Alaska, Yellowstone ready to blow... 3 OK earthquakes?

For the third time in less than a week a small earthquake has been recorded in Oklahoma.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports a magnitude 3.2 earthquake occurred at 5:23 a.m. Tuesday in southeastern Oklahoma.
Last Thursday a 2.4 magnitude quake was recorded about 7 miles northwest of Chandler in Lincoln County. Last Wednesday a 3.4 magnitude quake was recorded about 5 miles northeast of Chickasha.

US Earthquake map: LINK

I hope this is just relieving some internal pressure, lessening the chance of a big one.

For the third time in less than a week a small earthquake has been recorded in Oklahoma.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports a magnitude 3.2 earthquake occurred at 5:23 a.m. Tuesday in southeastern Oklahoma.
Last Thursday a 2.4 magnitude quake was recorded about 7 miles northwest of Chandler in Lincoln County. Last Wednesday a 3.4 magnitude quake was recorded about 5 miles northeast of Chickasha.

US Earthquake map: LINK

I hope this is just relieving some internal pressure, lessening the chance of a big one.

Rodger..Don't Worry...Be Happy...

1-11-09 - The most recent Yellowstone Volcano Observatory states:

About 900 earthquakes occurred between Dec. 26, 2008 and Jan. 8, 2009 in the Yellowstone Lake area. Five hundred of the earthquakes (including all greater than magnitude 2.0) have been reviewed by seismologists. There were 111 earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 2.0 (> M2.0)and 18 earthquakes > M3.0. About 400 smaller earthquakes have yet to be reviewed.

http://volcanoes.usg...009/09swarm.php

Further:

The recent swarm is well above typical activity at Yellowstone. Nevertheless it is not unprecedented during the last 40 years of monitoring. Earthquake swarms within the Yellowstone caldera are typical, with magnitudes occasionally ranging above 4.0. The 1985 swarm on the northwest rim of the caldera lasted for three months, with earthquakes up to M4.9 and over 3000 total events recorded.

Me: Earthquake swarms have occurred in the past and are not necessarily associated with eruptions. No eruption is indicated and even a future eruption could be of basaltic (non-explosive) magma rather than highly viscous, explosive, rhyolitic magma. I have attached an article from 2005 and an excerpt of a more recent 2007 article.

At the moment theory tends towards large-scale caldera forming explosions as very unlikely with the idea that not enough viscous-explosive, rhyolitic magma remains in the chamber below. Also larger scale earthquakes in this location are not always associated with eruptions.

In 1959 a 7.5 earthquake occurred on the northwestern boundary of the park, which caused landslides, but was not associated with a volcanic eruption. The current swarms all appear to be 4 or less and similar swarms have occurred in the past. Some past swarms were even triggered by initial quake activity in Alaska.

I would be a lot more worried if there had been intensive swelling or smoke activity.

Quotation from the 2007 Excerpt:

Of all the possible eruptive hazards that might occur in the region of Yellowstone National Park, by far the least likely is that of another major caldera-forming pyroclastic eruption of 100 km3 or greater. Three such events have occurred in about the past 2 million years, each associated with a cycle of precaldera and postcaldera rhyolitic volcanism lasting on the order of a million years.

In the Island Park area, west of the 639±2-ka Yellowstone caldera, the older rhyolitic source areas have subsequently produced basaltic lava eruptions. In contrast, contemporaneous basaltic magmas surround the Yellowstone caldera, but none have erupted within the caldera. This pattern strongly suggests that the crust where rhyolitic magma chambers existed during the previous two major caldera-forming eruptions and their associated rhyolitic volcanism has cooled and solidified sufficiently to fracture and allow basaltic magmas to intrude from below, precluding the possibility of large volumes of eruptible rhyolitic magma remaining
there.

However, the great heat flow represented by the massive long-lived hydrothermal circulation system of Yellowstone (Fournier, 1989) as well as significant delays in seismic-wave travel times and wave attenuation imaged in the shallow crust beneath the Yellowstone caldera (Benz and Smith, 1984; Miller and Smith, 1999; Husen and others, 2004) strongly suggest the continued presence of magma. What remain most uncertain are (1) the percentage of melt in the remaining, partly crystallized magma, (2) its degree of interconnection, and (3) its potential eruptibility

Taken from the below article...

http://www.earthmoun...wstone-news.htm

p.s..Alaska has a lot of earthquakes yearly...

Edited by tradermama, 03 February 2009 - 12:45 PM.

this is just GREAT!: earthquakes, tsunami's, eve of destruction, great depression, greater depression, chaos, deathwatch, hope bubble. did george your take this place over? slap yourselves, people! get over it! is this a market site?????????????????????????? p.s. have you noticed the market today? LOL/LMAO!

Edited by humble1, 03 February 2009 - 02:20 PM.