Yellowstone Geyser Steamboat has erupted 8x since March 2018 (support, record, issue)
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I guess this is the right place for this stuff. If not, please move it.
Although this started back in March, it is ongoing and has happened at least 8x. This might possibly indicate some kind of expansion or other condition underground where the caldera is shooting magma up nearer to the surface. Perhaps we should keep a particular eye on conditions around Yellowstone while this geyser has come back to life again. As everyone knows, it is one area which is particularly dangerous if underground magma flows start to move.
Yellowstone caldera eruption fears have spiked as the supervolcano’s largest geyser erupted for the eight time. So far, scientists aren’t certain why the Steamboat geyser continues to erupt, adding to the fears...
After years of silence, Yellowstone’s Steamboat geyser, a better show than Old Faithful, has spewed boiling water hundreds of feet in the air eight times since March. Steamboat, the tallest geyser in the vast Yellowstone National Park, isn’t reliable at all, unlike the more famous Old Faithful that belches steam with regularity. But the fact is, Steamboat has been more faithful, at least lately, spewing eight times since March 14, after being silent for nearly four years.
What is USGS going to say? Run for your life? Could be nothing and then again it could be something. Time will tell. What are animals in the area doing? They tend to sense danger before we do...
I guess this is the right place for this stuff. If not, please move it.
Although this started back in March, it is ongoing and has happened at least 8x. This might possibly indicate some kind of expansion or other condition underground where the caldera is shooting magma up nearer to the surface. Perhaps we should keep a particular eye on conditions around Yellowstone while this geyser has come back to life again. As everyone knows, it is one area which is particularly dangerous if underground magma flows start to move.
There are well over a thousand geysers in Yellowstone National Park. The fact that one of those geysers eruptive pattern has changed is indicative of nothing but localized causes. Very highly localized, as a matter of fact. Steamboat Geyser is in the Norris Geyser Basin, and the nearest geysers have not shown any corresponding increasing in activity. Veteran Geyser, Monarch Geyser, Echinus Geyser, all within 500 feet of steamboat? Nothing. Veteran hasn't erupted in three years. Monarch hasn't erupted since 1995. Echinus, after erupting 25 times in the first three days of December, has only erupted once in the last seven months.
So, no, one geyser demonstrating a sudden increase in activity surrounded by a bunch of other geysers demonstrating nothing of the sort is most certainly not an indicator of an expansion of the magma underlying Yellowstone. For one thing, there would be a flurry of earthquake activity - all that magma moving could not happen without as much. This is not to say that such a flurry is indicative of an impending eruption, as many such flurries have been recorded over the decades. But large-scale magma movement cannot happen without leaving a substantial tectonic record.
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Originally Posted by illtaketwoplease
What is USGS going to say? Run for your life? Could be nothing and then again it could be something. Time will tell. What are animals in the area doing? They tend to sense danger before we do...
Well, the USGS would issue warnings. You know, like the did in Hawaii when the recent volcanic activity increased? Like the did with Mount St. Helens in 1980, and have numerous times since? Like they do in Alaska when one of its volcanoes acts up?
The implicit suggestion that the USGS will do everything they can to cover up an impending eruption makes zero sense in every way, not least of which because eruptions happen and when they do, the USGS didn't try and pretend they weren't a possibility.
Fears about the Yellowstone super volcano are a bit overblown. The article below is from May 2, 2016.
Supereruption reports are exaggerated
Human civilization will surely survive a supereruption, so let's bust another myth. There is no pool of molten rock churning beneath Yellowstone's iconic geysers and mud pots. The Earth's crust and mantle beneath Yellowstone are indeed hot, but they are mostly solid, with small pockets of molten rock scattered throughout, like water inside a sponge. About 9 percent of the hot blob is molten, and the rest is solid, scientists reported on May 15, 2015, in the journal Science. This magma chamber rests between 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 km) beneath the park.
Estimates vary, but a magma chamber may need to reach about 50 percent melt before molten rock collects and forces its way out. "It doesn't look like at this point that the [Yellowstone] magma reservoir is ready for an eruption," said Farrell, co-author of the 2015 study in the journal Science.
I am not an expert, or even half an expert but I would assume the water making up the steam from these guysers has to trickle down through many small cracks and fissures in the rock to get to the area where a geyser collects its water from. These cracks and fissures are obviously moving and changing pathways otherwise there would be a constant series of geyser eruptions if there was a constant source of water to make steam. The fact that geysers start and stop means that this process is ongoing and normal.
The Earth itself is being pulled by gravity towards the Sun so, depending on the distance, bulging out and flattening as different areas face the Sun. As a result, there is constant movement in the surface areas of the Earth. Maybe the swarms of small earthquakes which occur in Yellowstone are a result of these bulging movements and Yellowstone magma is the substance which can most easily turn to liquid when the area around it expands or contracts as a result of this bulging action.
Over the course of millions of years of Earth history various events have caused the Earth to erupt into a boiling sea of magma, with volcanos erupting etc., killing many of the species of animals and plants and wiping the surface clean. To me it seems like the Earth does not need hundreds of years to start this process and a relatively very small cosmic event could quickly cause the internals of the earth to liquify and start to move towards the surface. Tectonics is not really well understood yet otherwise the scientists could predict with more accuracy where and when volcanic eruptions will occur. However, a scientist's worth is measured by how many papers have been published and who has cited these papers in theirs, so papers arguing for and against opposing opinions are still published and peer reviewed. Consequently scientific support can be collected for many differing viewpoints.
There are well over a thousand geysers in Yellowstone National Park. The fact that one of those geysers eruptive pattern has changed is indicative of nothing but localized causes. Very highly localized, as a matter of fact. Steamboat Geyser is in the Norris Geyser Basin, and the nearest geysers have not shown any corresponding increasing in activity. Veteran Geyser, Monarch Geyser, Echinus Geyser, all within 500 feet of steamboat? Nothing. Veteran hasn't erupted in three years. Monarch hasn't erupted since 1995. Echinus, after erupting 25 times in the first three days of December, has only erupted once in the last seven months.
So, no, one geyser demonstrating a sudden increase in activity surrounded by a bunch of other geysers demonstrating nothing of the sort is most certainly not an indicator of an expansion of the magma underlying Yellowstone. For one thing, there would be a flurry of earthquake activity - all that magma moving could not happen without as much. This is not to say that such a flurry is indicative of an impending eruption, as many such flurries have been recorded over the decades. But large-scale magma movement cannot happen without leaving a substantial tectonic record.
Well, the USGS would issue warnings. You know, like the did in Hawaii when the recent volcanic activity increased? Like the did with Mount St. Helens in 1980, and have numerous times since? Like they do in Alaska when one of its volcanoes acts up?
The implicit suggestion that the USGS will do everything they can to cover up an impending eruption makes zero sense in every way, not least of which because eruptions happen and when they do, the USGS didn't try and pretend they weren't a possibility.
As a person with two degrees in geology, I pretty much agree with you.
I've been to Yellowstone four different times over six decades, and each time I've gone there some part of the park was closed off due to unusual geothermal activity. The last time I was there it was one whole section of the Norris Geyser Basin. Geothermal activity varies for many of the individual geysers and geyser-related features, sometimes merely due to a change in plumbing beneath the geyser -- a passageway becomes clogged or unclogged, for example.
Nevertheless, I do think that -- like Mount Saint Helens -- there is a degree of unpredictability with some of the West's geology. Not sure about now, but back as late as 20 years ago they did volcano drills at some schools in the Seattle region due to Mount Rainier.
As you indicate, I would be much more concerned if widespread changes in geyser (and related) activity was taking place throughout the park...as happened back during the August 1959 earthquake...which my family missed by one week!
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