Researchers at the University of Western Ontario have uncovered over 86,000 earthquakes moving in chaotic swarms through rough, young fault lines beneath Yellowstone.<\/p>\n
The findings are significantly higher than the previously known number of earthquakes in the area. The study<\/a> appears in the journal Science Advances.<\/p>\n \u201cWith these new insights, we\u2019re getting closer to decoding Earth\u2019s volcanic heartbeat and improving how we predict and manage volcanic and geothermal hazards,\u201d the authors write in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Researchers used a machine learning algorithm to process and identify earthquake signals within 15 years of seismic data from the Yellowstone caldera, which was formed by a volcanic eruption more than 630,000 years ago.<\/p>\n Previously, researchers manually inspected earthquake data\u2014a process that was both expensive and time-consuming. By automating the detection and classification of seismic events, machine learning allowed the Western team to uncover many more earthquakes in the dataset, revealing ten times more seismic activity than previously known.<\/p>\n That brings the historical catalogue for the Yellowstone caldera up to 86,276 earthquakes between 2008 and 2022 and paints a much clearer picture of what\u2019s going on beneath the surface, researchers say.<\/p>\n