Steamboat Erupts Again Saturday
Written by Andrew-Rossi on May 21, 2018
For those of you who are Yellowstone geyser watchers… Steamboat experienced its sixth eruption this year on Saturday night.
The United States Geologic Survey says the eruption started at about 9:49 PM local time. 90 minutes later, increased discharge was seen at the Tantalus stream gage.
In response to several Facebook inquiries regarding the eruption pattern of the world’s largest geyser, representatives from USGS Volcanoes pointed out that Steamboat doesn’t really have a “norm” — it erupted dozens of times in the 1960s and early 1980s, and at other times has gone quiet for years.
Experts say that the sudden surge in the number of eruptions is not a sign of any sort of volcanic activity at Yellowstone, as most geysers are unpredictable. They also point out that the eruptions of Steamboat this year have all been smaller than that of 2014, at least in terms of seismic energy.
Photo – Seismic record from station YNM at the Norris Museum. The thick trace at the bottom of the record denotes the eruption.