USGS plans sensor upgrades at Yellowstone

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – The U.S. Geological Survey has developed an ambitious, decade-long plan to improve the geological monitoring system in Yellowstone, home to one the world’s largest active volcanic systems.

The program has yet to be approved or funded. But Jake Lowenstern, a USGS geologist and head of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, said the idea is to begin talking about a better system.

“It’s our way of thinking through what sort of techniques would be useful, what we do and why, and then where do we fall short and how we might improve,” Lowenstern said.

Yellowstone already has 26 seismic stations. But there is concern that a large earthquake could so disrupt those instruments that they couldn’t accurately record the event.

Also, some of the technology is outdated – it’s analog, not digital. And the park doesn’t have a redundant system to allow important geologic data to be relayed outside the park in case of a large-scale event.

The proposal calls for upgrading the seismic sensors. In addition, more gauges would be installed to monitor streams and potentially dangerous gases. Other devices placed hundreds of feet underground would monitor groundwater, magma and shifting rocks.

Yellowstone has produced three of Earth’s largest volcanic eruptions within the last 2 million years. Whether Yellowstone could produce another major eruption has been a topic of speculation. In terms of knowing whether an eruption is going to happen, we already have a pretty good system,” Lowenstern said.

But geologists say that at least equal attention needs to be paid to hydrothermal explosions which, along with earthquakes and landslides, pose the greatest threat.