Supervolcano Anxiety? Montana’s New Seismic Data

If you grew up in Montana, there’s a good chance someone may have told you once upon a time, maybe in 7th grade science class, that we’re all living on the top of one big supervolcano. And then just casually threw a curveball like it’s not a life-ruining piece of information to say to a child with a bag of Doritos in their mouth.

Well anyway, scientists recently allowed AI to sift through old data, and it turns out that between 2008 and 2022, Yellowstone experienced 86,000-plus earthquakes. Ten times as many as what we thought. Ten. Times.

Earthquake swarms: not just for movies

A good portion of those quakes occurred in swarms, and yeah, that does kind of sound like your worst nightmare, but it turns out it just means a lot of teeny quakes all congealing together to form a terrifying cluster of quakes. Kinda like when you try to knock down a yellowjacket nest. But angry little earthquakes attack you and threaten total destruction of the planet.

It turns out most of these swarms are due to underground fluids sloshing about. The earth’s just burping. No big deal.

The study also discovered that the faults beneath Yellowstone are jagged and imperfect. Relatable. That just means the subterranean cracks are jagged and janky, so it’s easier for fluids to induce the little quakes.

It’s like spilling water on linoleum as opposed to shag carpet. One makes a splash. The other turns into a mess.

Scientists were recording about 8,000 Yellowstone quakes over that period. And then AI came along, analyzed the data, and was like, “Actually... there were 86,276.” Thanks, nerd.

So... are we gonna blow?

Nah. No signs of that. No rush of magma, no pressure build, no action movie shot. This research simply provides scientists with a clearer picture of what’s happening underground. And spoiler alert, it’s mostly boring.