Month: October 2016

1975 – Yellowstone National Park, WY – M 6.1

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Intermountain Seismic Belt Historical Earthquake Project

June 30, 1975 – Yellowstone National Park, WY – M 6.1

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This earthquake was located approximately 5 miles ESE of Norris Junction, in Yellowstone National Park. According to newspaper accounts, no casualties resulted from the earthquake and damage was minor. Near the epicenter, telephone service was temporarily knocked out. The earthquake also dislodged boulders that temporarily blocked a road between Norris and Madison Junction – however, campgrounds and park facilities remained open.

A park service employee reported, “There wasn’t any noise; no dishes rattled. There was just a gentle rolling of the floor.”

The earthquake shook buildings and rattled windows 200 miles away from the epicenter, and was reported felt both in Great Falls and Billings, Montana. The total felt area of the earthquake was 50,000 square kilometers.

A significant aftershock (magnitude 5.5) occurred just over 17 months later on December 8, 1976, approximately 5 miles W of Norris Junction. This earthquake was the largest since the June 30, 1975 main shock, and was felt over an area of 5,000 square kilometers.

Park officials noted that the aftershock shook buildings, but no damage was reported. One park official believed that damage to the terrain would likely be limited to rockslides. The earthquake occurred after the close of the summer tourist season – the park service received no inquiries about the earthquake from individuals inside park boundaries.

 

For additional information about this earthquake:

Earthquake Summary 3D Newspaper Articles 3D Additional Resources 3D Blank Thumbnail

For more information about this project:

ISB Hist EQ Proj

 

UUSS Welcomes Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dr. Hao Zhang

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Dr. Hao Zhang recently joined the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Earthquake Seismology. He comes to Utah from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University where he was a postdoctoral researcher.

Dr. Zhang received both his B.S. and Ph.D. in Geophysics from Peking University. His doctoral dissertation was titled, “Imaging the Rupture Processes of Earthquakes Using the Relative Backprojection Method”.

Some of his research accomplishments include:

  • Rapidly resolving rupture processes of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal earthquake and its Mw 7.3 aftershock using a multi-array back-projection method.
  • Relocating a scattering source in the Lake Superior region.
  • Detecting microseismic events and performing cluster analyses in the south Chicago suburban region.
  • Studying the crustal structure in the Middle Continent Rift System using P-wave receiver functions.
  • Investigating the topography of the 410 km discontinuity in the Java subduction zone using 3-D pre-stacked Kirchhoff migration.

Dr. Zhang will work with UUSS faculty, staff, and students on problems of earthquake detection, location, and characterization in the Intermountain West.

Kristine Pankow (Associate Director, UUSS) says, “We are excited to have Hao join our research team here at UUSS. He brings valuable skills that will help us move our research forward.”