Over 250 small earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park in the last 4 days have rattled scientists who are beginning to wonder if this is a prelude to ‘the Big One’. Earthquake swarms are a frequent occurence at Yellowstone, which sits on the caldera of a volcano.

But this time, the sheer number and the energy associated with the quakes seems to be significantly higher than normal. The quakes have been ranging between barely detectable and magnitudes of upto 3.9. All the quakes are centred beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.

Here’s a full list of all the recent earthquakes in the Intermountain West recorded by University of Utah Seismograph Stations for the last week, sorted by date, latest first. Most are in betwen magnitudes 1 and 2, but there’s a few between 3 and 3.3, and one which was 3.8 and one 3.9. The last recorded one, as of publishing, was a 2.4 on Dec 30 at 12.05 pm.

Meanwhile, back in DC, the Obama family gets added to the list of people looking for a place to stay. President-Elect Barack Obama is moving, with family, to Washington DC on Saturday or Sunday, so that daughters Sasha and Malia can start school (Sidwell Friends) on time Monday. They’re currently in Hawaii on vacation, and they plan to move straight from Hawaii to Washington DC.

Unfortunately, Blair House where guests at the White House are put up at, is not available until Jan 15. So the Obamas have been looking at hotels in Washington DC, but the transition team won’t say which one they chose, due to security reasons. 

Update 1: Dec 31 2008 - Apparently security is no longer as important as it was yesterday night. Its all over the news that the Obamas will be staying at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Lafayette Park, within walking distance of the White House.

The hotel has 145 rooms and 20 suites and a restaurant which is aptly named ‘Off the Record’. And a rooftop terrace which has an excellent view of the White House and beyond. Photo copyrights Hay-Adams Hotel.

Update 2: Jan 04 2009 - Michelle and the kids moved to Washington on Saturday, leaving the Prez all by himself in their Kenwood-Hyde Park home in Chicago. Barack Obama followed them a day later, bidding farewell to his Chicago home.

Apparently, he choked up when he left the house. And he also told reporters that he wasn’t ‘looking forward’ to living in yet another hotel after having spent the last two years of the campaign in a blur of hotel rooms. The Hay-Adams must be crushed that the President-Elect considers their hospitality inhospitable…

Posted on December 31st, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Travel News