Is the Yellowstone super volcano about to blow and wipe out the United States?
Professor Bill Phillips uses computer software to track a cluster of small earthqaukes in the Challis, Idaho, area. Phillips said the earthquakes began in March.
Probably not, according to Bill Phillips, a research geologist at the University of Idaho. Regardless, Idaho has been the target location of hundreds of small earthquakes in the past couple of weeks near the small town of Challis. Phillips said the quakes garnered a small amount of national media attention due to their relativity to the super volcano that is Yellowstone, as well as significantly large nearby faults. The quakes seem to be dying down, however, and Moscow residents shouldn’t start moving away quite yet, Phillips said, as the Northern Idaho area isn’t of much concern.
“People think, and we can’t tell that this is not true, that maybe these are foreshocks of a much larger earthquake,” Phillips said. “It’s pretty close to Yellowstone, so that has people wondering if there is some sort of connection, but I don’t see that as very likely.”
With Yellowstone not being an immediate concern, he said the small earthquakes are not a threat for most Idahoans.
“We have these things called swarms, like insect swarms,” Phillips said. “They are earthquakes occurring randomly around the same spot, or almost randomly. The swarm is what’s unusual.”
Being somewhat isolated incidents, the concern is more in the immediate area where the quakes are occurring.
“It’s been a little unsettling for the people who live there,” Phillips said. “The earthquakes are generally being called the ‘Challis Swarm.'”
The largest of the swarm occurred near Challis on April 12. According to Phillips, it was a 4.9 on the Richter scale. While this isn’t particularly large, it could be indicative of larger earthquakes to come, Phillips said.
On an Internet application called “Did you feel it?” anyone can report whether they feel an earthquake in a certain area. On the day of the April 12 quake, 104 people went to the site to report they had felt it.
However, as a 4.9 is still a fairly small earthquake, Phillips stressed that the concern is more about the frequency of the recent quakes than the scale of the April 12 quake.
The earthquake was one of the largest in Idaho since 1983. This means the earthquake was significant for our area, but nationally, the concern comes from the possible foreshadowing, as opposed to the quake itself.
So when is the big one coming? That’s another story, Phillips said, who handles most questions for the university involving geological hazards. He said the bottom line is that the people of Moscow need not worry — at least not yet.
Karter Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]
