Things Continue to Heat Up Under Yellowstone National Park

The signs that something is brewing beneath the earth at Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park are increasing. Seismic events have been increasingly common, scientists have discovered that a magma bloom under the soil is larger than expected and much closer to the surface than previously thought and the venting of sulfur dioxide have been more and more common and lethal for indigenous fauna in the area. The Independent now reports that another sign has popped up.

The Steamboat Returns At around 6:30 am (CMT) on April 27, Yellowstone’s Steamboat Geyser, the world’s largest such geological structure, erupted for the third time in six weeks, marking the most activity since 2014. Previous discharges occurred on March 15 and April 19 of this year. Steamboat’s notoriety is due to its ability to launch a column of super-heated water almost 400 feet into the air. The Independent writes that the “geyser is around three times taller than Old Faithful, Yellowstone’s most famous geyser known for erupting at intervals of between 45 and 125 minutes.”

While the eruptions have been on a smaller scale than events in 2014 and 2013, the frequency combined with the aforementioned other signs are a bit unnerving for some. The US Geological Survey said all events so far in 2018 had been smaller than recent major activity observed in 2013 and 2014.

Fuel for the Steamboat Entombed beneath the Norris Geyser Basin lies a magma chamber more than 50 miles long and 12 miles wide, but which may be much larger than previously thought. The area is also part of the Yellowstone Supervolcano or the Yellowstone Caldera formed by a “super-eruption” along Huckleberry Ridge over two million years ago.

The Independent writes, “The event is thought to have been 2,500 times larger than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980, the most recent major volcanic activity in the mainland US.” Unlike the famous ‘Old Faithful’ Geyser, Steamboat is more sporadic in its eruptions. “Like most geysers, eruptions of Steamboat can’t be predicted, they may be days or decades apart,” Yellowstone said in a youtube.

Scientists have only ever recorded more powerful eruptions at the Waimangu Geyser in New Zealand, which has now been extinct for more than a century. https://youtu.be/eKsQBSbbpCw

What do you think?