'Swarm' of hundreds of earthquakes detected near the deadly Yellowstone supervolcano
Hundreds of earthquakes rattle Yellowstone National Park – at the site of one of the world’s most dangerous supervolcanoes.
Supervolcano eruptions are a terrifying destructive force – which can blanket huge areas in ash and change the climate for decades.
Over the past week, 464 quakes have been recorded – the highest level of activity for five years.
If the volcano erupted, it could be a thousand times as powerful as the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption, experts have warned.
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But volcano experts say there’s no reason to worry – the risk of an eruption remains low (classified at ‘green’), and the Yellowstone supervolcano has not erupted for 72,000 years.
The University of Utah said in a statement, ‘The University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) is monitoring an earthquake swarm which is currently active on the western edge of Yellowstone National Park.
‘This is the highest number of earthquakes at Yellowstone within a single week in the past five years, but is fewer than weekly counts during similar earthquakes swarms in 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010.
‘Earthquake swarms are common in Yellowstone and, on average, comprise about 50% of the total seismicity in the Yellowstone region.’
Experts at the U.S. Geological Survey told Newsweek that the activity appears to be ‘slowly winding down’.
