[Geysers] Fw: (USGS/NPS News Release) What Makes an Old Geyser Faithful?

[Lee_Whittlesey at nps.gov]

----- Forwarded by Lee Whittlesey/YELL/NPS on 05/30/2008 10:21 AM -----
                                                                                                                               
                      YELL Public                                                                                              
                      Affairs                  To:                                                                             
                      Sent by: Al Nash         cc:       (bcc: Lee Whittlesey/YELL/NPS)                                        
                                               Subject:  (USGS/NPS News Release) What Makes an Old Geyser Faithful?            
                                                                                                                               
                      05/30/2008 09:26                                                                                         
                      AM MDT                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                               




(See attached file: 038-What Makes An Old Geyser Faithful.pdf)


U.S. Department of the Interior      U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey               National Park Service
                                     Yellowstone National Park

Shaul Hurwitz 650 329-4441           Al Nash or Stacy Vallie
Leslie Gordon 650 329-4006           307 344-2015

----------------------------------------------------
NEWS RELEASE
----------------------------------------------------

For Immediate Release – May 30, 2008

WHAT MAKES AN OLD GEYSER FAITHFUL?

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
http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2FG24723A.1
.

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 (
http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/oldfaithfulcam.htm). Instrumental data
which records geyser eruption times is available at
http://www.geyserstudy.org/.  Long-term meteorological trends can be
inferred from seasonal streamflow trends like those in the Madison River (
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/wy/nwis/uv/?site_no=06037500&agency_cd=USGS).

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


USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit
www.usgs.gov.
Subscribe to USGS News Releases via our electronic mailing list or RSS
feed.

**** www.usgs.gov ****
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 038-What Makes An Old Geyser Faithful.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 107104 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20080530/3c8661ba/attachment.pdf>