Unusual Eruptions At Yellowstone’s Largest Active Geyser Baffles Scientists

The world’s largest active geyser has erupted three times in the past six weeks at Yellowstone National Park, including once this week, in a pattern that is highly unusual, according to geologists.  And scientists cannot explain what is causing the geyser to erupt.

One thing all scientists can agree on is that, as they’ve repeatedly told us before, the supervolcano churning below the serene scenery in Wyoming is not going to erupt anytime soon.  We shouldn’t be taking any of the anomalies to mean as much either.

According to Reuters, the Steamboat Geyser, which can shoot water as high as 300 feet (91 meters) into the air, erupted on March 15, April 19 and on Friday. The last time it erupted three times in a year was in 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory said.  The last time it erupted prior to March was more than three years ago in September 2014.

As always, there’s nothing to worry about.  “There is nothing to indicate that any sort of volcanic eruption is imminent,” Michael Poland, the scientist in charge for the observatory, said in an email.

This year’s eruptions have been smaller than a usual Steamboat eruption, but the two in April were about 10 times larger than an eruption at the park’s famed Old Faithful Geyser in terms on the amount of water discharged, he said.

Geologists have not pinpointed a reason for the latest series of eruptions, but say they could indicate a thermal disturbance in the geyser basin, or that Steamboat may be having smaller eruptions instead of one large. –Reuters

Since most geysers do not erupt on a regular schedule, “it might just reflect the randomness of geysers,” Poland said. While the Steamboat eruptions are unusual, what would be far more worrying would be the water in the hydrothermal systems drying up, which could indicate that the super hot magma deep below was making its way to the surface -and an eruption could occur.

Apocalyptic Super Volcano Eruption Could Be Much Closer Than Previously Thought

A lot of geology news has circled around the possibility of a supervolcano eruption that could wipe out humanity.  And a new analysis is not very comforting, as scientists discover that the apocalyptic scenario may be much closer than they previously thought.

The largest super-eruptions are capable of covering entire continents in volcanic ash and changing weather patterns around the world for decades. And a new study suggests the next eruption of this magnitude could be sooner than was previously assumed.

Regular volcanic eruptions, such as the recent activity of Mount Agung in Bali, might be enough to close airports, but a super-eruption would have the potential to destroy human civilization as we know it. Like Mount Agung, one of the last known super eruptions also took place in Indonesia.

Scientists previously estimated that super-eruptions happen every 45,000-714,000 years, a length of time Professor Jonathan Rougier, statistician and lead author of the new study, describes as “comfortably longer than our civilization”. (Civilization is often dated to the time humans moved away from hunting and gathering and towards agriculture, around 12,000 years ago.) In the new Earth and Planetary Science Letters study by Professor Rougier and his team at the University of Bristol, they used a database of geological records to produce a new estimate of between 5,200 and 48,000 years, with a “best guess value” of 17,000 years.  Although still a while from now, it could be much sooner than the 45,000 years conservative estimate from before.

“On balance, we have been slightly lucky not to experience any super-eruptions since then,” said Professor Rougier.  He also took care to note that just because it’s already been roughly 20,000-30,000 years since the most recent super-eruption, doesn’t mean the next one is “right around the corner.”

“Nature is not that regular,” he said. “What we can say is that volcanoes are more threatening to our civilization than previously thought,” said Professor Rougier.

Fault Line Wakes Up: New Zealand Could Be DESTROYED By Massive 9.0 Earthquake

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.