Yellowstone lava domes swelling fast

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – A geologist says some parts of the continually shifting, collapsed volcano at the center of the park are swelling unusually fast.

Bob Smith, one of the leading researchers into Yellowstone’s geology, presented some of his findings at the American Geological Union meeting in San Francisco this week.

Smith and other geologists from the University of Utah are particularly interested in two subterranean lava domes deep beneath the Yellowstone caldera.

“We’ve gone to this really pronounced, and I would say unprecedented, uplift of the caldera,” he said.

Using data collected on the ground and from satellites, scientists say the Mallard Lake Dome, west of Yellowstone Lake’s West Thumb, has risen 4 centimeters a year since the middle of 2004. Meanwhile, the Sour Creek Dome north of Fishing Bridge has risen about 6 centimeters a year.

Smith said an infusion of magma may be heating up groundwater and causing the ground to bulge.

“It’s like inflating the balloon, but the balloon is capped,” he said.