Hey everyone sorry there wasn't a Blast From the Past this Saturday, the post I was going to publish had some information that I was unsure if the USGS would appreciate it being put out in public. So I sent a email to my supervisor and advisor at CVO to ask if it was ok if I could publish it. Hopefully I'll get an email back this week. Anyways...It's Movie Monday!!!
Spring is just around the corner, and that means there's only a couple months left until the summer operating seasons begins in Yellowstone National Park. On April 19, the road from the West Entrance to all of the Geyser Basins open, and Geyser Gazing can begin. This video was put together by my fellow geyser gazer and good friend Will Boekel to celebrate geyser gazing and get us excited for what this season has to offer. Last season definitely was a blast (pun intended), and I'll be touching on that during my annual Thermal Thursdays. Until then, enjoy the video! My question is how many different geysers can you name? Comment below! No cheating!
Winter in Yellowstone is probably one of the more drastic changes in a couple months that you can see anywhere on this continent. The wildflowers whither, the temperature plummets, and suddenly the ground is covered in a couple inches to several feet of snow for several months. Everything in the Park slows down almost to a crawl, that is, except for the Geysers.
Old Faithful erupting in Winter
In the winter, it seems that the only change that occurs to the geysers is that now even the smallest sput (a nickname Gazers have given to the little guys) can be seen, their steam columns become about ten times bigger, and it looks like a bomb has gone off whenever one erupts on the Old Faithful Streaming Camera.
Due to the increased visibility of the steam and from colder temperatures, Geysers begin to show visible steam "streamers" that are attached to every single drop that sputters out of them. At some points, the temperature becomes so cold that the streamers can be seen from the Webcam at Old Faithful.
Sawmill Geyser erupting with streamers going nearly straight up.
Photo courtesy of Graham Meech
Despite the seemingly unchanged nature of the geysers during the winter, there is one geyser however, that is of considerable interest. Aurum Geyser, it is a small cone type geyser that erupts to about 30 feet for a minute and a half. During the summer it is a constant frustration of Geyser Gazers because of it's very erratic behavior, erupting 4 hours apart one time, and then taking a 48 hour break the next. Then something interesting happens. As summer gives way to winter. Aurum becomes practically predictable. it's eruptions about 4 hours apart. This winter, it was 4 hours 8 minutes +/- 12 minutes.
Aurum Erupting in the Summer
It is thought that the reason that this behavior occurs is because Aurum Geyser may be the only geyser in Yellowstone National Park that is affected by short term whether changes. If you want to accurately judge how frequent Aurum is, take a quick look at the grassy meadow behind it. If the meadow is wet and somewhat marshy, Aurum will probably be a bit more frequent. If the Meadow is dry. Then Aurum is probably reverting back to it's nickname graciously bestowed upon it by gazers over the years , "$&#@$&! Geyser". So with that theory it makes sense that Aurum is more common in the winter, the heat in the ground constantly melts the snow that falls on it, soaking that meadow for most of the Winter. In the summer there is little precipitation to wet the meadow, which means that Aurum is all over the place. However, if there is a spell of rain or a thunderstorm in the park, Aurum will usually become more regular for a couple eruptions. but then it will become more erratic again.
Aurum Steam trails this January. Photo Courtesy of Graham Meech
In terms of Geyser Gazing, Winter is a challenging season. The Geysers keep going full steam ahead but there aren't people there to watch and observe them 24/7 like in the summer. The biggest reason for this is that time is limited in the Geyser Basins during the winter, since the only access to the Basins is via a special National Park "Snowcoach" and the tours are timed, so you can't just take your time and sit several hours at a geyser, you have to keep moving. You can get into the park for a day snowcoach or snomobile tour for relatively cheap. But for those who want an extended stay, such as the Gazers, it's a harder nut to crack because you would have to either rent a room at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge or rent a cabin.
On of the numerous Snowcoaches that deliver Visitors to different destinations around the park during winter
Photo Courtesy of Graham Meech
The second reason that Winter is a challenge for gazers is simply because it's hard to get around because of the thick snowpack and it's hard to stay in one place for a long period of time because of the sometimes below freezing temperatures. These difficulties are further worsened by fact that the spray from the geysers often freezes instantaneously wherever it lands, if this happens to be a boardwalk. Watch out!
Winter in Yellowstone, one of the more unique seasonal changes on the continent. Who's up for some snowy Geyser Gazing?
One thing that you'll learn about me pretty quickly is that I really enjoy making videos using the Macintosh program iMovie. I started doing it the same year that I entered tenth grade, and I've been doing it ever since. I made this movie partially as a summery and as a celebration of my week long field work expedition at Newberry Volcano in Oregon, it's slightly rough because I was still learning how to work with iMovie, but I am satisfied with the final product. Enjoy!
From August 14-20, 2011, I became a Volcanologist for a week.
Through an amazing set of circumstances and events, I managed to become a part of a team from the Cascades Volcano Observatory that had the task of rigging a volcano up with monitoring equipment that it was sorely lacking. This is a series of blog posts that will break the different aspects of the trip up.
A Geologic Background
The volcano in question was the Newberry Shield Volcano, an 800,000 year old 8,000 foot behemoth covering an area the size of Rhode Island and dominating the landscape of Eastern Oregon for miles around. At the top of this huge mound of volcanic rock is a caldera six miles across containing two lakes. Paulina Lake and East Lake,. There are also hot spring seeps along the lake shore that are cool enough to bath in.
Newberry is a unique volcano geologically due to the fact that it erupts both Rhyolite and Basaltic Andesite, in english that basically means the volcano erupts both very thick, sticky, explosive lava, like Mount Saint Helens. but it also erupts very runny and fast moving lava, like Hawaii. The more explosive, or viscous eruptions occur around or in the caldera, the last explosive eruption happening about 1,200 years ago. The more fluid lava erupts from huge fissures or cracks on the mountain's flanks and covers vast areas. The last time an eruption of fluid basaltic lava occurred was about 7,000 years ago.
Newberry's Profile
The most concerning threat that Newberry presents is its large explosive eruptions thdat can blast ash high into the stratosphere and cover a vast area in a layer of volcanic ash. Newberry lies directly along the major air corridor spanning from British Columbia to California. This creates a huge danger for aircraft, when ash gets sucked into their engines, it shreds the circuitry and fries the electronics in the engines, as well as destroying the mechanical parts. When a 747 unknowingly flew into an ash cloud from a erupting volcano in Alaska in 1989, it almost ended in disaster.
View of the Newberry Caldera, site of the volcano's more explosive eruptions.
Our team was a potpourri of people. There were seismologists, electricians, geochemists, geophysicists, grad students, a couple of volunteers. And then there was me, the youngest of the group, a lowly high school student along for the ride.
We had 12 days to begin taking the volcano's pulse. Could we do it?
