<html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)"> <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> There is an unconfirmed report that Steamboat erupted within the past 24-48 hours.  The following was reported to Bonnie Schwartz, Old Faithful Sub-District Ranger this afternoon (2/21) by a female guide (I didn’t get the guide’s name):   “Steamboat Geyser appears to be ready to erupt.  It is sending a plume of steam several hundred feet into the air, and Cistern Spring is draining.”  The guide said Cistern dropped 2cm in the 20 minutes they watched it.  Now before you say “Steamboat erupted”, the guide neglected to mention anything about ice, wash, snowmelt, or mud in the area.  Instead, she said the bacteria mat looked thick in the runoff channel.  She also told Bonnie there were no footprints in the snow and that her party appeared to be the first one to visit the area in days.  YNP has been hit with a heavy snowstorm the past 48 hours, with over a foot of new snow falling in the interior.   I am heading out of the Park tomorrow morning for the weekend and won’t be able to visit Steamboat until early next week.  Hopefully someone else who knows what to look at will get there before I do…   MK </div> </body> </html>