Used to guide in Yellowstone. This has no bearing on the greater Yellowstone Caldera (supervolcano) which spans nearly 30miles by 40miles. In my time there I never saw anything like this. If you're ever in a situation similar to this, run as fast and as far as you can.
The interesting thing about geysers and pools is how relatively predictable they are... until they are not. A mathematical and statistical person would have a lot of fun building prediction models for all the different geysers.
> If you're ever in a situation similar to this, run as fast and as far as you can.
I really really want to underscore this point.
You're literally standing on top of ground and under that is boiling water.
If that breaks and you fall in you're going to be in boiling water with no way to get out and you will die screaming.
Also NEVER walk on ground that has no vegetation. If you look around a geyser you will see that the ground is white and has no vegetation. That's because the temperature is too high and it has water under it that's heating the ground.
Walk on that and there's a chance you will fall in.
In the back country there are no fences so you can fall right through the crust.
>> Also NEVER walk on ground that has no vegetation.
There are also places on this planet where toxicity issues preclude vegetation. If there are fumes coming through the soil so powerful that grass doesn't grow, take the hint.
White Island exploded and killed 22 visitors here in New Zealand in 2019 [1]. As you say, if an eruption starts, run. Video from that day is chilling, with comment made about how different to normal the pools looked.
Those with uncovered skin suffered horribly, and it’s quite surprisingly how little covering was helpful.
I am a groundwater modeler (hydrogeologist) and often work in fractured rock (mainly for mining clients). No experience with modeling for hydrothermal projects though. While the physics of modeling fluid flow in these environments is possible (e.g. discrete fracture networks), mapping and having confidence in the distribution and actual inter-connectivity of the fractures (i.e. preferential flow pathways) is incredibly difficult.
Is the difficulty because the sensing techniques give general but not-localized results? I.e. porosity in an area, but no information about specific connected fissures? Or something else?
My cousin is in hydrogeology as well! Fascinating subject!
Is a geyser not inherently self-destructive? As in its a load-bearing pressure test-run on a random set of connection in stone. Meaning the rock fracks itself, and only the valve to above ground allows for repeated runs? Or do they fix fractures with minerals?
There's nothing about a geyser that requires rock to be fractured during an eruption. Geysers occur due to positive feedback as liquid water is removed, reducing the pressure on underlying heated water, allowing it to boil.
Over 60 observations of this hot spring erupting in some fashion over the last 18 years. https://geysertimes.org/geyser.php?id=Black+Diamond Many of the reports mention black water and rocks and "big" -- so not particularly rare. This eruption appears to be larger though -- typically the rocks and debris do not make it to the boardwalk.
They’re not that rare. The USGS statement references a few examples of similar events including one from 2009 in this same basin, one from 1989 in the Norris basin, and another (small) event in the Norris basin earlier this year.
A great followup for someone looking to dive into the statistical side of this would be the Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone. [1] (Worlds tallest active geyser)
It has a pretty irregular major eruption pattern. What people often forget, is that geysers don't wait for the day time, so many events occur at night when nobody is around to witness the beauty. When a geyser like this only erupts a handful of times a year and for approximately 3 minutes, you have to get very very very lucky to witness it. Especially when you take into account how enormous YNP is.
> This has no bearing on the greater Yellowstone Caldera (supervolcano) which spans nearly 30miles by 40miles. In my time there I never saw anything like this. If you're ever in a situation similar to this, run as fast and as far as you can.
What would be the point of running if the Yellowstone Caldera actually goes bang? I mean, where would you run to? The resulting destruction would be greater than that experienced by the asteroid collision that ended the dinosaurs.
You're better off staying put and vaporising than dying of asphyxiation a week later.
I believe the poster was saying two things separately:
1. This issue is not some precursor to the caldera becoming active - it is a irregular but normal part of areas with geysers.
2. If a geyser, hot spring, etc starts looking different, acting different, or there is an unexpected explosion run away from it quickly. The negative effects will be localized so distance is helpful.
Another tip for falling objects (although this applies only on the descent phase, so more for objects falling from cliffs or building above you):
If when looking up, the object has an apparent motion (left/right/back), it won't hit you, and certainly don't move in the direction it appears to be moving. If it appears stationary in the sky, it WILL hit you or very close, so move fast. Best default strategy with limited time & options is to hug the rock face, especially under an overhang.
Just playing back what you said because it's surprising. You're saying that explosion was not caused by water that was superheated by the supervolcano below the greater Yellowstone Caldera? It was heated by some other source?
A defined hydrothermal basin like this is heated by a very local pocket of magma or more properly magma-that-has-mostly-solidified-into-hot-rock, only a kilometer or so deep in this case, that has leaked up from multiple layers of deeper basins creeping up through faultlines, and which is being gradually cooled by water seepage in a dynamically stable way.
Depending on the area, there may or may not be an intermediary superheated brine functioning as a heat transport mechanism, per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_areas_of_Yellowston...
Local explosions like this are not very indicative of movements in the county-sized reservoir of magma ten times deeper down that underlies the entire caldera.
I think most of them are new to this type of nature so you're stuck in "is this normal? Am I in danger? If I run, will I look like a fool?" So you're standing there and looking for other people's reactions before making your own. So it's a bunch of people frozen and looking at each other before 1 person makes a run for it and everyone else does too.
Anyone know how apparent bot posts like this wind up here? Third one I've seen today, now easy to notice after someone pointed it out on another topic.
"At around 10:00 AM MST on July 23, 2024, a small hydrothermal explosion occurred in Yellowstone National Park in the Biscuit Basin thermal area, about 2.1 miles (3.5 km) northwest of Old Faithful. Numerous videos of the event were recorded by visitors. The boardwalk was damaged, but there were no reports of injury. The explosion appears to have originated near Black Diamond Pool.
Biscuit Basin, including the parking lot and boardwalks, are temporary closed for visitor safety. The Grand Loop road remains open. Yellowstone National Park geologists are investigating the event."
It saddens me that we've normalized the recording of vertical videos. There'll be so many more historical events caught on video... but it's now so much more likely that it'll be a vertical video. :(
To be fair, the vertical recording here fits the context. Also, the fact that the recorder held the camera steady and kept the content within the frame is great by itself. A lot of times, you end up with shaky, useless footage.
The subject is in a vertical orientation, so it is perfect and desirable that the original video has all its resolution dedicated to capturing the phenomenon in the best quality possible. A horizontal video would mean that there are less pixels on the subject matter.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of views also come from people viewing vertical screens, so it kind of makes sense? I personally have started to prefer the vertical format for certain kinds of videos, especially when viewing them on my phone… so I’ve also started taking more vertical videos with my phone.
I do not have links for you, but the last time I checked there was a general consensus among the majority of scientists that given the low percentage of molten lava in the upper chamber and low percentage of molten magma in the lower chamber we would have at least 10K years of low probability of a VEI 8 eruption. An eruption currently may damage part of the park from low basaltic flows and part of the park would be shut down. Should that happen it may impact the park's tourist revenue but the governor is working on diversifying the states income. The risk level of eruption was a decision making factor in my moving so close to Yellowstone.
A fair bit of the rich soil in the mid west, west, and north west are from previous volcanic eruptions. Substantial areas have 1 meter or more of high quality soil, which we are squandering by over watering, overly intense agriculture, not preventing erosion, and using too much fertilizer.
Not only is fertilizer very energy intensive to produce, it also contributes to de-oxygenation of lakes, rivers, and the ocean. It's no exaggeration that this might well end civilization on earth. If we lose the oceans (which are already becoming oxygen depleted) it's going to be that much harder to feed everyone.
So I'd consider volcanic ash a pro, not a con. Sure we might lose a single growing season, but could help us for centuries, if properly managed.
Fertilizer isn't just energy intensive, the phosphorus part of it is non renewable. We get it from mining, there are limited deposits, the process of building the deposits happens on geological timescales. My hope is that the running out will be a slow process that comes with a slow price increase so people are eventually incentivized to find alternatives.
Also, the mining process leaves very toxic tailings, but that is true for most mining.
As far as I remember, the caldera erupting is not an extinction level event (for humans at least)... would be bad for sure, but southern hemisphere would manage I think
Is this a potential sign of the fault shifting or whatever the correct terminology is? A warning shot before a massive earthquake? Or just a geyser-like phenomenon?
> These very large and violent hydrothermal explosions are independent of associated volcanism. None of the large hydrothermal events of the past 16,000 years has been followed by an eruption of magma. The deeper magma system appears to be unaffected even by spectacular steam explosions and crater excavations within the overlying hydrothermal system.
Note, however, that much larger hydrothermal explosions have occurred than the one that just happened. There are some large craters in Yellowstone Lake from hydrothermal explosions. These would certainly kill people who were nearby if they happened again.
Arm chair take here. Probably means nothing. On the scale of earthquakes and larger geology, this is insignificant.
Look at the White Island eruption a few years back. If you are on the island it was an awful event. But in terms of eruption scale it was so small it barely registered.
If it was a sign of something larger it probably would not be so isolated, all the geysers in the area would have gone off. I would guess this is either the formation of a new geyser or an old one which has a long duration between eruptions or just a one off.
See the second video of the broken bridge and the rocks thrown around. Clearly someone could have been badly injured if they were there. I don't think it goes through the pool, just close to it.
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The interesting thing about geysers and pools is how relatively predictable they are... until they are not. A mathematical and statistical person would have a lot of fun building prediction models for all the different geysers.
It's so popular that one of the datasets immediately available in base R is the set of waiting times between eruptions for a Yellowstone geyser [1].
[1] https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/datasets/versions/3....
I’m not sure that it’s particularly more regular than most other geysers, but that’s what is known for.
I really really want to underscore this point.
You're literally standing on top of ground and under that is boiling water.
If that breaks and you fall in you're going to be in boiling water with no way to get out and you will die screaming.
Also NEVER walk on ground that has no vegetation. If you look around a geyser you will see that the ground is white and has no vegetation. That's because the temperature is too high and it has water under it that's heating the ground.
Walk on that and there's a chance you will fall in.
In the back country there are no fences so you can fall right through the crust.
There are also places on this planet where toxicity issues preclude vegetation. If there are fumes coming through the soil so powerful that grass doesn't grow, take the hint.
Those with uncovered skin suffered horribly, and it’s quite surprisingly how little covering was helpful.
There is a good documentary on it [2].
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island...
[2] https://m.imdb.com/title/tt21439528/
My cousin is in hydrogeology as well! Fascinating subject!
It has a pretty irregular major eruption pattern. What people often forget, is that geysers don't wait for the day time, so many events occur at night when nobody is around to witness the beauty. When a geyser like this only erupts a handful of times a year and for approximately 3 minutes, you have to get very very very lucky to witness it. Especially when you take into account how enormous YNP is.
[1] https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/steamboat-geyser.htm#:....
What would be the point of running if the Yellowstone Caldera actually goes bang? I mean, where would you run to? The resulting destruction would be greater than that experienced by the asteroid collision that ended the dinosaurs.
You're better off staying put and vaporising than dying of asphyxiation a week later.
1. This issue is not some precursor to the caldera becoming active - it is a irregular but normal part of areas with geysers.
2. If a geyser, hot spring, etc starts looking different, acting different, or there is an unexpected explosion run away from it quickly. The negative effects will be localized so distance is helpful.
It might just save your life.
If when looking up, the object has an apparent motion (left/right/back), it won't hit you, and certainly don't move in the direction it appears to be moving. If it appears stationary in the sky, it WILL hit you or very close, so move fast. Best default strategy with limited time & options is to hug the rock face, especially under an overhang.
Interested because I was there a few weeks ago.
Local explosions like this are not very indicative of movements in the county-sized reservoir of magma ten times deeper down that underlies the entire caldera.
Local hydrothermal basin, upper magma chamber, lower magma chamber, mantle plume: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/news/supervolcano-magma-cham...
Yellowstone tourists have a proud tradition of not running from things they should be.
"At around 10:00 AM MST on July 23, 2024, a small hydrothermal explosion occurred in Yellowstone National Park in the Biscuit Basin thermal area, about 2.1 miles (3.5 km) northwest of Old Faithful. Numerous videos of the event were recorded by visitors. The boardwalk was damaged, but there were no reports of injury. The explosion appears to have originated near Black Diamond Pool.
Biscuit Basin, including the parking lot and boardwalks, are temporary closed for visitor safety. The Grand Loop road remains open. Yellowstone National Park geologists are investigating the event."
I feel like that’s pure luck. Things could’ve gone way worse
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z64etOuLZDQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dechvhb0Meo
Dead Comment
pros:
- band aid on global temperatures
- interested in any others commenters may know of
cons:
- several states getting reset
- volcanic ash covering the North American bread basket
- pretty long list really
I’ve taken liquefaction maps into account previously when finding places to live, but not had to look up magma chamber reports yet.
Oh no! Wyoming might lose 0.007% of their GDP. I hope the governor can save them in time!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newberry_Volcano
https://hypotheticalvolcanoes.fandom.com/wiki/2081_Eruption_...
I’ll be sure to give it a wide berth in 2081
If it goes boom, I'll try to take pics and report back.
Not only is fertilizer very energy intensive to produce, it also contributes to de-oxygenation of lakes, rivers, and the ocean. It's no exaggeration that this might well end civilization on earth. If we lose the oceans (which are already becoming oxygen depleted) it's going to be that much harder to feed everyone.
So I'd consider volcanic ash a pro, not a con. Sure we might lose a single growing season, but could help us for centuries, if properly managed.
It also pulverized rock and volcanic glass, which causes all manner of hell when the wind blows.
Also, the mining process leaves very toxic tailings, but that is true for most mining.
- volcanic ash would replenish the NA bread basket soil erosion
- would set back solar adoption
Dead Comment
Dead Comment
> These very large and violent hydrothermal explosions are independent of associated volcanism. None of the large hydrothermal events of the past 16,000 years has been followed by an eruption of magma. The deeper magma system appears to be unaffected even by spectacular steam explosions and crater excavations within the overlying hydrothermal system.
Look at the White Island eruption a few years back. If you are on the island it was an awful event. But in terms of eruption scale it was so small it barely registered.