YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — This October, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) camera failed in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and cannot be revived.
According to a Nov. 18 post by YVO Scientist in Charge Michael Poland and Volcano Hazards Program Director of Volcano Disaster Assistance Program Jacob B. Lowenstern, this single camera had a view of Yellowstone Lake from a cell tower between Lake Village and Fishing Bridge. While this was YVO’s only camera operated in the Park, YNP operates nine cameras as of late 2024.
YVO says that the motivation for a YVO webcam was an 11-day earthquake swarm in December 2008 to January 2009 in the north part of Yellowstone Lake. YVO writes that the swarm had over 800 located earthquakes, with 111 events greater than M2 and the largest reaching M4.1.
“The intensity of the swarm attracted a significant amount of attention from the public, and it occurred at the dawn of social media,” YVO writes. “YVO scientists found it difficult to keep up with both the science of the event and the onslaught of public interest. It was clear that people were concerned by earthquakes happening under a lake (even though earthquake swarms in that area are not particularly unusual), and misinformation started to spread about explosions and underwater eruptions.”
Because of that, YVO installed a mobile, solar-powered webcam system in 2010 at the top of Lake Butte with a view of Yellowstone Lake, near an existing seismic station where there was a strong cellular signal to provide a telemetry link. The webcam was aimed at detecting any anomalous activity and was funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and a permit granted by YNP.
At that time, the only webcams in the Park were at Mount Washburn and Old Faithful, which YVO notes were far from Yellowstone Lake.
The webcam remained at the top of Lake Butte for two years, and in 2012 the camera was moved to a hill east of Biscuit Basin in order to detect hydrothermal activity in the area, but “nothing noteworthy was every observed.”
In 2017, YVO writes that the mobile camera was retired and put into storage, and a new camera was purchased and installed on a cell tower overlooking the north part of Yellowstone Lake. And although the camera never detected any geological changes, it monitored the Brimstone Fire that burned 217 acres along the southeast part of the lake during August 2019 to September 2019.
After seven years of continuous observation, the YVO webcam’s “demise,” as YVO calls it, is providing an opportunity to consider where YVO might position a new webcam in the future.
