According to the United States Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park typically experiences minor earthquakes of a magnitude 2 or below on the Richter Scale. On Tuesday, May 11, that was not the case when a magnitude 4.2 earthquake rattled Yellowstone.
I will admit that I'm an earthquake nerd, so I tend to follow earthquakes pretty much all around our region. However, I don't recall ever seeing one happen in the Black Hills of South Dakota...until today.
On the morning of January 6th (Wednesday), Wyoming received one of its first earthquakes of 2021, but it seems that pretty much no one noticed, and most certainly no one in Cheyenne.
We have to be careful not to jump to apocalyptic conclusions when there's an earthquake in Wyoming. But, I will admit that the one that struck just west of Rock Springs this morning was unusual.
Wyoming has earthquakes all the time. Most are in the western part of the state near the seismically-active Yellowstone. But, a moderate quake has just struck where we don't usually see earthquakes just south of the Bighorns.