[Geysers] History of Morning Geyser

[JEFFREY CROSS]

Rowe, Fournier and Morey (USGS Professional Paper 525-B p. 184-186, 1965) studied the Daisy Group in 1963 by pouring 7 lb of sodium iodide into Splendid Geyser and then monitoring the NaI concentration in nearby vents.  They found that in Splendid, the NaI fell to 7% of its original value after 1h 21m and to 0.6% after 2h 47m.  NaI was found in Comet Geyser at the time of the only measurement, 50m after the experiment began.  In Bonita Pool, the NaI concentration rose and then peaked 2h 45m after the experiment began.  In Daisy Geyser, only a little NaI was ever found, about 1h after the experiment began.  No NaI was found in Bank Geyser.

At the time of the study, both Daisy and Splendid were dormant and had been for several months.  Bonita Pool and Bank Geyser were the only points of overflow from the group.

The authors calculated that about 71,000 gallons of water lay under Splendid, in direct connection with its vent.  George Marler had estimated that between 30,000 and 40,000 gallons of water are thrown out during an eruption of Splendid.  They also caluclated that much of the NaI was carried away by subsurface flow.

It's odd that the NaI appeared in Comet and Bonita in larger quantities than in Daisy.  Comet is on the west side of Daisy, but Bonita is on the east.  The NaI must therefore have passed under Daisy's vent without circulating into the pool.  This suggests that water at the surface of Daisy did not circulate to any great depth during the time of its dormancy.

Jeff Cross
jeff.cross at utah.edu

<I don't know if she ever got this assay complete, but a geothermal researcher named Cathy Nist had a research proposal accepted that allowed her to put a chemical salt of some sort into Splendid and periodically take samples from the other geysers in the Daisy group to track the way it diffused. It's a great question; looking for answers would make for a whole bunch of really good (funded) research studies.
Karen Webb>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20120623/1fdb2e07/attachment.html>