Yellowstone National Park is moving

Norris Geyser Basin sinking at Yellowstone
Wikimedia Commons image

Brent Hunsaker
ABC 4 News

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyoming (ABC 4 News) - The nation's oldest park is also one of the most studied. The interest is not just in its amazing vistas and wildlife, but in the volcanic beast below the park.

Yellowstone sits atop one of the world's biggest, active volcanoes, one capable of laying waste to much of north America.

Scientists keep an eye on it using a network of seismic and GPS sensors.

Professor Emeritus Robert Smith of the University of Utah is one of those scientists. A geophysicist, Smith a leading expert on the Yellowstone super volcano. "We monitor it in real time for earthquake swarms and ground deformation."

He says the park is in constant motion. Visitors can't see it, but the ground at their feet is moving up and down as magma pushes against the thin crust and powers the park's many geysers.

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