Yellowstone Explained: New Imaging Helps Understand Old Faithful, the Deep Energy Driving Yellowstone and My Antarctic Adventures

June 28th  (Tuesday), 6 p.m., Via Zoom (online) & Live at Teton County Library. Open to Public.
Presentation: “Yellowstone Explained: New Imaging Helps Understand Old Faithful, the Deep Energy Driving Yellowstone and My Antarctic Adventures”
Presented by Bob Smith, University of Utah

Bob Smith began his Yellowstone research in 1956. His University of Utah research group has monitored Yellowstone since 1983 and continues conducting earthquake, crustal structure, and GPS studies as well as continuous real-time monitoring of the world’s largest volcano and its tallest geyser, Steamboat.  Moreover, we have conducted detailed seismic, GPS and geologic studies of the anatomy of Old Faithful the world renown and iconic Yellowstone geyser to determine its 4D structure, dynamic plumbing, and eruption properties.  These studies reveal that Old Faithful is located at the top of a large hydrothermal reservoir only 10 to 60 m deep that is composed of highly fractured rock, hot water and steam located west of the geyser and extending a km beneath the Old Faithful Lodge and other infrastructure.  We discovered that Old Faithful eruptions do not have a notable seismic signal but large precursory harmonic tremors every 95 minutes prior to the eruption and from which we can now predict within seconds. I will also show the initial results from seismic imaging of Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest geyser and of the northern Yellowstone Lake hydrothermal system. Moreover, I will show how Yellowstone’s immense volcanic system is part of a giant, Earth’s mantle-convection magma originating 1800 miles deep creating a plume of partly molten rock rising upward beneath the North American continent which then intrudes the lithosphere and fuels two crustal magma reservoirs as shallow as 2-3 miles beneath Old Faithful and other geyser systems. 

Seismic images of the two shallow, 5 to 150 m deep hydrothermal reservoirs fueling Old Faithful and Cistern Pool

Topic:  Yellowstone Explained
Time: June 28th, 2022 06:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

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