<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1458" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"> <DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 9/8/2004 9:21:54 AM Mountain Daylight Time, dtaylor@weber.edu writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT face=Arial>3)  While at Mud Volcano, I overheard a ranger discussing how the water there was much newer than the water at Old Faithful, indicating that the Mud Volcano water was only a few years old, while O.F. is closer to hundreds.  Has anyone else heard this (not that I doubt it), and is anyone aware of what the geology is behind the difference?</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Quite simple, really. To generalize, in mud pot areas, although there certainly is some "old," that is, deep geothermal water involved, most of the fluid is near-surface meteoric water. This is why mud pots tend to dry out (at least to some extent, sometimes thoroughly) as the dry summer season progresses. So indeed, some water at Mud Volcano is in fact "brand new, 2004 water."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Scott Bryan</DIV></BODY></HTML>