The Public Fears An Eruption At Yellowstone: ‘Spate Of Tremors’ Reported

Laying underneath the tranquil and beautiful geysers, waterfalls, and mountains of Wyoming lies the Yellowstone caldera.  The supervolcano has been worrying some for decades, but now experts fear an eruption could happen soon after reporting a “spate of tremors.”

According to WMD, a spate of four mini-tremors in the area following a period of “rest” has raised fears among some that the supervolcano is about to blow. Although the Yellowstone supervolcano hasn’t erupted for 631,000 years, scientists have been diligently working to understand the last eruption so they can more accurately predict when a big one will happen again.

The most recent quake came on March 11 when a small 1.5 tremor took place beneath the surface. The strongest one, a 1.8 magnitude earthquake, came just hours before this, and people are concerned that Yellowstone could be about to blow.

The growing concern among the public is evident, but many scientists still say the activity at the supervolcano is perfectly normal. Tom Skilling, a meteorologist for WGN News, a local news site in Chicago, explains that is it normal for the volcano to have less active weeks. “Minor earthquakes occur in the Yellowstone area 50 or more times per week, but a major eruption is not expected in the foreseeable future.”

Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas in the world and there are regular earthquakes detected in and around the supervolcano.  This latest spate of tremors follows a period in February where more than 200 small tremors detected were detected over a period of 10 days. According to experts with the US Geological Survey, that swarm began on February 8 in a region roughly eight miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana and increased dramatically in the days following.

Despite experts trying to calm nerves, concerned citizens have taken to Twitter to voice their concern about a potential eruption.  One person wrote on Twitter: “Pray to Yellowstone caldera. We can end it all.” RyGuy said on the social media site: “Yellowstone’s gonna blow up and get us all”.

If the volcano does explode, a climate shift would ensue as the supervolcano would spew massive amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, which can form a sulfur aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight. The large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter.”

New Data: Yellowstone Supervolcano STRAINED, Magma Chamber Under Immense Pressure

According to a group of seismologists who are monitoring the potentially catastrophic supervolcano, Yellowstone is “under strain.” This new report has reignited fears that the caldera could erupt at any moment.

Experts were alerted to the volcano’s strain after noticing deformation. This process, where subsurface rocks subtly change shapes, is occurring beneath the surface of Yellowstone right now. Researchers state deformation occurs when there is a change in the amount of pressure in the magma chamber and experts are keeping an eye on the development.

Seismologists from UNAVCO, a non-profit university-governed consortium, are using “Global Positioning System (GPS), borehole tiltmeters, and borehole strainmeters” to measure minute changes in deformation at Yellowstone. In an article for the Billings Gazette, David Mencin and Glen Mattioli, geodesists with UNAVCO, say “the strain signal is larger than would be expected if the crust under Yellowstone were completely solid.”

“What that means, at least in their eyes, is that there’s lava flowing that’s allowing pressure to build in the chamber,” says Joe Joseph of The Daily Sheeple.  “I don’t know if this is good or bad!”

These independent observations agree with other instruments at Yellowstone, like seismometers, that indicate a zone of semi-molten rock starting about 3 miles beneath the surface. The term “semi-molten” is used because the entire zone contains only between 5 and 15 percent liquid rock that occupies small pockets of space between the solid rock.

But the scientists want to assure the public that these observations are no cause for alarm. “Of course, they’re always gonna say that,” says Joseph. “It’s about 700,000 years ago they say when it erupted and it’s long overdue. So here we are, Yellowstone, yet again, thrust into the news because of some of this new data coming out…,” Joseph said.

If the Yellowstone volcano nestled mostly in  Wyoming were to erupt, an estimated 87,000 people would be killed immediately and two-thirds of the USA would instantly be made uninhabitable.  The large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter.”

Is this a cause for alarm? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s interesting this new Yellowstone information is coinciding with news that a pole reversal is near, the Ring of Fire is waking up, and the sun is approaching its solar minimum which could cause a mini ice age.

New Zealand Fault Line Wakes Up: "We Need To Think Japan 2011 Ruptures"

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

A 2016 earthquake has awoken a fault line that was thought to be dormant. Now that it’s becoming active, fears have arisen that New Zealand could be destroyed by a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake.

The devastating Kaikura earthquake in 2016 has resurrected the Hikurangi subduction zone where two tectonic plates clash and one is pushed down. Geologists are now warning that this trench could cause a massive earthquake on the ocean floor, and could trigger other 9.0 magnitude earthquakes and tsunamis that will reach the western coast of the islands in just seven minutes.

The Australian plate is heading north while the Pacific plate is heading west, and the combination of these motions means that the Pacific plate, which includes much of the South Island, is moving relative to the Australian plate at a rate of about 40millimeterss each year in a southwesterly direction.

Ursula Cochran, from the science firm GNS, told The Marlborough Express:

“We need to think Japan 2011 basically, because if our whole plate boundary ruptured it would be a magnitude-9 earthquake.”

The Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami smashed through the country’s north-eastern coast killing almost 16,000 people and destroying the lives of thousands more. It also triggered a major ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

“One of the biggest hazards of that kind of earthquake is the tsunami that is triggered by a fault rupture offshore.,” Cochran added.

 

“We know from tsunami modeling from a hypothetical earthquake from the Hikurangi subduction zone that the travel times could be very short to the coast, so seven minutes for some of the south Wairarapa coast.”

One year after it struck, scientists are also warning that the Kaikoura quake was not the “big one” for the Hikurangi subduction zone. The quake on the Hikurangi subduction zone was devastating.

The magnitude 7.8 that destroyed houses, lifted the Kaikoura seabed by 2m, tore apart farmland, and wrecked kilometers of State Highway 1, may be minor compared to what could come, Cochran said.

“One thing about reflecting on from the Kaikoura earthquake is we don’t want people to think this is the big one.” 

An international team hopes to drill boreholes into the subduction zone and place monitoring equipment there to act as an early warning system.

Experts Issue 2018 Warning: Earth "Had It Easy This Year" With Only 6 Severe Earthquakes

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Scientists are warning that 2018 won’t be as “easy” on us as 2017 was when it comes to the number of severe earthquakes they predict.

In 2018, Earth, and one billion of its inhabitants could face 20 severe earthquakes due to the slowing rotation of the planet.

Tiny changes in the speed of our planet’s rotation will trigger huge seismic activity by releasing vast amounts of underground energy causing severe earthquakes, experts claim. Although their research has been rejected by some scientists, they are intent on sounding the alarm. The slowing of Earth’s rotation could disrupt the crust of the Earth making it possible to see 20 severe earthquakes next year.

According to the Daily Mail, the planet’s rotation is slowing down because of tidal forces between Earth and the moon. The side of Earth closest to the moon feels its pull the strongest, while the side farthest from the moon feels its gravity less. That difference in gravitational pull stretches the Earth, which causes tidal bulges. These bulges pull the moon closer or farther away from Earth by around 4cm per year. The moon exerts the opposite force on them, pulling them back toward it, creating friction and slowing down the planet’s rotation. The time the Earth takes to make a complete rotation on its axis varies by about a millionth of a second per day. While the rotational rate hasn’t declined evenly,  the average day has grown longer by between 15 millionths and 25 millionths of a second every year.

Researchers found five periods in the past century when there were more earthquakes than other times. On these five occasions, there was a 25 to 30 percent increase in the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 or above. These all coincided with a slowing in the rotation of the Earth. Scientists from the University of Colorado in Boulder and the University of Montana say that even fluctuations of a millisecond could increase seismic activity.

The minuscule variations in Earth’s rotation cause a shift in the shape of the Earth’s iron and nickel “inner core.” This, in turn, changes the liquid outer core on which the Earth’s tectonic plates rest. “The mechanism we’ve come up with is that as the Earth slows down it’s like a skater spinning on ice. As the Earth slows down its equatorial diameter reduces,” Dr. Rger Bilham of the University of Colorado told BBC Inside Science. “Its (the Earth’s) waistline gets smaller, but its clothes, the tectonic plates on Earth, remain the same size, which means they get rumpled up. These tiny changes to the overall shape of the Earth are enough, if there are faults that are already ready to go … to kind of kick them over into failure,” he said.

“The correlation between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year,” Dr. Bilham said.

This research comes just after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Iran, leaving at least 400 people killed and more than 6,000 injured. The quake hit 19 miles southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9.20pm on Sunday, when many people would have been at home. More than 100 aftershocks followed.

Do 40,000 Lightning Strikes Over SoCal Point To A Mega Quake On The Horizon?

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

A volatile storm has ignited a slew of 40,000 lightning strike in southwestern California.

The strikes have hit Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties – all between September 10-11.

The electric storm was most active on Sunday with an amazing 5,000 lightning bolts in the area over a three-hour period. NWS Los Angeles took to Twitter to report the tremendous display. The intense storm brought plenty of lightning to the Golden state’s southern region, but almost no rain.  The greatest rain total of .44 inches at Sudden Peak on Sunday. By Monday morning, heavy showers, thunderstorms, and 35-mph winds were reported in eastern Los Angeles County.

Tremendous number of lightning strikes & in-cloud flashes over SW CA in last 24-hours. Nearly 40,000 in total! #CAwx #LAWeather #LARain pic.twitter.com/bXoEvdqHx6

— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) September 11, 2017

But now conspiracy is swirling around this fascinating and unique electric storm.  Strange lights and electrons acting oddly seem to have been appearing either before or during major earthquakes – like the recent 8.2 magnitude quake in Mexico. Could these lightning strikes be a sign that California’s mega quake is on the horizon?

Like California, Mexico is a seismically active region that has seen smaller quakes that have caused death and destruction. But Thursday’s temblor is a reminder that even larger quakes — while rare — do occur. Scientists say it’s possible for Southern California to be hit by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake. Such a quake would be far more destructive to the Los Angeles area because the San Andreas fault runs very close to and underneath densely populated areas.

It’s often stated that California is ripe for a devastating mega earthquake and after some noticed the strange lights in the sky above Mexico during its quake, this conspiracy conclusion was an easy one to jump to.

1400-Quake Swarm Prompts Question "If Yellowstone Erupted, What Would Be Left?"

Yellowstone volcano has been struck by 1,400 earthquakes in recent weeks, leading to fears that the supervolcano is ready to blow and wipe out life on Earth.

Seismic activity around the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, US, is not uncommon, but the heaviest swarm in half a decade has people very concerned.

Since June 12, The Express reports there has been over 1,400 tremors in the region, and experts state that the swarm could go on for another month.

However, seismologists state that there is nothing to be concerned about yet. Jamie Farrell at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City told New Scientist:

“This is a large swarm but it is not the largest swarm we’ve recorded in Yellowstone.

“Earthquake swarms are fairly common in Yellowstone.

“There is no indication that this swarm is related to magma moving through the shallow crust.”

Neverthelesss, following Montana’s biggest earthquake in 34 years, a 5.4 tremor in early June, which is on the same fault line as Yellowstone, and coupled with the swarm of quakes in the National Park, many are convinced that the supervolcano is now ready to blow.

One local wrote on Twitter: “Earthquake in Bozeman = truly terrified Yellowstone volcano gonna go off.”

So what would happen?

Iceland Could Be About To Experience A Major Volcanic Eruption

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Iceland’s largest volcano, Katla, was just moved to yellow status.  

But that isn’t all that’s concerning. There have also been over 500 earthquakes in Iceland in the last four days.

Experts now believe that a volcanic eruption that could be quite large, may soon occur in Iceland. A series of 40 small earthquakes occurred just North East of Mount Fagradalsfjall two days ago, with the final one felt in Reykjavik, measuring at almost 4 on the Richter scale.  Following tremors at Katla in South Iceland and a glacial river flood in Múlakvísl, the Icelandic Met Office has raised the status of the famous volcano on its “Aviation Colour Code Map for Icelandic Volcanic Systems” from green to yellow. People have even been warned to stay away from the Múlakvísl  River because of the odor of sulfur. 

An earthquake of the magnitude of 3 occurred in the Katla caldera at 00:48 last night followed by a series of smaller tremors.  The seismic unrest could be connected to the glacial river flood and not connected to a possible eruption at all but the Iceland Met Office cannot be certain at this point.

Alert code yellow means that the volcano is active but that nothing points to an immenent eruption. If the colour code moves up to orange it means that the volcano is increasing its activity and an eruption is becoming likely. –Iceland Monitor

“It’s quite normal for Reykjanes, there have been a series of quakes there in the past few years,” the Met Office commented. And according to a post on volcano enthusiast site Volcanocafé, eruptions occur in Iceland every three to seven years.

“We have never seen a large powerful intrusion at a Mid Oceanic Ridge at such a well-instrumented place,” Carl Rehnberg wrote on Volcanocafé. “We now know that the initial swarm rapidly transformed from tectonic earthquakes, via volcano-tectonic, to earthquakes consistent with moving magma in a surprisingly short timeframe. As such this is turning into a potential eruption or a state of volcanic unrest.”  Rehnberg believes that a major eruption could be just hours away. If, however, the “current unrest” stops, there will be no eruption.

But, he explains, “At the intensity and force of the current seismic unrest, it is likely that an eruption will occur if the seismic crisis is prolonged.”

Rehnberg speculates that there is a 50 percent chance of an eruption, and that chance is increasing by the hour.  But the Icelandic Met Office, who are currently not concerned about a major volcanic eruption, citing the recent seismic activity as “normal for an active region”.

As a reminder, in response to concerns that volcanic ash ejected during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland would damage aircraft engines, the controlled airspace of many European countries was closed to instrument flight rules traffic, resulting in the largest air-traffic shut-down since World War II.

Scientists Warn That The Coming California Megaquake Could Plunge Large Portions Of The State Into The Ocean

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Over the years, many people have been shown that someday a giant earthquake will cause significant portions of California to fall into the ocean. But up until now, most scientists have disputed the idea that this could ever actually happen. Well, now all of that has changed. According to a brand new study, a megaquake along the west coast “could plunge large parts of California into the sea almost instantly”. In fact, the researchers that conducted this study say that it is almost certain to happen eventually. Of course they probably don’t believe that such an event is imminent or else they would be moving out of the state like so many other people are.

When I came across news stories about this brand new study I was absolutely astounded. Here is a short excerpt from one of them…

The Big One may be overdue to hit California, but scientists near LA have found a new risk for the area during a major earthquake.

They claim that if a major tremor hits the area, it could plunge large parts of California into the sea almost instantly.

The discovery was made after studying the Newport-Inglewood fault, which has long been believed to be one of Southern California’s danger zones.

Could you imagine what such a catastrophe would do to our nation and how many lives would be lost if that were to happen today?

According to the study, a California megaquake would potentially cause some sections of southern California to suddenly drop by as much as 3 feet, and that could result in vast stretches of land “ending up at or below sea level”…

In total three quakes over the last 2,000 years on nearby faults made ground just outside Los Angeles city limits sink as much as 3ft.

Today that could result in the area ending up at or below sea level, said Cal State Fullerton professor Matt Kirby, who worked with the paper´s lead author, graduate student Robert Leeper.

Wow.

And we are not talking about something that would happen over a period of weeks or months. According to these scientists, it would be a “very rapid sinking”…

“It’s not just a gradual sinking. This is boom — it would drop. It’s very rapid sinking,” Robert Leeper, lead author of a new study published in Nature, carried out with the help of the US Geological Survey, told the LA Times.

So could a substantial portion of southern California someday actually slide into the ocean like we see in the movies?

The scientists that were involved in this study say that the answer is yes…

Cal State Fullerton professor Matt Kirby, who worked with the Leeper on the study, said the sinking would occur quickly and likely result in part of California being covered by the sea.

“It’s something that would happen relatively instantaneously,” Prof Kirby said. “Probably today if it happened, you would see seawater rushing in.”

Let us hope that we have as much time as possible before anything like this actually happens. But scientists are also telling us that a tremendous amount of seismic tension has built up in southern California, and that this tension could cause a major earthquake at any time. In fact, in my recent article about why people are moving out of California, I included a quote from an ABC Los Angeles story about how researchers are warning that a major earthquake in southern California is “way overdue”…

A recently published study reveals new evidence that a major earthquake is way overdue on a 100 mile stretch of the San Andreas Fault from the Antelope Valley to the Tejon Pass and beyond.

Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey released the results of the years-long study warning a major earthquake could strike soon.

Today, more than 38 million people live in the state of California, and as a population density map of the state shows, much of the population is concentrated along the coastline…

So if large sections of the California coast did end up plunging into the ocean, what would the death toll be?

Would it be in the millions?

And what would such a disaster mean for the rest of the country?

The west coast of the United States sits along “the Ring of Fire”. Roughly encircling the Pacific Ocean, this vast seismic zone contains approximately 75 percent of the active volcanoes in the world and it produces more than 80 percent of all major earthquakes.

In other words, anyone that lives near the Ring of Fire would be foolish to assume that they are immune from massive natural disasters.

In 2011, a major earthquake along the Ring of Fire on the other side of the Pacific Ocean caused a massive tsunami to wash inland in Japan for many, many miles.

If such a thing were to happen in Los Angeles or San Francisco, the death and destruction would be on a scale that would be absolutely unimaginable.

When the big Hollywood film entitled “San Andreas” came out in 2015, a lot of people mocked the idea that the things portrayed in that film could ever happen in real life.

But now scientists are telling us that a megaquake could cause large portions of California to plunge into the ocean and that it is quite likely that this will actually happen someday.