AI Spots 86K Quakes in Yellowstone—Threat to Missouri?

The good news is what you've seen in movies about a potential eruption by the super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park would probably be worse than reality. The bad news is that it would still be a life-changing event for much of America if it happened. That's why you should know that artificial intelligence recently detected 86,000 previously-unknown earthquakes under Yellowstone and there really are consequences for Missouri.

Let's begin with the new revelation about quakes under Yellowstone. Sci Tech Daily just shared news of a study published in Science Advances. The USGS along with universities had machine learning examine 15 years of seismic activity in the Yellowstone National Park region and AI detected 86,000 previously undetected earthquakes. That's 10 times more than were previously discovered.

What would be a sign that the Yellowstone super-volcano was about to have a major eruption?

Years ago, I asked Mike Polland, the scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcanic Observatory that exact question and he said that instead of hundreds of quakes, you'd suddenly see thousands and there would be massive uplift throughout the park.

Why is this a concern for Missouri?

The USGS has shared this map showing how far ash would travel if the Yellowstone super-volcano were to erupt. Notice that much if not all of Missouri would be blanketed.

I exchanged emails with Mike and he shared with me that there is evidence being investigated by scientists in western Missouri that there is ash in the ground from the last Yellowstone eruption over 600,000 years ago.

One final thought to keep in mind before you go rushing into the doomsday shelter...

The ash map above would be the risk of a major worst-case-scenario eruption. It's possible that an eruption at Yellowstone might not be the huge one that is feared and depicted in movies. Yes, we should pay attention to seismic and geological activity in and around Yellowstone, but no, we shouldn't embrace every conspiracy theory that comes along.