Daily Network Monitor

The U.S. Geological Survey has outlined an ambitious - though unfunded and unapproved - road map for wiring Yellowstone over the next decade to keep better tabs on its geologic life.

Jake Lowenstern, a USGS geologist and head of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, said the plan is meant as a starting point for launching discussions about how best to monitor the park. It’s our way of thinking through what sort of techniques would be useful … what we do and why and then where do we fall short and how we might improve,” Lowenstern said.

The proposal suggests upgrades in Yellowstone’s seismic network, more gauges to monitor streams and potentially dangerous gases, Global Positioning System stations that help predict ground-splitting explosions, and even instruments hundreds of feet below the ground to monitor groundwater, magma and shifting rocks.

In the past 2 million years, Yellowstone has launched three of the largest volcanic eruptions on the planet. Another major eruption of what some have called a “supervolcano” has been the topic of much speculation in recent years.

“In terms of knowing whether an eruption is going to happen, we already have a pretty good system,” Lowenstern said.

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