Newest Volcano Notice Including Yellowstone

Summary

Yellowstone Caldera activity remains at background levels, with 70 located earthquakes in March (largest = M2.2). Deformation measurements indicate a small amount of caldera subsidence since early October.

Recent Work and News

Although a major eruption of Steamboat Geyser did not occur in March, frequent minor activity started in early March and lasted throughout the month.  This pattern of activity suggests that a major eruption will occur in the coming weeks.

Seismicity

During March 2025, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, responsible for the operation and analysis of the Yellowstone Seismic Network, located 70 earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region. The largest event of the month was a micro earthquake of magnitude 2.2 located about 6 miles north of West Yellowstone, Montana, on March 20 at 3:26 AM MST.

March seismicity in Yellowstone was marked by two swarms.

A swarm of 22 earthquakes was located approximately 6 miles north-northwest of West Yellowstone, Montana, during March 3 – 4. The largest earthquake in the sequence was a magnitude 0.55 on March 3 at 07:21 PM MST.

A swarm of 11 earthquakes occurred approximately 6 miles north of West Yellowstone, Montana, during March 19 – 22. The largest earthquake in the sequence was also the largest in March (described above).

Yellowstone earthquake activity is currently at background levels.

Ground Deformation

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

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