Cars  Auto
Financing  Event
Tickets  Jobs  Real
Estate  Online Degrees  Credit
Card Offers Shopping

Search

How do I find
it?

Subscribe to
paper

Home

News

Travel

Money

Sports

Life

Tech

Weather

Technology »

Science &
Space

Shop
for Gadgets

E-mail features

What's
this?

E-mail
newsletters
Sign up to receive
our free Tech e-newsletter and get the top news of the day in your
inbox.

E-mail

Select one:
HTML Text

Breaking news E-mail alerts

Get breaking news in your inbox
as it happens

Tsunami linked to Yellowstone
crater

Posted

| Comment  | Recommend

E-mail
| Save
| Print
|

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Tsunami-like
waves created by an earthquake may have triggered the world's largest
known hydrothermal explosion some 13,000 years ago, a federal scientist
says.

The explosion created the Mary Bay crater that
stretches more than one mile across along the north edge of Yellowstone
Lake. Debris from the explosion has been found miles away.

Lisa Morgan of the U.S. Geological Survey told a
gathering of scientists over the weekend at Mammoth Hot Springs that an
earthquake may have displaced more than 77 million cubic feet of water in
Yellowstone Lake, creating huge waves that essentially unsealed a capped
geothermal system.

Though much has been made in recent years of a
possible eruption of Yellowstone's "super volcano," geologists studying
the park have long said that the likelihood is greater for a large
hydrothermal explosion.

Morgan said that over the last 14,000 years there
have been 20 hydrothermal explosions in Yellowstone that mostly left
craters bigger than football fields. They resulted in well-known
Yellowstone landmarks such as Mary Bay, Turbid Lake and Indian Pond, all
near the north edge of Yellowstone Lake.

The explosions happen when hot water just below the
surface flashes into steam and breaks through the surface.

Smaller explosions in Yellowstone happen about once
every two years but rarely when people are around or in danger, according
to a 2007 hazard assessment produced by USGS.

In 1989, an explosion at Porkchop geyser at Norris
Geyser Basin sent rocks and debris flying more than 200 feet.

But geologists are still trying to better understand
the larger explosions that happen about once every 700 years in
Yellowstone and have left behind the biggest hydrothermal explosion
craters in the world.

At Mary Bay, Morgan said she thinks there were at
least two big waves before the explosion. Evidence of those waves has been
found more than 3 miles north of the lake's edge, she said.

The explosion's column may have reached more than a
mile in the air and spread debris across some 18 square miles, she
said.

"You would not want to be here when this occurred,"
Morgan said.

Predicting if or when another will happen remains
difficult but it's worthy of continued study, scientists involved with
Yellowstone's geology said.

"It's something we should take notice of," Morgan
said.

Copyright 2008 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Posted

E-mail
| Save
| Print
|

To report corrections and
clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent
Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send
comments to [email-masked]. Include
name, phone number, city and state for
verification.

Conversation guidelines:
USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related
to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep
the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.

Newspaper
Home Delivery - Subscribe Today

Home
• News • Travel
• Money • Sports • Life
• Tech
• Weather

About USATODAY.com: Site
Map | FAQ
| Contact
Us | Jobs
with Us | Terms of
Service
Privacy
Policy/Your California Privacy Right | Media
Kit | Media
Lounge | Press
Room | Reprints
and Permissions

News
Your Way:   Mobile News
|   Email News
|   Add
USATODAY.com RSS feeds |   Podcasts
|    Widgets

Partners:
USA WEEKEND
| Sports
Weekly | Education
| Space.com

Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a
division of Gannett Co.
Inc.