Them on Us: Yellowstone Quakes

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

By Jake Nichols

Mushers do it with dog power
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Frank Teasley’s hot musher mess will pull into Park City, Utah on Feb. 6. Park City holds the distinction of being the IPSSSDR’s checkered flag stop in its eight-stage, 300-mile zig-zag through Wyoming and Utah. Park City Record staffer Jen Watkins promised throngs of Utahans will be gathered at Quinn’s Junction to cheer the dogs to the finish line.

“Most people get their impression of mushing from Disney movies,” race spokesperson Darla Worden told the Record. “(They think it’s) these big fluffy dogs and that isn’t real sled dogs that race. They are born to run, but they’re probably going to be smaller with shorter hair than (people) are used to or might expect to see.”

Hole lotta shakin’ goin’ on
Between the film plot of  2012 and the recent Haiti earthquake, nerves are a little frayed in Yellowstone where geologists are closely monitoring a swarm of mini-quakes underway for the past two weeks. Up to 100 small-scale seismic events have been rattling a remote area of America’s first national park daily; 1,608 since January 17.

The quake zone is approximately 10 miles northwest of the Old Faithful geyser. Scientists are split on whether the earthquake clusters indicate Yellowstone is fixin’ to blow big again or whether the tiny tremors are actually beneficial, allowing a safe release of subterranean pressures.

The New York Times ran the story on Monday.

Wyoming like a Bordeaux: red...  
Even with Teton County doing more than its share, Wyoming remains the reddest state in the Union according to a new Gallup poll. Recent GOP gains were evidenced in nearly every state but none backed Republicans like the Cowboy State. Utah, Alaska, and Idaho rounded out the top four most Republican states.
and dry

“The mountain snows that replenish most surface water in Wyoming, the fifth-driest state, are vulnerable to climate change and likely to be affected by rising temperatures, a new report says,” began Mead Gruver’s piece in the Casper Star-Tribune. The report, released last week by the Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming also said most of Wyoming’s surface water originates as mountain snowpack. Climate change can cause snowpack to melt earlier during the springtime, making runoff more challenging to manage as a water source.

In addition to melting snowpack, more than 70 percent of Wyoming receives less than 16 inches of precipitation a year.

From Snow King to Russia?
After Jackson Hole hosted the Pacific Coast Sectionals, we have kept a close eye on up-and-coming ice skaters who may have a shot at Winter Olympic glory this month. Unfortunately, no skaters who made an appearance at the Snow King Center in November will be representing the USA in figure skating events this year, one contestant has his eye on the 2014 Olympics to be held in Sochi, Russia.
Redlands, Calif.’s Phillip Warren snagged a fourth place finish at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash. recently and a fourth place finish in JH’s sectionals.

Warren’s hometown paper (Redlands Daily) is pretty jazzed about the 16-year-old’s future.

Jenny Lake a gem
USA Today included Jackson Hole in its 10 Most Beautiful Places in America list. Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park scored No. 7 in the special travel report section of the America’s weekend newspaper.  “America has older mountains than the Tetons, and higher ones. But it has none more dramatic,” wrote USA Today. JHW
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Them on Us: Yellowstone Quakes | Planet JH News Article: General News

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