According to the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, an earthquake occurred in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park area on Wednesday morning. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
According to the University of Utah, the 4.2 magnitude earthquake occurred at 8.7 miles depth just after 7:30 AM local time.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey “The Yellowstone area is one of America’s most seismically active regions.” Although the area experiences an average of 1,500-2,500 earthquakes per year, most of them are too small to be detected by humans — 99 percent of them are below magnitude 2.
The USGS does have about 50 seismographs that measure and capture earthquakes throughout the park.
The park is located on top of a supervolcano, which has the potential to cause a catastrophic eruption. According to the National Park Service, the volcano has had only three major eruptions over the past 2.1 million years. The volcano’s first eruption, which erupted ash as far as Missouri today, ejected 6,000 times more material than the 1980 eruption at Mt. NPS stated that St. Helens was the latest major eruption. The last major eruption was 631,000 years ago.
Yellowstone is a popular national park for tourists and can be found in the northwest corner Wyoming. It can also be found in neighboring Montana, Idaho.
