Central Idaho Logs 100+ Quakes as New Fault System Stirs

KEMETIC MINDS
Extreme Earth Changes Watch — Daily Report — August 28, 2026

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Central Idaho is shaking again: the region that already produced a magnitude 6.5 earthquake has now recorded more than 100 quakes in recent weeks, and the swarm is not fading ^[1]. In the U.K., researchers have traced a 454-million-year-old ash layer to a supervolcano buried beneath The Wash (British Geological Survey, 2026). Meanwhile, Connecticut set a rainfall record, Wyoming is investigating a river fish die-off, and two sinkhole events made local headlines.

• Central Idaho has recorded more than 100 earthquakes in recent weeks, with the swarm maintaining its intensity instead of gradually fading ^[1].
• Scientists linked a 454.4-million-year-old supervolcano beneath The Wash to the Kinnekulle ash layer spread across Scandinavia and the Baltic (British Geological Survey, 2026).
• Bridgeport, Connecticut, broke its record for the wettest meteorological summer with 21.21 inches measured June 1–Aug. 23 ^[2].
• Wyoming Game and Fish is investigating a mass die-off of Mountain Whitefish along the Salt River, with no cause confirmed ^[3].
• A Putnam County, Indiana, motorcyclist escaped serious injury after riding into a sinkhole on a dead-end roadway (InkFreeNews, 2026).
• Historical note: Krakatoa’s 1883 eruption killed 36,000 people in minutes (AMAC, 2026).

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1. Central Idaho: Swarm tops 100 quakes as a new fault system moves

Central Idaho has recorded more than 100 earthquakes in recent weeks, and the swarm is maintaining its intensity instead of gradually fading, according to MSN (2026). The region already produced a magnitude 6.5 earthquake, and reporting indicates a different fault system is now starting to move ^[1].

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2. England: 454-million-year-old supervolcano identified beneath The Wash

Scientists at the British Geological Survey and the University of Oslo examined zircon crystals smaller than a human hair, extracted from boreholes 65 km apart in Lincolnshire and Norfolk (British Geological Survey, 2026). The analysis uncovered evidence of a 454-million-year-old supervolcano, now concealed beneath The Wash on England’s east coast (British Geological Survey, 2026).

BBC News reports the supervolcano, centred under The Wash and extending into Norfolk and Lincolnshire, measures at least 65 km (40 miles) across and erupted with the force of several thousand hydrogen bombs, thousands of times more powerful than Mount Etna ^[4]. Zircon crystals at both borehole sites formed about 454.4 million years ago, nearly identical to ages previously obtained for the Kinnekulle tephra in the Oslo region (British Geological Survey, 2026).

The Kinnekulle tephra is a vast ash layer spread across Norway, Sweden, the Baltic region, Belarus and Poland (British Geological Survey, 2026). Researchers believe ash from the eruption plume in eastern England was blown across the Tornquist Sea, which then separated England and Scandinavia, settling on the ancient sea floor (British Geological Survey, 2026).

The eruption is believed to have propelled several hundred to a thousand cubic kilometres of material into the atmosphere, one of the largest eruptions in Earth’s history (EDP24, 2026). At the time, a belt of arc volcanism extended from the Lake District toward Belgium, in a geography researchers compare to today’s West Pacific, spanning Korea, Japan and Indonesia (British Geological Survey, 2026).

A supervolcano is formally defined as one that has erupted more than 1,000 cubic km (240 cubic miles) of material; 30 exist worldwide today, with Campi Flegrei, near Naples, Italy, the nearest to the U.K. ^[4]. The last to erupt was Toba in Indonesia 74,000 years ago ^[4]. The Wash volcano was active roughly 200 million years before dinosaurs walked the planet ^[4].

The discovery came from fresh analysis of rock samples taken 80 years ago from boreholes at North Creake, Norfolk, and Claxby, near Horncastle, Lincolnshire, and kept by the BGS in its archives at Keyworth, Nottinghamshire ^[4]. During the Covid lockdown, scientists re-examined the existing samples with new equipment and techniques ^[4].

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3. Connecticut: Bridgeport breaks its wettest-summer record

Bridgeport has broken its record for the wettest meteorological summer on record: Sikorsky Memorial Airport measured 21.21 inches of rain from June 1 through Aug. 23, surpassing the previous mark of 20.23 inches set in 1972 (Yahoo News, 2026). The final seasonal total will not be known until all of August’s observations are complete, but the record is already secure ^[2].

The season swung from heat and worsening dryness to repeated rounds of heavy rain beginning in July ^[2]. Bridgeport received 12.33 inches in July, or 9.01 inches above normal, while Hartford logged 8.66 inches, more than twice its typical July rainfall ^[2]. The July 21 storm system brought flooding, road closures, power outages and major travel disruptions across the state ^[2]. Windsor Locks reached 100 degrees on July 2, the first and likely only triple-digit reading of the summer ^[2].

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4. Wyoming: Mass fish die-off on the Salt River under investigation

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is investigating a mass fish mortality event on the Salt River in western Wyoming, with deaths occurring along the length of the river between the Salt River Range and Palisades Reservoir ^[3]. Local anglers alerted the department, which collected fish for analysis at the Fish Health Laboratory in Laramie ^[3].

The die-off is mostly affecting Mountain Whitefish, which have shown no external symptoms; water temperatures in the river remain cool at around 62°F ^[3]. The Buffalo Bulletin reports that parasites caused similar past events in Idaho and Montana, and the indicators on the Salt River are similar, but no specific cause has been found ^[3]. The river remains open for recreation, and the department asks the public to report additional fish deaths to the Jackson Regional Office ^[3].

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5. Sinkhole watch: Indiana roadway mishap and an airport runway

A motorcyclist in Putnam County, Indiana, escaped serious injury after riding into a sinkhole that opened on a dead-end roadway near the sheriff’s department on Aug. 25 (InkFreeNews, 2026). The rider was traveling at a relatively low speed in an unlit section of road, and the sheriff’s office used the incident to remind riders to wear helmets and “be ready for anything” (InkFreeNews, 2026).

Separately, Tri-Cities Airport director of operations Chris Stipo briefed the Airport Authority on Thursday morning about a sinkhole that opened on the airport’s main runway in early June (Kingsport Times News, 2026).

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6. Global notes: Krakatoa’s 1883 toll; Nepal floods and U.S. volcano fears

A retrospective published by AMAC notes that Krakatoa’s 1883 eruption killed 36,000 people in minutes (AMAC, 2026).

The New York Post also reports that flooding in Nepal has renewed fears that the most dangerous volcano in the United States could unleash a comparable catastrophe at home ^[5]. The report, published Aug. 27, contains no further detail in the portion made available to this roundup.

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What Scientists Are Saying

Dr Tim Pharaoh, principal author of the Wash supervolcano study, called the finding a “fantastic result” that changes “our understanding of England’s deep geological past” ^[4]. He added: “More than 454 million years ago, a supervolcano now hidden beneath some of England’s flattest landscapes, produced some of the biggest eruptions in recorded Earth history” ^[6].

On the question of future risk, Pharaoh stressed: “Unlike faults, which can be seismically reactivated, a volcano can’t. Once it’s gone extinct, that’s it. Nobody needs to worry about the supervolcano erupting again” ^[4].

In Wyoming, Game and Fish has submitted fish to the Fish Health Laboratory in Laramie, and no specific cause of the Salt River die-off has been identified yet ^[3].

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How To Track These Events

Readers can follow real-time earthquake activity on the USGS public monitoring pages, track weather and space-weather alerts through NOAA, and check the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program for updates on volcanic unrest worldwide. State agencies such as Wyoming Game and Fish also publish alerts as incidents develop ^[3].

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References

1. MSN. (2026, August 28). Central Idaho already produced a magnitude 6.5 earthquake – now a different fault system is starting to move. https://www.msn.com/en-us/science/earth-science/central-idaho-already-produced-a-magnitude-6-5-earthquake-now-a-different-fault-system-is-starting-to-move/vi-AA2b6NeE ↩a ↩b ↩c
2. Yahoo. (2026, August 28). Connecticut summer swung from drought to flooding as Bridgeport broke a rainfall record. https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather-news/articles/connecticut-summer-swung-drought-flooding-100000206.html ↩a ↩b ↩c ↩d ↩e ↩f
3. Wyoming Public Media. (2026, August 27). Game and Fish looking into mass die-off of fish in Salt River. https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/natural-resources-energy/2026-08-27/game-and-fish-looking-into-mass-die-off-of-fish-in-salt-river ↩a ↩b ↩c ↩d ↩e ↩f ↩g ↩h
4. BBC. (2026, August 28). Ancient supervolcano found under English coast. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp84nrg8q94o ↩a ↩b ↩c ↩d ↩e ↩f ↩g ↩h
5. New York Post. (2026, August 27). Nepal flood sparks fears that the US’ most dangerous volcano could unleash similar catastrophe at home. https://nypost.com/2026/08/27/science/nepal-floods-renew-fears-surrounding-the-us-most-dangerous-volcano/ ↩
6. EDP24. (2026, August 28). Buried ancient supervolcano in Norfolk unleashed one of history’s greatest eruptions. https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/26503165.volcano-erupted-450m-years-ago-off-norfolk-coast/ ↩

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