Techspectacular.com

New research suggests
that how often Old Faithful and other Yellowstone geysers erupt may depend on
annual rainfall patterns.

Geysers are rare hot
springs that periodically erupt bursts of steam and hot water. Old Faithful has
remained faithful for at least the past 135 years, showering appreciative
tourists every 50 to 90 minutes (most recently an average of 91 minutes).

USGS researcher Shaul
Hurwitz and his colleagues from Stanford University and Yellowstone National
Park have discovered that changes of water supply to a geyser’s underground
plumbing may have a large influence on eruption intervals; that is, the time
between eruptions.  For example, geysers
appear to lengthen and shorten their intervals on cycles that mimic annual dry
and wet periods.

Multi-year precipitation
records also strongly correlate with geyser behavior.  Based on these results, the study
proposes that an extended drought should result in longer intervals between
eruptions, and perhaps even cessation of activity in some geysers. In contrast,
in years with high precipitation, eruption intervals should be more
frequent.  The new research paper,
“Climate-Induced Variations of Geyser Periodicity in Yellowstone National Park,
USA,” is published in the June issue of the journal Geology.

Additional information: Geysers
are extremely rare; perhaps less than 1000 exist worldwide, with more than half
of them in Yellowstone National Park.  The
famous Old Faithful Geyser was named in 1870 during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Yellowstone expedition
and was the first geyser in the Park to be named.  Old Faithful eruptions can be viewed on any
computer on Earth via a video camera deployed by the National Park Service.
Instrumental data which records geyser eruption times is available at the Geyser Observation and Study Association web site.  Long-term meteorological trends can be
inferred from seasonal streamflow trends like those in the Madison River.

This study is a cooperative effort
involving the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service.