Geology Picture of the Week, August 26-Sept. 1, 2007: Giant Geyser (Yellowstone)

Pat Snyder Photography ^ | Pat Snyder

[cogitator]

I discovered while searching that Giant Geyser has become reasonably active, erupting every 7-10 days or so, sometimes even less. Because Steamboat in the Norris Geyser Basin is extremely irregular (1-5 eruptions a year), this probably makes Giant the largest regular performing geyser in the world.

For perspective, an eruption of Old Faithful puts out about 10,000 gallons. An eruption of Giant puts out roughly a million gallons.

More pictures of this eruption here:

Giant Eruptions September 4 and 9, 2006

[cogitator]

When I retire wealthy (OK, there's a chance that can happen), I want to spend a couple of weeks at Yellowstone "geyser-gazing", and see as many of them as I can. I've been lucky on my two trips there -- I saw Grand twice, Great Fountain, Daisy, Riverside, Beehive (from a distance), Echinus, and several of the smaller ones, but I'd like to see more. It's weird; they all have personalities and behavioral quirks, as if they were alive, but it's really all about thermodynamics and hydrology.

[cogitator]

** ping **

[ml/nj]

Only been there once, but I liked the smallest geysers better than Faithful or the others. You could really watch what was happening with the little ones, and you could touch them too.

ML/NJ

[geezerwheezer]

Like you, I love Yellowstone. Been there many times and can never get enough of it.

[Lokibob]

My favorite geyser is Crystal geyser, just outside of Green River, Utah.

I goes off about every 12-18 hours. The initial shot of water goes up 200 feet, then it drops down to 100 feet and holds it for about 10 minutes. It comes out of an 18” pipe, so the volume is pretty high, but I’d not really be able to guess how much.

It is a cold water geyser with the temperature of 60 degrees, and is sulfur laden.

one year I visited Crystal in the middle of winter, expecting a frozen cone, but it was clear of snow and ice all around it.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Walked through Yellowstone with my wife - she was about 7 months pregnant and we still joke about a couple of the times when I ended up “pushing” her uphill a few of the trails...

Had a beautiful trip in to the central park (the Lodge & Old Faithfull) on snowmobiles from the Idaho entrance one winter.