New Geyser Activity Near Old Faithful

New geyser activity has been reported in Yellowstone National Park near Old Faithful.
Park officials say that in the past week, Ear Spring, a normally docile hot pool, had a water eruption that reached 20 to 30 feet high on Saturday, September 15th. The eruption ejected not only rocks, but also material that had fallen or been thrown into the geyser in years past, like coins, old cans, and other human debris.
Ear Spring is located on “Geyser Hill,” just across the Firehole River from Old Faithful and hosts dozens of other hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles. The last known similar-sized eruption of the spring was in 1957, although smaller eruptions occurred as recently as 2004.
Since Ear Spring went off on Saturday, several other features on Geyser Hill have altered activity. Most notably, a new feature has formed west of Pump Geyser and north of Sponge Geyser directly under the boardwalk. The feature erupted overnight Tuesday, and continues to pulse water as a small spouter. And an area about 8-feet in diameter surrounding the spouter is “breathing” – rising and falling by about 6 inches every 10 minutes. As a result of these changes, Yellowstone National Park has closed portions of the boardwalk, but the boardwalks around Old Faithful remain open.
Additionally, officials say that several other thermal features are more active than usual, including geysering and boiling of Doublet Pool and North Goggles Geyser.
However, officials point out that changes in Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features are common occurrences and do not reflect changes in activity of the Yellowstone volcano. They say there are no signs of impending volcanic activity, and no significant increase in seismic activity.