YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Scientist Mike Poland of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) took the opportunity to provide an overview of the park’s geologic and volcanic activity in 2022.
Poland said 2022 was a pretty average year in terms of earthquake activity with about 2,500 that occurred in the region. According to Poland, over a third of those earthquakes were part of a single, long-lived swarm that started in late July and continued into the fall near Grizzly Lake, just south of Mammoth Hot Springs. A few magnitude three earthquakes occurred, but the majority were magnitude two and below and one magnitude 4.2 on the eastern side of the park, which was the largest since 2017.
The Steamboat Geyser, the tallest active geyser in the world erupted just 11 times in 2022, which made for a relatively inactive year compared to 2020 and 2019 when it had 48 eruptions each.
As part of its 2023 new years resolutions, the YVO has a new report “Volcano and earthquake monitoring plan for the Yellowstone Caldera system, 2022–2032,” which is available for free here.
