Tremors Felt in Yellowstone

[Wednesday, January 9, 2008] OK, so it wasn’t exactly something that shook the plates from the wall.

Still, it was enough to be measured and noticed by many in Yellowstone National Park, especially in the northwestern corner of the Park: a magnitude 3.7 earthquake was registered at 2:37 p.m. by the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. Now, as far as earthquakes go , this was a very minor one, more like Pooh’s rumblings in his tumbly than the apocalyptic end-of-the-world eruption that many are expecting in their lifetime.

In fact, according to the measure invented by Charles F. Richter — the Richter scale — yesterday’s earthquake is decidedly a minor one. There are over 30,000 such earthquakes around the world annually, and there were no reports of actual damage to any property in the Park or the region. For locals, the minor earthquake — which came after lots of rumblings in his tumbly in the previous week — was yet another reminder of the power beneath Yellowstone National Park, the seismic equivalent of a burp.