An eruption from Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park is normally a rare mass , but invitee were handle to the geothermic show seven times in the past three months , according to theUSGS . The last time the geyser spouted at least three time in a year was 2003 , and scientists are still struggle to discover out the cause behind the sudden spike in action .
Old Faithful has garner fame in Yellowstone and beyond for its regular eruptions that blow every one to two hours , but Steamboat is less reliable . Geysers take place when magma fire up up the water and gases trap in pockets under the priming . If enough pressure build up , the steam and boiling water will escape through cracks in the earth and shoot past the surface . The reservoir beneath Old Faithful is fairly wide-eyed , asgeological mapshave register us , and that explains the frequent volcanic eruption . But the structure beneath Steamboat is likely more complicated , direct to eruptions that ensue from a compounding of hard - to - predict factors .
Steamboat ’s last blast before this late marathon of spurts was recorded in September 2014 . The geyser ’s weewee column have been sleep together to touch up to 300 feet , making it thetallest active geyserin the world .
geologist have come up with a few explanations for the phenomena , one being that it was due to thermic activeness in the park ’s Norris Geyser Basin . Another possibility is that the geyser is having these littler extravasation nigher together in seat of one large one . While they have n’t come to a consensus on the cause , experts do concord that the absolute frequency of the eruptions is unlike anything they ’ve seen at this geyser before .
While the geyser bodily function stay on a mystery , it should n’t be take in as an indicant that a catastrophic volcanic case is coming to Yellowstone anytime soon . The last volcanic bang on the park ’s terra firma took seat 70,000 years ago .
[ h / tNPR ]
