Yellowstone Quakes Spark Volcano Fears

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2009 2:25 PM CST
Yellowstone Quakes Spark Volcano Fears
The Old Faithful geyser.   (AP Photo)

The recent rash of earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park has geologists intrigued but unworried; that’s not the case with online doomsayers who think the park's volcano is getting ready to blow, the AP reports. About 900 quakes, most undetectable by humans, hit in the week following Christmas. “Something is brewing,” went a post on the aptly named Armageddononline.org, “especially considering that Yellowstone is over 40,000 years overdue for a major eruption.”

More disturbing was an evacuation warning “because of the danger in poisonous gasses that can escape,” posted on a site that erroneously bore the US Geological Survey logo. The earthquake “swarm” is the most energetic in 20 years, and scientists won’t know the cause for months. But “it would be surprising to see an eruption the next 100 years,” one geologist said.
(More Yellowstone National Park stories.)

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