UNIVERSITY OF UTAH MEDIA RELEASE
Contacts:
--Robert B. Smith, University of Utah seismologist and YVO Coordinating Scientist -- (801) 581-7129, [email protected]
--Robert L. Christiansen, research geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif., and YVO Scientist-in-Charge -- (650) 329-5201, [email protected]
--Paul Doss, supervisory geologist, Yellowstone National Park and YVO Coordinating Scientist -- (307) 344-2441, [email protected]
--Lee Siegel, University of Utah science news specialist -- (801) 581-8993, cell (801) 244-5399, [email protected]
--Carolyn Bell, public affairs specialist, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va. -- (703) 648-4463, [email protected]
--Cheryl Matthews and Marsha Karle, public affairs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., (307) 344-2013, C[email protected] and [email protected]
YELLOWSTONE VOLCANO OBSERVATORY ESTABLISHED;Partnership by University of Utah, U.S. Geological Survey and Yellowstone National Park
May 14, 2001 -- The University of Utah and two federal agencies have agreed to establish the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory to strengthen long-term monitoring of earthquakes and the gigantic, slumbering volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park.
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) is the fifth such observatory in the United States. No new building is planned for the YVO, which will use existing facilities and monitoring equipment at the University of Utah, Yellowstone National Park and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offices in Menlo Park, Calif., and Vancouver, Wash.
"The observatory is a partnership of different groups working on topics related to volcano and earthquake hazards at Yellowstone," said seismologist Robert B. Smith, University of Utah Coordinating Scientist for the new observatory. "This partnership highlights the importance of monitoring the Yellowstone volcanic system and providing real-time earthquake and [volcanic] ground-deformation information."
The agreement by the USGS, Yellowstone National Park and University of Utah provides for improved collaborative study and monitoring of active geologic processes and hazards of Yellowstone, which was designated the first national park in 1872.
The YVO will be modeled after the U.S. Geological Survey's four existing observatories: the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., and the Long Valley Volcano Observatory, which monitors the Long Valley volcanic caldera -- a giant volcanic crater -- at Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
The observatories employ ground-based instruments and satellite data to monitor active and restless volcanoes and conduct studies to understand their eruptive and seismic histories and potential hazards. Together, the five observatories monitor 43 of the 70 or so potentially hazardous volcanoes in the United States. The five observatories are operated under the auspices of the USGS Volcano Hazards Program.
Most tourists to Yellowstone do not realize it, but they are standing atop the largest, most destructive type of volcano on Earth. Cataclysmic explosive eruptions 2 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago ejected huge volumes of molten rock and volcanic ash, forming large overlapping elliptical craters called calderas.
The eruption 2 million years ago spewed 2,500 times more volcanic ash and other debris than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, covering half of North America with ash and killing prehistoric animals as far away as Nebraska. The youngest or 640,000-year-old caldera -- about 50 miles long and 30 miles wide -- was formed by a blast 1,000 times larger than the Mount St. Helens explosion. It was mostly buried by more recent eruptions of thick lava flows between about 75,000 and 150,000 years ago.
Yellowstone and environs encompass the largest active magmatic (molten rock) system in North America. Yellowstone's volcanism is responsible for the world's largest, most diverse collection of spectacular geysers, natural hot springs, mud pots and steam vents.
"The new observatory will improve our efforts to monitor Yellowstone's extraordinarily large and long-lived volcanic system," said USGS research geologist Robert L. Christiansen, Scientist-in-Charge of the new observatory.
"This agreement is a natural evolution of our collective work over the years to track and study Yellowstone's unrest. There is no increased threat of eruptive activity at Yellowstone to cause concern at this time. We will use YVO to share what we are learning with the public, park visitors and nearby residents, and to be in a better position to provide warning of any future hazardous activity."
By establishing the observatory, "we are trying to formalize ongoing monitoring efforts so it brings them up to a level of prominence comparable to other volcanic systems in the United States," said Christiansen, who was Scientist-in-Charge of the Mount St. Helens monitoring effort during the May 18, 1980 eruption that killed 57 people.
Research indicates future cataclysmic caldera eruptions at Yellowstone are unlikely for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, although less severe lava vent eruptions might occur within thousands of years.
"Yellowstone does have a potential in the future for volcanic eruptions," Christiansen said. "It is probably unlikely in our lifetimes, but it is possible."
Geologist Paul K. Doss, Yellowstone National Park Coordinating Scientist of YVO, said: "While the active geologic processes at Yellowstone do impart some risk to the public, they also make it a unique treasure. It is the volcanic and seismic energy that powers the geysers and hot springs, creates the mountains and canyons, and generates the unique ecosystems that support Yellowstone's diverse wildlife. YVO will help the park's interpretive and education programs with strong outreach efforts to inform the public about the impact of geological activity on the character of Yellowstone."
Smith said Yellowstone's geysers and other geothermal features "are fueled by heat from a large magma chamber beneath the caldera. The chamber is fed from a magma source in the Earth's deep interior." The magma chamber and magma source collectively are called the Yellowstone hotspot.
Undetected by tourists, the Yellowstone caldera huffs upward and puffs downward due to movements of molten rock in the magma chamber only 3 miles to 8 miles beneath the park.
"In the past decades, we've measured the ground across the youngest [640,000-year-old] caldera rising as much as 3 feet and falling by a foot," Smith said. "This active deformation was accompanied by thousands of small earthquakes, marking the park as a living geologic system."
Frequent small earthquakes and occasional major quakes occur in and around Yellowstone due to volcanic activity and the stretching apart of Earth's crust in a wide region of the Intermountain West known as the Basin and Range Province. Both forces are suspected as causes of the magnitude-7.5 Hebgen Lake, Mont., earthquake of 1959, which was centered just outside Yellowstone's northwest boundary and triggered a giant landslide responsible for 26 of the quake's 28 deaths. The Hebgen Lake disaster was the strongest quake ever recorded in the Intermountain West and Rocky Mountains, and one of the 15 strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the contiguous United States.
Smith and his University of Utah colleagues operate a monitoring network at Yellowstone. It includes 22 seismic stations to measure quakes and six Global Positioning System satellite receivers to help survey vertical and horizontal movements of Earth's crust. Data from the instruments are recorded and analyzed at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations on the 7th floor of the university's William Browning Building.
Information about Yellowstone and the Volcano Observatory is available online at:
--U.S. Geological Survey http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/
--University of Utah http://www.seis.utah.edu/yvo and http://www.mines.utah.edu/~rbsmith/RESEARCH/UUGPS.html
--National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/yell/
University of Utah Public Relations201 S Presidents Circle, Room 308Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-9017(801) 581-6773 fax: 585-3350
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