Park mangers say they euthanized “an aggressive, habituated, and human-food-conditioned black bear” Tuesday out of “concern for visitor safety.”
But it was also a result of stupid people making unnatural food available to the bear.
The adult female bear had been seen frequenting the Slough Creek area in the park’s north central area. The bear was 4 – 5 years old and weighed between 100 and 125 pounds. Some observers had mistaken her for a grizzly since it was brown in color.
In mid-July, the bear entered an occupied backcountry campsite in the Slough Creek drainage. Attempts to chase her away failed, and she ate the dinner the camper had prepared for himself.
Tag Archives: Yellowstone
Yellowstone: She’s gonna blow!!!
Well, not really.
But, as noted in Eruptions, there is a new swarm of little earthquakes underneath the Yellowstone Caldera. You’ll remember we discussed this here last time that happened. Since that time, of course, we’ve gotten to see what it would actually look like if the world’s scariest caldera (maybe) actually went off:
Continue reading Yellowstone: She’s gonna blow!!!
Seismic Activity at Yellowstone
You have already heard that there has been increased seismic activity at Yellowstone National Park over the last few days. Since December 26th, there have been several earthquakes a day, some jut over 3.0 magnitude, in the vicinity of the north side of Yellowstone’s lake. This is a seismically active region, but the level of earthquake activity being seen now is much greater than seen in perhaps decades (though the data are still not sufficiently analyzed to make positive comparisons yet).
Volcano experts have absolutely no clue as to what this means. A major reason for virtually total uncertainty is that Yellowstone sits on top of a very large caldera of the type that is formed by a so-called “super volcano” and the last super volcano to erupt was a few years (like, 70 or so thousand years) before any seismic or other geological monitoring station were set up anywhere. Indeed, the first really serious data collection at Yellowstone began just over 30 years ago.
Anyway, I’ve got a few resources for you in case you want to explore this further. To begin with, I recommend a look at my earlier post on this matter:
As you have surely heard, the Yellowstone Caldera … the place where Old Faithful and the Geyser Basin reside … has been undergoing increased “activity” including some earthquakes and a rising up of the land. Is this a big problem? Should the evacuate? Should those of us living only a few states away start wearing earplugs?
My sister, Elizabeth, publishes a newspaper in the vicinity of Yellowstone and they’ve got a very comprehensive piece on he caldera. In fact, my sister’s nickname is Caldera Girl. So she really knows her Calderas.
Tracking Changes in Yellowstone’s Restless Volcanic System
…Since the 1970s, scientists have tracked rapid uplift and subsidence of the ground and significant changes in hydrothermal features and earthquake activity. In 2001, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the University of Utah, and Yellowstone National Park to strengthen scientists’ ability to track activity that could result in hazardous seismic, hydrothermal, or volcanic events in the region…
Finally, we’ve got this somewhat hokey but still fun to watch movie of how we are all totally doomed (h/t Caldera Girl).
The good news is, if this sucker blows, global warming is not going to be a problem.
I am personally keeping close watch on the seismic activity in the area and if I see anything ominous I’ll let you know. As soon as I finish packing and driving about 2,000 miles to the south of here.
The Yellowstone Problem
As you have surely heard, the Yellowstone Caldera … the place where Old Faithful and the Geyser Basin reside … has been undergoing increased “activity” including some earthquakes and a rising up of the land. Is this a big problem? Should the evacuate? Should those of us living only a few states away start wearing earplugs?
The paper reporting this, in the current issue of Science, concludes:
The caldera-wide accelerated uplift reported here is interpreted as magmatic recharge of the Yellowstone magma body. Although the geodetic observations and models do not imply an impending volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion, they are important evidence of ongoing processes of a large caldera that was produced by a super volcano eruption.
A little vague. I’m pretty sure, from my reading of this paper, that there is not a major imminent danger. But it is interesting to contemplate the magnitude of these things.
This volcano, the volcano we affectionately know as “Yellowstone National Park” (the caldera takes up something like a third of the park area, and is entirely enclosed within it) last erupted in a big way about 600,000 years ago. That was the third in a series of “giant eruptions.” Subsequently, there were several smaller volcanic eruptions, the most recent being about 70,000 years ago.A caldera is a hole left behind when a very large and explosive volcano blows everything out more or less at once. As calderas go, Yellowstone is on the list of the largest known. Here is a rough outline of the Yellowstone Caldera very approximately superimposed over New York City:
Here is a little historical perspective, a list of exenmlar volcanic eruptions of this type (leaving a big caldera, ejecting lots of stuff).
- Tambora, Indonesia
- 192 years ago, a mere 30 or 40 square km in area, ejected about 100 cubic km of stuff.
- (About ten other similar sized eruptions have happened during the last 10,000 years, Tambora possibly being the largest.)
- Toba, Sumatra
- 71,000 years ago, about 3,500 square km in area, ejected about 2800 cubic km.
- Yellowstone
- 600,000 years ago about 4,000 square km in area, about 1,000 cubic km ejected.
- La Garita, Colorado
- 28,000,000 years ago, about 2,600 square km in area, about 5,000 cubic km ejected (possibly the largest volume of any known volcano)
- So, as you can see, the Yellowstone Volcano was a doozie. Comparatively speaking._______________Source:
Chang, W., Smith, RB., Wicks, C. et al.. (2007). Accelerated uplift and magmatic intrusion of the yellowstone caldera, 2004 to 2006.. Science 318, 952-956.