Volcano Information

Yellowstone

NORMAL

GREEN

Current Update, last updated Apr 1, 2013 16:54 MDT:
During the month of March 2013, the University of Utah reports 101 earthquakes were located in the Yellowstone National Park region. The largest was a magnitude 3.2 event on March 31, 2013 at 11:41 AM MDT, located about 11 miles north north-east of West Yellowstone, MT. On March 4 a small swarm of 21 events was located 4 miles north of West Thumb, WY with magnitudes 0.4 to 2.3.

Yellowstone earthquake activity remains at a relatively low background level.

Slow subsidence of the caldera, which began in early 2010, continues. Current deformation patterns at Yellowstone are well within historical norms.

Please see: http://www.uusatrg.utah.edu/ts_ysrp.html for a map of GPS stations in the Yellowstone vicinity. For a graph of daily GPS positions at White Lake, within the Yellowstone caldera, please see: http://pbo.unavco.org/station/overview/WLWY
Volcanic History Overview: The Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field developed through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years that included some of the world's largest known eruptions. Eruption of the >2450 cu km Huckleberry Ridge Tuff about 2.1 million years ago created the more than 75-km-long Island Park caldera. The second cycle concluded with the eruption of the Mesa Falls Tuff around 1.3 million years ago, forming the 16-km-wide Henrys Fork caldera at the western end of the first caldera. Activity subsequently shifted to the present Yellowstone Plateau and culminated 640,000 years ago with the eruption of the >1000 cu km Lava Creek Tuff and the formation of the present 45 x 85 km caldera. Resurgent doming subsequently occurred at both the NE and SW sides of the caldera and voluminous (1000 cu km) intracaldera rhyolitic lava flows were erupted between 150,000 and 70,000 years ago. No magmatic eruptions have occurred since the late Pleistocene, but large phreatic eruptions took place near Yellowstone Lake during the Holocene. Yellowstone is presently the site of one of the world's largest hydrothermal systems including Earth's largest concentration of geysers.
Location: Western US, WY

Latitude: 44.43
Longitude: -110.67
Elevation: 2805 m

Recent Eruption:
Hazard Assessments: Christiansen, R. L., Lowenstern, J. B., Smith, R. B., Heasler, H, Morgan, L. A., Nathenson, M., Mastin, L. G., Muffler, L. J. P., and Robinson, J. E., 2007, Preliminary Assessment of Volcanic and Hydrothermal Hazards in Yellowstone National Park and Vicinity, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2007-1071.
Link to monitoring data:
Recent earthquake activity in Yellowstone National Park (map and catalog with links)
GPS Measured Horizontal Ground Motions
Provisional real-time stream-flow data
See the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Monitoring Page for more.