How many earthquakes has Yellowstone experienced in the last 15 years?

Artificial intelligence has led researchers to identify 10 times as many earthquakes in the Yellowstone caldera than humans thought there were. Previously, experts had detected about 8,600 earthquakes in the country’s oldest national park between 2008 and 2022. But with AI’s help, they’ve increased that number to a whopping 86,276.

The team used deep learning algorithms to analyze seismic data from the Yellowstone caldera and retroactively identify earthquakes and assign magnitudes. “If we had to do it old school with someone manually clicking through all this data looking for earthquakes, you couldn’t do it. It’s not scalable,” said Western University engineer Bing Li. The results revealed that the majority of quakes in Yellowstone occur as earthquake swarms, which don’t follow the mainshock-aftershock pattern, and it’s more difficult to identify what triggers them.

“While Yellowstone and other volcanoes each have unique features, the hope is that these insights can be applied elsewhere,” Li said. “By understanding patterns of seismicity, like earthquake swarms, we can improve safety measures, better inform the public about potential risks and even guide geothermal energy development away from danger in areas with promising heat flow.”