Interesting... See the list of quakes here: http://www.quake.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html
This looks exactly like what Reno had less than a year ago... I think they called it and eq 'swarm'... Literally hundreds of small eqs per day, with the largest being between 4 and ~4.6; large enough to rock the house pretty good, which is about 5 to 7 miles (as the crow flies) SEast of where the swarm was centered (Verdi/Mogul, Nevada). It was highly unusual that so many eqs occur is such a limited area, perhaps a few sq.km. is all... And the vast majority were quite shallow as well, less than a few km... It occurred over the course of a few weeks and then died out... -Mark -----Original Message----- From: Jones Beene [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:32 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Vo]:Predictions for 2009 The possibility of a supervolcano at Yellowstone may not really be on the time-table for 2009 - but perhaps some high level group should start to prepare for it anyway... (as if the New-Admin did not have enough problems to face already... however, this one puts the economic crisis to shame.) Why should anyone be concerned about a few hundred smallish earthquakes out there in the wilderness? In a word: "Toba" The Toba catastrophe theory, which is strongly backed by DNA statistics, suggests that a bottleneck in human population occurred 70,000 years ago, proposing that the human population was reduced to about 15,000 individuals or less, scattered into only a few population centers. The theory has many adherents in the science community because DNA analysis is so strong and predictable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory Imagine the closeness of this very close-call - intelligent life on this planet came ever so close to total extinction - NOT happening at all! Some experts say that the "bottleneck" pushed populations back to as few as 5,000 scattered to three of four locations... not that 15,000 is all that much easier to digest. The Toba supervolcano was in Sumatra, Indonesia, site of many modern catstrophes and large volcanos, not to mention the "giant rat". When it erupted at that fairly "recent" time - it triggered unimagineable environmental change, exacerbating the ice age perhaps. It was thousands of times more powerful than Mt St Helens, by comparison. The Toba theory is also based on this preserved geological evidences, but the evidences in genes (including mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome and nuclear genes) and the relatively low level of genetic variation with humans is very convincing. The gist of it all is that we are all very "inbred" already and that is why we can pinpoint a single "eve" even though her ancestors went back at least 2 million years- nevertheless, her mitochondrial DNA is shared by all the women in the world today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve Yikes... and this supervolcano is what's in store assuming we do not suffer a prior catastrophic arctic methane release.... Makes you realize that there is a good reason for the apparent scarcity of intellignet life across the Universe.... Jones No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1873 - Release Date: 1/3/2009 2:14 PM No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1873 - Release Date: 1/3/2009 2:14 PM
