Images

Webicorders of Yellowstone Seismic Network stations YMR (West Entrance road) and YNM (Norris Geyser Basin Museum) showing traffic signals (left) and visitors walking (right) during daytime hours.  Both records span the entire 24-hour period of July 23, 2024, MDT. 

High-resolution Planet satellite image of Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park, from July 21, 2024.  This work utilized data made available through the NASA Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program.  Data are copyright, Planet Labs Inc. 2024, all rights reserved.
 

Map of major thermal features in Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park.  Base map from Google Earth

Comparison of February-June 2024 seismicity to previous seismic swarms (1987-2004). Upper left: Map of Mount St. Helens with a grayscale representing a digital elevation model. Earthquakes interpreted as recharge between 1987 and 2004 are plotted as a heatmap of earthquake density.

From February 1 to June 17, 2024, approximately 350 earthquakes were located at Mount St. Helens by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Over 95% of the earthquakes were less than a magnitude 1.0 and too small to be felt at the surface. The number of earthquakes located per week appears to have reached a peak in early June, at 38 events per week. USGS graphic.

Earthquakes located at Mount St. Helens from 2008-2024, a non-eruptive period. This activity is consistent with normal, background levels. Top: Earthquake events located per week. The orange color at the far right denotes earthquakes from February to June 2024. Bottom: Earthquake depths below sea level (bsl) in kilometers.

Aerial photo of Mount St. Helens (center), with Mount Hood (in the distance, far left), Spirit Lake (on left with floating log mat), and St. Helens Lake with a little ice cover (lower left). USGS image taken by K. Spicer on June 6, 2024. 

This animation shows a map of of Yellowstone seismicity by year from 2017 through 2023.  Earthquakes are red circles, with the circle size indicating earthquake magnitude.  Gray lines are roads, black dashed line shows the caldera boundary, Yellowstone National Park is outlined by black dot-dashed line, and gray dashed lines denote state boundaries.

Front cover of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory 2023 annual report, which includes a summary of earthquake, deformation, and geyser activity, as well as research investigations and other information. The report is freely available online athttps://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/cir1524.

Infographic giving earthquake, deformation, thermal emission, and geyser statistics for the Yellowstone region for the year 2023.  The graphic accompanies the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory 2023 annual report, freely available online athttps://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/cir1524.

Site of April 15, 2024, hydrothermal explosion on Porcelain Terrace, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.  The small crater and disrupted ground are in silica sinter deposits that formed in the past two years, since water has been flowing from the terrace into Nuphar Lake (off photo to right), and angular fragments of ejecta on top of the sinter are

View of the vibrant, multicolored extremophilic bacteria in the outflow from Grand Prismatic Spring at the Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Elizabeth Mordensky, May 12, 2024.

Microscopic view of different groundmass textures in rocks. On the left, this groundmass is a good choice for argon dating, as it consists of abundant interconnected crystals. On the right, the groundmass consists predominantly of glass (black because it does not transmit cross-polarized light) and is a poor choice for argon dating.

Map of the Sawtooth fault, Idaho, based on new lidar topographic maps. Map by Zach Lifton, Idaho Geological Survey, 2024.

Photos of flow breccia in Central Plateau Member rhyolites in Yellowstone National Park. A) Flow breccia observed in a drill core from the Lower Geyser Basin. The angular, light-colored clasts are fragments of the original lava carapace, broken and incorporated into the flow as it advanced. B) Flow breccia exposed in a road cut along Firehole Canyon Drive.

A mass spectrometer is used to measure the ratio of atoms with different masses—in this case, the different isotopes of argon gas, which can be used to determine the age of a volcanic rock. Left: a side view of a mass spectrometer at the USGS Argon Geochronology Laboratory in Moffett Field, CA. Right: a close-up view of the sample chamber in this mass spectrometer.

Total electron content (TEC) data—a measure of activity in the ionosphere—at three GPS stations in Yellowstone. Each line color is a measurement using a different satellite passing overhead. Note how the data are steady until the evening of May 10, 2024, when the signals start to fluctuate wildly due to the arrival of the Coronal Mass Ejection.

Photos of Central Plateau Member rhyolite flow structures from the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field. A) An ogive from a road cut along Firehole Lake Drive. Ogives are pressure ridges that form perpendicular to the direction of flow from the compressive stresses that deform the highly viscous lava as it moves.

Rhyolite lava flow textures from Long Valley and Yellowstone calderas.  A) Photograph of well-developed spherulites in a lava flow from Long Valley Caldera in Eastern California. This high-silica rhyolite flow is very similar to the Central Plateau Member rhyolites of the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field and exhibits many of the same textures.

Seismic and infrasound data for the April 15, 2024, hydrothermal explosion on Porcelain Terrace at Norris Geyser Basin.  Top plot is seismic data from the YNM station, located at the Norris Geyser Basin Museum.  Middle plot is seismic data from station YNB, in the Ragged Hills of Norris Geyser Basin. Bottom plot is infrasound data from station YNB.&nb

Table showing different types of geochronology techniques, the ages over which those techniques are best applied, and the meaning of the ages determined by the techniques.