Scientists are closely monitoring more than 250 small earthquakes that have occurred in Yellowstone National Park since Friday.

Yellowstone Quake Map

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During the last two years more than 350 small earthquakes have been recorded just outside the small eastern Oregon town of Maupin, and scientists are unsure what is triggering the activity.

The earthquakes began in December of 2006 and though only a dozen or so of the temblors exceeded magnitude 3.0, the largest of the events could be felt locally. Scientists from Oregon State University presented an analysis of this “earthquake swarm” at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December.

The earthquakes all originated within a very small area just a few miles southeast of Maupin and about 30 miles southeast of Mt. Hood, according to Jochen Braunmiller, a research associate in OSU’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

Press release courtesy of Oregon State University

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Scientists said an earthquake felt by some New Hampshire towns during the weekend was likely an aftershock from a tremor 281 years ago.

Long lasting earthquake

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People in a vast seismic zone in the southern and Midwestern United States would face catastrophic damage if a major earthquake struck there and should ensure that builders keep that risk in mind, a government report said on Thursday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said if earthquakes strike in what geologists define as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, they would cause “the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States.”

FEMA predicted a large earthquake would cause “widespread and catastrophic physical damage” across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee — home to some 44 million people.

“catastrophic” U.S. quake

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