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Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week s contribution is from Mike Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
How many earthquakes were located in the Yellowstone region in 2020? What geysers have been active recently? What sort of volcanological research is being done in Yellowstone right now? It can sometimes be hard to find such information compiled in a single, easy-to-navigate source.
But not anymore.
Weâre pleased to announce publication of the 2020 Yellowstone Volcano Observatory annual report, which can be accessed at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/cir1482.
Chasing Gold, Geysers and Geothermal Power With Carolina Muñoz-Saez
(Courtesy Carolina Muñoz-Saez)
Geologist Carolina Muñoz-Saez is in the business of hydrothermal systems. Her specialty: studying natural plumbing networks that circulate hot water underground, and occasionally erupt above it. These drive the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. In other locations, they provide energy for electricity generation or heating. Some host unique microbial life forms. And, under the right conditions, circulating waters may pick up gold, copper or other valuable commodities from surrounding rocks, and concentrate them; many of the world’s most productive mines are the giant dried-up remains of onetime hydrothermal systems.
SALT LAKE CITY Steamboat Geyser might take a backseat to Old Faithful in terms of notoriety at Yellowstone National Park, but its eruptions are famously mysterious within the science community.
Steamboat Geyser, which is also the world s largest, has an odd pattern of eruptions. For instance, when it erupted in 2018, it was the first documented eruption in almost four years.
That s not uncommon because geysers are difficult to pinpoint, Michael Poland, the U.S. Geological Survey s scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, said at the time. Steamboat Geyser just happens to have a different aura that intrigued the science community.