The Yellowstone volcano has been showing huge amounts of signs of activity in the past few weeks, with a staggering 81 earthquakes shaking the national park. Most of the tremors have been relatively small, with the largest registering as a two on the Richter scale. But some experts warn that sometimes the size of earthquakes is irrelevant, but the quantity of them could be more of a forewarning.

Portland State University Geology Professor Emeritus Scott Burns has said a spate of small tremors around a volcano usually signifies that magma and gasses beneath the surface are beginning to navigate their exit.

He said: “If you get swarms under a working volcano, the working hypothesis is that magma is moving up underneath there.”

However, others disagree about whether an earthquake swarm near a volcano could be a sign of things to come.

Jamie Farrell at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, believes this is just part of the natural cycle for Yellowstone volcano, saying: “Earthquake swarms are fairly common in Yellowstone.