Researchers working to detect volcanic activity in Yellowstone National Park have officially announced that more than 1,000 earthquakes have been recorded since the beginning of January 2022.
Research assistant professor in the Department of Geology & Geophysics at the University of Utah, Jamie Farrell, says that the earthquakes have times of increased activity right before becoming less active.
Farrell said that 500 of the earthquakes happened from August through mid-September just 12 miles southwest of Mammoth Hot Springs.
In October, the University of Utah also confirmed that they recorded 238 of the earthquakes popping up on their radar out of the 344 that happened in the Yellowstone area.
Since 1973, there have been more than 50,000 earthquakes recorded in the park, making it one of the most seismically active areas in the U.S. Though, scientists say that most of the quakes were so small that they were never felt by humans.
Yellowstone covers an area of land that goes through Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming and it sits right on top of a young and active Supervolcano.
The volcanic system has everything from pressurized waters, to boiling magma, and a variety of active faults.
Scientists report an average of 1,500-2,500 earthquakes every year and half of them come in swarms. Farrell said that in 2022 a swarm of earthquakes created more than 1,000 events, which are still stacking up.
None of the earthquakes, however, have had a magnitude greater than 3.9, which means they were all minor earthquakes that you probably wouldn’t even feel, nor would they do any damage.