Yellowstone quakes raise explosion fears
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Hundreds of earthquakes rippled through Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in late December and early January, prompting fears that the shaking might trigger dangerous steam explosions.Magma and steam permeate the rock beneath Yellowstone, and the motion of these fluids is thought to be responsible for the thousands of small earthquakes recorded in and around the park each year.
Crater evidence - Yellowstone, which sits atop a supervolcano, is pockmarked with craters thought to have been produced this way, and geologists estimate an explosion big enough to make a 100-metre crater happens there about every 200 years.
At the time of writing, though, the swarm was subsiding with no reports of such an event. "It hasn't stopped, but it has reduced markedly in the last couple of days," said Robert Smith of the University of Utah on Monday.
There are no signs of any on the way, either, said Smith, who monitors Yellowstone's geologic activity.
The quakes appear to be concentrated along a fault beneath the park. Further analysis should reveal whether they were triggered by forces associated with the fault, activity of hot fluids beneath the surface, or some other cause, he says.
