Yellowstone National Park’s Steamboat Geyser lay dormant for more than three years before waking up again in 2018 and has since erupted 129 times – raising concerns that it could lead to the volcanic ‘big one’.
A team from the University of California – Berkeley took on the task of uncovering the truth beneath the world’s highest active geyser and found little evidence of magma movement, which is the key to an eruption.
Researchers collected data from geysers around the world and found that due to the size of Steamboat, the geyser stores a large amount of water that provides energy to drive explosions. It has a reservoir approximately 25 meters underground and a 377 meter high column.
The study also found that rainfall and melting snow may have played a role in its activation, as underground water pressure pushed more water into the reservoir that provided extra warm water that would erupt more often.
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Researchers found little evidence of magma movement, which is the key to an eruption, lurking beneath Yellowstone’s Steamboat Geyser
The Steamboat geyser came back to life in March 2018, after its three and a half year sleep, releasing steam, mud and rocks into the air.
In 2018 it erupted 32 times and then registered a record-breaking 49 eruptions in 2019 and another 48 times in 2020. The previous record was 29 eruptions in 1964.
The increased activity caused fear in some scientists who believed it foreshadowed possible explosive volcanic eruptions in the surrounding geyser basin.
Yellowstone’s supervolcano hasn’t erupted in 70,000 years, but this doesn’t stop experts from keeping a close eye for any indication that the “ big one ” could appear soon.
The Steamboat geyser came to life in March 2018, after its three and a half years of sleep, releasing steam, mud and rocks into the air. In 2018 it erupted 32 times and then registered a record-breaking 49 eruptions in 2019 and another 48 times in 2020. The previous record was 29 eruptions in 1964.
The research team took into account that the ground around the geyser rose as seismicity increased slightly before the geyser reactivated. The area gives off more heat to the atmosphere, but the temperature of the groundwater propelling the Steamboat eruptions has not increased.
Michael Manga, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California-Berkeley, and the study’s senior author, said: “ Hydrothermal explosions – basically exploding hot water as it comes into contact with hot rock – are one of the largest hazards in Yellowstone. ‘
“The reason they are problematic is that they are very difficult to predict; it is not clear whether there are precursors with which to warn. ‘
Manga and his team took into account that the ground around the geyser rose and the seismicity increased slightly before the geyser reactivated.
The area gives off more heat to the atmosphere, but this has not resulted in the awakening of other dormant geysers in the basin.
The team also notes that the temperature of the groundwater powering the Steamboat eruptions has not risen.
‘We don’t find any evidence that a major eruption is imminent. I think that’s an important takeaway, ”Manga said.
Manga and his team wanted to answer three questions about Steamboat: ‘Why did it wake up again? Why is the period so variable, ranging from 3 to 17 days? and why does it shoot so high? They were able to find answers to two.
The team collected elevation measurements from 11 different geysers in the US, Russia, Iceland and Chile with the approximate depth of the water reservoir from which their eruptions originated.
They found that the deeper the reservoir, the higher the burst radius.
They found that the deeper the reservoir, the higher the burst radius. Steamboat Geyser, with a reservoir about 25 feet underground, has the highest column at 110 feet. This allows the reservoir to fill with more water to fuel more bursts
Steamboat Geyser, with a reservoir about 25 feet underground, has the highest column at 110 feet.
“What you really do is you fill a container, it reaches a critical point, you empty it, and then you run out of the liquid that can erupt until it is refilled,” Manga said.
The deeper you go, the higher the pressure. The higher the pressure, the higher the boiling temperature. ‘
“And the hotter the water, the more energy it has and the higher the geyser.”
To investigate the reasons for Steamboat Geyser’s variability, the team collected records related to 109 eruptions dating back to its reactivation in 2018.
Melting snow and rain created additional water pressure underground that created more hot water for eruptions.
Melting snow and rain created additional water pressure underground that created more hot water for eruptions. Pictured is the steamboat erupting on August 22, 2020
The data includes weather and current statistics, seismometer and ground deformation measurements, and public observations.
They also looked at past active and dormant periods from Steamboat and nine other Yellowstone geysers, and thermal emission data from the ground surface of the Norris Geyser Basin.
After reviewing the record, the team concluded that rainfall and melting snow contributed to the variable period.
Melting snow and rain created additional water pressure underground that created more hot water for eruptions.
Manga and his team couldn’t figure out why Steamboat Geyser rebooted on March 15, 2018, after three years and 193 days of inactivity, although the geyser is known to be much more variable than Old Faithful, which usually goes off about every 90 minutes. minutes.
CAN AN ERUPTION BE PREVENTED WITH THE YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO?
Recent research found a small magma chamber, known as the magma reservoir of the Earth’s upper crust, below the surface
Nasa believes drilling 10 kilometers deep into the super volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park to pump high-pressure water into it could cool it.
Despite the fact that the mission would cost $ 3.46 billion (£ 2.63 billion), Nasa considers it “the most viable solution.”
Using the heat as a resource also creates the opportunity to pay for the plan – it could be used to build a geothermal power plant, generating electricity at extremely competitive prices of around $ 0.10 (£ 0.10). 08) per kWh.
But this method of subduing a super volcano could backfire and trigger the super volcano eruption that NASA is trying to prevent.
‘Drilling in the top of the magma chamber’ would be very risky; However, careful drilling from the bottom could work.
This USGS image shows how a ‘super eruption’ of molten lava beneath Yellowstone National Park would spread ash across the United States
Aside from the potentially devastating risks, the plan to cool Yellowstone with drilling isn’t straightforward.
That would be an excruciatingly slow process taking one meter a year, meaning it would take tens of thousands of years to cool it completely.
And yet, there would be no guarantee that it would be successful for at least hundreds or possibly thousands of years.