Biscuit Basin Update; 65th Anniv. - M7.3 Hebgen Lake Quake (Yellowstone Monthly Update - Aug 2024)

[@lannebromwell]

We lost friends, a family of four, in the quake that night in 1959. So this brought back some feelings for me. This loss caused us to postpone our own trip there until two years later. Since then I've returned several times and each time things change. The only real constant in the Yellowstone country...

[@corey6393]

A good friend and former employer of mine was camped nearby with his family that fateful night. Though they were safe, his father and brothers went to help anyway they could. He has told me many stories of what happened there, and I have visited the area several times. A fascinating and haunting place.

[@vapormissile]

I camped there when I was little, probably early 70s. It was pretty perfect. Nature heals fast. ❤

[@corey6393]

@@vapormissile I chaperoned my daughter's 8th grade Yellowstone camping trip several years back. We spent several nights at a nice little campground just East of the lake. You could still see the escarpment from the quake 60 years later.

[@carlaeskelsen]

😔❤️‍🩹

[@blaskoxx4954]

64 years ago - how old were you? Where they actually YOUR friends or people your parents knew. You postpone a trip for 2 years at what age?

[@debvoz]

My parents were camping at Yellowstone and left the campground that was destroyed the day before the quake. They didn't learn about it until they got home and saw the news.

[@John-vn8vw]

Thanks Mike. Always look for your reports on the first of the month. Thank you for making this subject interesting and easy to understand. You and your team are the best.

[@allengreg5447]

I was an infant when that happened. My parents lived next door to a young couple. They said they were going camping in Yellowstone and never returned. My parents had no idea which campground they had gone to, so they figured, at first, that the odds were slim that they were at that one. As the weeks passed, they got worried and told the police about the vacant house, next door, and the very nice couple who had lived there. They police contacted some of their relatives who said that had always been one of their favorite campgrounds. R.I.P. Nice young couple.

[@TheLolbster]

Thanks USGS! You guys rock!

[@lazygardens]

I remember that quake. We were in a drive-in in Hamilton, my brother and I sitting next to the car, and ALL the cars started rocking. Silent, but rocking.

[@Notrees-q3g]

My grandparents on both sides of my family were living in Anaconda MT when that happened, and my dad was 10 years old. They felt it.

[@annamarie9858]

Thanks for the update! We visited 7/13-7/15 and the park was as beautiful as ever. Sadly, we missed Steamboat erupting by 6 hours…so I’ll consider it a send off. 😂

[@icare7151]

Great Science update. The Earth is living and breathing. Always wear your safety glasses 🥽 and hard hats 👷 when visiting active areas of Yellowstone National Park.

[@RissaFirecat]

This is good. We need more info about this.

[@kymkauffman5000]

Thank you. I enjoyed hearing about how the lake came to be.

[@mauriceplayford7876]

Great information. I appreciate your post. Amazing information on Madison Lake.

[@MarkRenn]

I would love to see a sort of cutaway diagram of the underground structure that contributes to Biscuit Basin. Do we know what it looks like under there?

[@usgs]

We don't have a specific view of the Biscuit Basin area yet, but seismometers have been deployed to the region now to collect the data needed to develop that sort of image. We do have examples of how those data have been used to map out the plumbing of Old Faithful and Steamboat Geyser in past editions of our weekly "Caldera Chronicles" articles: www.usgs.gov/news/a-new-view-old-faithfuls-underground-plumbing-system www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/complex-plumbing-systems-steamboat-geyser-and-cistern-spring

[@emom358]

​@@usgssadly both are bad links

[@Sally4th_]

@@emom358 the closing braces are getting included in the links for some reason. Copy/paste and delete that and they work fine, HTH :)

[@usgs]

@@emom358 Sorry about that. For some reason, the ending parenthesis was added to the link! Here are the two articles (also corrected above): www.usgs.gov/news/a-new-view-old-faithfuls-underground-plumbing-system www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/complex-plumbing-systems-steamboat-geyser-and-cistern-spring

[@timroot4207]

Thank you !!!

[@johncamp2567]

The timing of your video is ironic, given the landslide and daming of the Chilcotin River in British Columbia this week.

[@usgs]

These landslide-dammed lakes can be extremely hazardous. The Gros Ventre landslide in Wyoming in 1925 and, two years later, the ensuring outburst flood, are good examples of the hazard. Hoping that people along the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers will not be impacted by this event.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

thanks for the update!

[@baystated]

The old tree trunks certainly last a long time in the lake water.

[@usgs]

You can find similar, although even older, "ghost forests" along the PNW coast (wa100.dnr.wa.gov/willapa-hills/copalis-ghost-forest). They formed in the year 1700 when the land subsided as a result of the most recent great Cascadia earthquake, and the trees were buried by sediment that flooded the area.

[@Pottery4Life]

Thank you, Mike. Has an estimate as to how many meters below the surface the main area of pressure was prior to the eruption at Biscuit Basin? Or estimated volume? I would really like to see/read a deeper dive into the dynamics of the pressure release of such a system. - Mark

[@usgs]

No volume as yet But the depth has to be less than 175 feet, since that is the depth to bedrock beneath Biscuit Basin, and there was no bedrock found in the explosion debris.

[@Pottery4Life]

@@usgs Thank you.

[@alanchristiansen6314]

Thanks for the monthly updates!

[@stewmatter2287]

I met the son of the parents whose tent was squished by a boulder

[@shotgun3363]

Thanks for the update! For the 9 years that we worked in YNP the beautiful route past Earth Quake Lake was a favorite. Bighorn Sheep and eagles were often seen and the elk herds along the Madison River onto Virginia City were a site to behold. That drop into the river valley while towing made me very happy to have an exhaust brake!

[@dave_h_8742]

Presuming the bodies were not recovered and are still there under all that rock and soil 😢

[@usgs]

Some were recovered, but you're correct that most were not.

[@YTGamenerd]

Had no idea about the Hebgen Lake Quake, thanks!!

[@stanfullerton8485]

Was 3 ys old with my parents camping in Gallatin Canyon. I can remember a ranger; (even @ 3) on the highway stopping traffic.

[@gailgreen5012]

So interesting. Thank you for the clear explanation.

[@rocbolt]

Just got a new lake up in BC day before last, just landslide no quake afaik

[@garynorris4648]

Superb

[@Janika1982]

Nice video,thank you!👌

[@c0rr4nh0rn]

Can you cover fan and morter logging data at some point?

[@usgs]

We (USGS) don't have loggers in Fan and Mortar, but perhaps the NPS geology crew in Yellowstone might be tracking those?

[@Ramo0781]

😂to many coins tossed in...

[@katharinecarmichael7759]

They really need to Start telling the Truth! & Stop Hiding things, from the Public.

[@usgs]

Of course we tell the truth. Doing otherwise would be dishonest and immoral. We're just people, like you, who happen to be geologists. We're not some villainous evildoers. And we're happy to be held accountable for everything we say and do. If there were something alarming going on at Yellowstone, that couldn't be "hidden" anyway. The thousands of people who live in and around the work would literally feel, see, and smell the changes that would be happening. And every geologist in the world would be screaming about it. Including us.

[@devilskitty5032]

well...yellowstone is actually overdue or am I wrong? If all of this goes up then it's the end of the road for humanity... good for the planet, maybe evolution will do something better.

[@usgs]

It's not actually "overdue," although that is probably the most enduring misconception about Yellowstone. Volcanoes are never really "due" -- they erupt when there is enough molten material beneath the surface to feed an eruption, and pressure to get that magma up to the surface. Neither condition is true at Yellowstone right now -- in fact, the magma chamber is mostly solid (we know this from seismic imaging). More on the "overdue" myth at www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/overdue-can-apply-library-books-bills-and-oil-changes-it-does-not-apply