear sequence - unlike traditional earthquakes, when there is a main event followed by a series of aftershocks.

One of the leading scientists of the Yellowstone Volcanic Observatory at the USGS, Mike Poland, said that it was too early to talk about ending the swarm, although since August the seismic activity has decreased dramatically.

According to him, the actual number of earthquakes that have occurred is difficult to establish, because earthquakes can occur at the same time or be too weak for the instruments to fix them. But there are ways to retrospectively search for these events, and perhaps after checking it turns out that there were many more of them than was originally reported.

“This is the work that we will do in the coming months when we collect all the available data and begin to analyze them,” says Poland. - At the end of September, Utah State University stations recorded 2475 earthquakes in a swarm. In its activity, the current swarm is close to the 1985 swarm of the year, during which more than 3000 localized seismic events occurred within three months. ”

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