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America's Heartland rocked by earthquake felt in several US states

3 min read

There was concern raised last night that its supervolcano is showing signs of activity.

The broadcast will air on Tuesday at 8pm Eastern Time.

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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported three aftershocks with magnitudes ranging from 1.0 to 3.7 over just a few hours following the initial earthquake.

The last one erupted 70,000 years ago, leading some experts to believe it has become overdue.

But the USGS

The Norris Geyser Basin is situated at the convergence of two faults that slide past each other, triggering unpredictable earthquakes.

The most significant quake to affect the area was a magnitude 6 in 1975, but the USGS stated that there was slight destruction, no casualties, and no volcanic eruption.

Yellowstone National Park is situated in the northwestern part of Wyoming and is a site spanning numerous geysers, steam outlets, and pools of bubbling water.

The park covers a vast area of 3,472 square miles, surpassing the combined size of the states of Rhode Island and Delaware.

The majority of the land is located in Wyoming, but a portion of the park also extends into Montana and Idaho.

Norris Geyser Basin is situated at the northwestern extremity of Wyoming.

Multiple people filed shaking reports to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) following the early Wednesday morning earthquake.

But the United States Geological Survey shows shakes were experienced in three states, captured by seismic instruments.

Researchers have detected movement at the top of a volcano this month, raising concerns that the dormant volcano may be on the verge of eruption.

Mount Ontake is able to produce a massive magnitude 8 eruption.

Scientists investigating the crater, or caldera, of the supervolcano have discovered that magma inside is moving northeast, causing a shift in the concentration of volcanic activity as it migrates.

It means if the volcano were to erupt, it would happen in this area rather than the western region, as indicated by previous warnings.

The Yellowstone Caldera is a 1,350-square-mile crater located in the western-central part of the park that formed after a massive volcanic eruption took place hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The team discovered that a large portion of this magma is stored in separate underground storage tanks, effectively preventing it from becoming sufficiently concentrated to trigger an eruption.

According to researchers, an explosion in the northeastern region could occur as a result of the shift, but their studies indicate that the supervolcano is unlikely to erupt within a personal lifetime.

"No areas in Yellowstone are capable of erupting," said the lead researcher, Ninfa Bennington, a geophysicist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

'It has a significant amount of molten rock, yet the molten rock is not cohesive.'

If the supervolcano exploded in one massive eruption, some have suggested that the outburst could be equivalent to 875,000 megatons of TNT (million tons).

To put this in context, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, the Soviet Tsar Bomba, was 50 megatons, which is less than one ten-thousandth of the explosive potential in question, and yet the damage caused by the Bomba was reported to reach as far as several hundred miles, with significant damage to buildings and infrastructure reported in windows hundreds of miles away.

They estimate that thousands of people could be killed by the shockwaves from a massive eruption of the caldera, while a thick layer of ash could blanket much of North America, reaching as high as a foot deep.

Ash from these serial eruptions would cover fields, knock down electric cables and cause buildings to collapse, with the so-called "drifts" of ash making it difficult for rescuers to operate, according to Michael Poland, Scientist-in-Charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

Places nearer to the volcanic eruption will be blanketed with more than 90 centimeters of ash – encompassing Salt Lake City, Utah; Boise, Idaho; and Missoula, Montana, he said.

The massive ash and sulfur clouds from the blast would cause a prolonged period of cooler global temperatures, lasting anywhere from a few years to several decades, significantly affecting agriculture in the Western Hemisphere and worldwide.

"That size of eruption would certainly have significant effects on the climate," said Poland.

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