Watched a killer new Smithsonian show on the Yellowstone caldera.
They said that while the thing went full-tilt kablooie (near-extinction type eruption) several times over the millennia, it has also burped (farted?) many times in between the biggee blasts. These venting episodes have been from small eruptions to the size of Mt St. Helens. Then, the caldera has gone back to sleep as if nothing happened. We are overdue but, in geologic time, we are only a few second past due. What was interesting was the caldera swells and sags constantly. That means, even though the terrain measurements show the ground is rising, is does not necessarily point towards a geothermal eruption event.
Almost 30 years ago, when I lived down in Gilbert AZ, I awoke to the mini blinds all clinking. The cats used to love waking us up by wiggling one of the blinds in our bedroom. As more and more of my brain cells started to awaken, I noticed that the mini blind noise was coming from both sides of the bedroom. It was then that I realized the whole house was moving. I jumped out of bed and yelled to my wife to get up. She stood up sound asleep and then realized what was going on: Our pool, right out side the window was sloshing 2 foot waves out either end of the pool. The whole property was moving very gently back and forth almost 3-feet (they later said). When it stopped, my pool emptied half its contents into the yard. Post event inspection revealed absolutely zero cracking anywhere in the house structure or exterior hardscape. The center of the event was in Desert Center, 130 miles west of where we were.
