Yellowstone‘s Steamboat Geyser hasn’t totally gone back to sleep, but it has definitely slacked off from the frequency geyser-watchers have enjoyed over the past three years. The only eruption recorded this year was on January 23rd, and that was 38 days after it had last erupted.
Steamboat has been totally dormant for as long as 50 years at one point, and has been known to be more sporadic and, well, unfaithful in most of the other years. It surprised geyser record-keepers three years ago when it began major eruptions within a week of each other, which was the most frequent on record.
During an interview when Steamboat first started to slow, Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Scientist in Charge Mike Poland told Jackson Hole Radio, “This is the sort of thing that is expected — Steamboat goes through periods of elevated activity and then returns to periods of less activity, so we knew the current show would eventually end.”
Mara Reed photo
