West Yellowstone residents not worried about quake swarm
Posted: Jan 23, 2010 7:39 AM
Updated: Jan 23, 2010 7:39 AM
Over 1,000 earthquakes have rocked Yellowstone National Park in less than a week, with 10 of them have measured 3.0 or greater on the Richter scale.
But for the people living near the park, in West Yellowstone, it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal.
"I can't say that I've honestly felt any of the earthquakes," said Melissa Alder, co-owner of the local cross country ski store Free Heel and Wheel.
Blue Ribbon Flies manager Robert McCormick said he has felt one, but it was pretty insignificant.
"I was just sittin' on the couch and the house just kind of vibrated a little bit...it lasted about 10 seconds," he said.
"I haven't felt any of 'em," said Yellowstone Park Ranger, Rich Jehle. "But some of the people that work in this building felt some when I didn't feel them and I was in the building too, and I didn't feel anything."
Jehle says the area is one of the most seismically active in the country, getting over 1,100 earthquakes a year. So a swarm like this is not unusual.
"In the last 15 years we've had about 80 earthquake swarms," said Jehle, and he wants to assure the public this is a tectonic event, and does not appear to be related to the legendary Yellowstone Caldera.
That's a volcano and the last time it erupted it left a crater about 30 miles wide, 40 miles long, and several thousand feet deep. That was about 640,000 years ago. It's gone off three times, and the average span between eruptions, roughly 700,000 years.
That would suggest we have 60,000 years to go, right? Maybe, maybe not.
"The other thing scientists would tell you is that a sample size of three eruptions is not very good for doing statistical analysis either," Jehle answered.
Even if these earthquakes were a sign the Yellowstone Volcano were erupting, West Yellowstone residents seem pretty footloose about it."
"Well, if it's as big as they say it is it's gonna get everywhere anyway so we might as well be at the epicenter," said Vanessa Bybee, a waitress at Canyon Street Grill
"We'd be blown off the face of the earth," said Melissa Alder. "So I think living in West Yellowstone is really an ideal place to be if that super-volcano were going to blow sometime in the next 100,000 years."
In the meantime, an earthquake swarm seems pretty minor to these folks.
Find out more about the Yellowstone Caldera here.
Follow the current Yellowstone earthquake swarm here.
