USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-YVO-2025-02-01T12:03:18+00:00

Summary

Yellowstone Caldera activity remains at background levels, with 56 located earthquakes in January (maximum = M3.7). Deformation measurements indicate a small amount of caldera subsidence since early October.

Recent Work and News

Minor eruptions at Steamboat Geyser continued throughout January, indicating the possibility of the geyser's first major eruption of the year in the coming days to weeks.

Seismicity

During January 2025, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, responsible for the operation and analysis of the Yellowstone Seismic Network, located 56 earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region. The largest event of the month was a minor earthquake of magnitude 3.7 located about 15 miles south-southwest of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park on January 28 at 5:59 PM MST.  This event was felt in the surrounding area and is the mainshock of a sequence of 25 located earthquakes. The sequence includes two foreshocks and 22 aftershocks, with aftershock activity ongoing.

There were no swarms identified during the month of January.

Yellowstone earthquake activity is currently at background levels.

Ground Deformation

Continuous GPS stations in Yellowstone Caldera recorded a small amount (about 1 centimeter, or a fraction of an inch) of subsidence since October.  This pattern and rate of subsidence continues a trend that started in 2015–2016.  Minor subsidence (less than 1 centimeter) was also measured by a continuous GPS station near Norris Geyser Basin over the past 2–3 months.

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