USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-YVO-2023-04-01T08:37:55-07:00

Recent Work and News

No eruptions of Steamboat Geyser were detected during the month of March, and the total number of eruptions for the year remains at two. The Norris temperature monitoring network and seismic station YNM were down throughout the month, but the streamgage on Tantalus Creek, through which all water from Norris Geyser Basin drains, did not record obvious spikes that would be associated with Steamboat eruptions.

Seismicity

During March 2023, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, responsible for the operation and analysis of the Yellowstone Seismic Network, located 354 earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region. The largest event of the month was a minor earthquake of magnitude 3.7 located about 3 miles southeast of Lake, Yellowstone National Park, on March 29 at 8:24 AM MDT.  This event was part of a swarm of 106 earthquakes that occurred in the area starting on March 29 and that continued through the end of the month. 

March seismicity in Yellowstone was marked by two swarms:

1. A swarm of 147 earthquakes, centered about 3 miles east-southeast of West Yellowstone, Montana, occurred during March 13–18. The largest earthquake, a magnitude 2.7, took place on March 13 at 11:03 AM MDT. 

2. A swarm of 106 earthquakes, beneath the northern portion of Yellowstone Lake approximately 3 miles south southeast of Lake, Yellowstone National Park, began on March 29 and continued through the end of the month. The sequence included magnitude 3.1 and 3.7 earthquakes, the latter being the largest of the month (detailed above), and 31 earthquakes in the magnitude-two range. 

Earthquake sequences like these are common and account for roughly 50% of the total seismicity in the Yellowstone region.

Yellowstone earthquake activity is currently at elevated levels compared with typical background activity.

Ground Deformation

Continuous GPS stations in Yellowstone Caldera continued to record gradual subsidence at a rate of several centimeters (1–2 inches) per year, which has been ongoing since 2015.  Since October, about 2 centimeters (less than 1 inch) of subsidence has occurred in the area of Norris Geyser Basin.

An example of GPS data can be found at http://www.unavco.org/instrumentation/networks/status/pbo/data/NRWY (click on Static Plots / Cleaned)