FILE: Castle Geyser erupting in Yellowstone National Park. Photo courtesy - Getty Images
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — With the opening of Yellowstone Park, 15 temporary GPS stations to monitor ground deformation have been installed across the Park that help detect earthquakes. These are installed every summer and then picked up every year before winter sets in the USGS said.
The University of Utah Seismograph Stations, which are responsible for the operation and analysis of the Yellowstone Seismic Network, identified 288 earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region, in the month of May 2020. The largest was an earthquake of magnitude 3.1 located 5 miles west of Norris Junction in Yellowstone National Park. This happened on May 29 at 4:39 AM MDT.
Over 3 days in May, the USGS detected more than 80 quakes in the area ranging in magnitude from -0.6 to 2.0.
These earthquakes are very common and bursts like that account for approximately 50% of the total seismicity in the Yellowstone region the USGS says.
Despite seeming like a lot of activity these incidents are considered typical.
The USGS also reports that the tallest active geyser in the world, Steamboat, continues to be active, with five water eruptions in May bringing the total number of eruptions for the year to 17.
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory is one of the five USGS observatories that monitor volcanoes within the United States for science and public safety.