This implies a recurrence interval on the order of one strong earthquake per several thousand years. Studies of the geology of the region indicate that there have been at least three strong earthquakes on the fault in the past 15,000 years. ![]() And guess what happened to Yellowstone volcano after the M7.3 earthquake? It didn't erupt! The only impacts were some changes in hot springs and geysers due to the shaking.ġ959 was not the first time an earthquake occurred on the Hebgen Lake fault. In a nuclear attack, the detonation would occur above ground, so the majority of the energy would be released into the air. What's more, this earthquake occurred not above, but next to Yellowstone's largely solid magma body, so most of the earthquake's energy was transmitted directly into the rock. The Hebgen Lake earthquake released more energy than a 2-megaton nuclear weapon-100 times larger than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945, and equivalent to an "average" hydrogen bomb. The largest earthquake recorded in the region is the M7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquake, which occurred on the western boundary of the park at a depth of about 10 km (6 mi). For instance, in 1975 a M6.1 quake struck the area near Norris Geyser Basin. The Yellowstone region is not immune to large earthquakes, as most readers know. ![]() For reference, the strongest nuclear test ever was a 50-megaton explosion conducted by the Soviet Union in 1961. For example, the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, which are above magnitude 9 (like the 2011 Tohoku, Japan, earthquake), release the energy of nearly a 2000-megaton nuclear weapon. How do we know? It's because this experiment has already been tried.Įarthquakes release a tremendous amount of energy, which can be expressed in terms of the equivalent size of explosive. You see, unlike science fiction stories, in which nuclear weapons seem to be the cause of, and solution to, many geological catastrophes, science fact tells us that you aren't likely to trigger a Yellowstone cataclysm with a nuclear weapon. ![]() Plot is from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology. Graph showing the average annual occurrence and equivalent energy release for earthquakes of different magnitudes.
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