Yellowstone Experiencing More Earthquakes Than Previously Thought

There's something big happening under Yellowstone National Park. Researchers say that they have uncovered nearly 100,000 tiny earthquakes under the massive park, which will allow them to better understand exactly what is happening with the supervolcano lurking under the park.

They were able to find these new earthquake swarms thanks to advances in technology, which allowed them to track and analyze tens of thousands of smaller earthquakes nobody knew were even happening.

This information could be pivotal for researchers hoping to create an early warning system for Yellowstone's supervolcano, as well as information that could help them prepare for other disasters along different fault lines.

But, the question remains: Is the seismic activity really increasing at Yellowstone? Or has technology allowed experts to keep up with the earthquakes and underground events that have been happening all along? Keep reading to find out which is the case.

A 2025 study published in the journal Science Advances seems to indicate that the seismic activity in Yellowstone is higher than what was expected. However, it's not that the park is experiencing more earthquakes, according to experts, but instead it appears that advancements in technology, like artificial intelligence (AI), were able to detect 86,000 tiny earthquakes that weren't previously picked up by humans.

The AI system figured this out after listening to 15 years of recordings.

From there, the AI was able to plot the earthquake patterns, identifying the swarms and their locations. This allowed researchers to not only recognize patterns, but also determine that these events were caused by steam and hot water pushing through cracks in the Earth, and not caused by bubbling lava.

After analyzing all of this information, researchers say that this means that the park has a "heartbeat" of earthquake swarms that behave quite predictably.

Learning that the park has 10 times the number of earthquakes that were previously known may send a shiver down the spine of anyone living in the region, but it sounds like the experts agree that this is good information. That's because AI was able to help establish a pattern for the park, which scientists can use to establish a baseline, allowing them to see when something is changing.

According to the Daily Mail, this info can be applied in other regions as well.

Experts say they can also apply this same process to the oft-feared San Andreas fault, giving experts an opportunity to identify if the fault is getting ready to have an event before it happens, potentially giving residents in the region time to prepare.

However, that doesn't mean that anyone thinks that the fault, or Yellowstone, is getting ready to put on a big show. It's been around 640,000 years since Yellowstone's last major eruption.

It doesn't seem like experts are worried that we'll get a front row seat to another one of the supervolcano's big shows anytime soon, which is good news for the millions of Americans who would need to relocate if such a thing did happen.