Old Faithful - Course on Volcanoes

Bob took a course on volcanoes from the Institute so he took the truck for 3 days and left me stranded. (Yea!) Old Faithful (OF) is at the other end of this huge Yellowstone Park from our cabins and a full 2 hour drive one way.

Much of the verbiage on this blog is contributed by Bob!





The Architect came out in him (again :) and we had to weed through many pictures of the Inn, but here are some nice ones.

The room he was staying in is the window in the peak closest to this side. He could see the OF erupt if he leaned into the window and looked sharply to the right.


I want to practice drawing birds so he took pics of birds on benches around the Inn, I'll spare you those! But I've never noticed the OLD FAITHFUL INN carved into the bench tops before. The benches are on the second floor deck over the covered drop off/vehicle drive thru and face the Old Faithful Geyser. Great design.












And here is the info on the Architect along with the beautiful interior of the Inn. It never gets old looking at the construction. It was made from primarily Lodge Pole Pines which still grow in abundance around the park. The wife of the owner at that time, Mrs. Childs, picked out the furniture, much of which is still in use today.

On to the course..."Into The Heart Of The Yellowstone Volcano." As the course description noted, they hiked around the park looking at different thermal areas and discussed the possibility of another eruption in the future...wait...what?

We'll start with, what else, Old Faithful. Still erupting on a pretty consistent basis, yet not as regular as it once was. This is caused by water shifting underground.



We were told a funny story about OF by a course instructor last year. I'll relate that at the end of the pics.

Truth be known, we are aware that our wonderland out here is really a boiling pot of volcanic magna. Thus the many pictures of thermal features.

Grand Geyser

As our former roommate, Emily, said before leaving, "I like to think that all the outlets for the steam including the geysers, mudpots and all, are letting off enough pressure to keep 'things' under control." I think that about covers any fears, anxiety's, etc about sitting up here so smug!

Buffalo Hanging Around OF

Less than 1% of the park are thermal areas, but it seems like much more.



According to geologist, and course instructor, Jake Lowenstern, who is also head of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, there have been 3 super volcanic eruptions in Yellowstone. They were about 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago and caused enormous climatic and other changes throughout the earth. The three eruptions caused and formed what we call the Yellowstone huge caldera (crater) that dropped the earth up to 1,000 feet. It is still visible in the park and is about 35 miles across.

Dragon's Mouth Spring

 There have been about 80 smaller volcanoes causing lava flows since the last super eruption, the last one of which was about 70,000 years ago. There is a "hot spot" below the Yellowstone area where heat from magna or molten rock easily finds its way to the surface, which is caused by the constant stretching of the west side of the continent where it collided with the east side of the continent some 16 million years ago.

View of Norris Area

 The Yellowstone area is also subject to earthquakes. There have been some 352 small quakes in the last 180 days and some 1,000 in the last year. Most are very small and are not felt with a magnitude of less than 3. That being said some large quakes as far away as Alaska have disrupted or changed geyser patterns in the park.

Great Fountain Geyser

Yellowstone has over 300 geysers and 10,000 hydrothermal features, more than any other place on the planet. The OF area is at the southern end of the thermal area while Mammoth Hot Springs is at the northern area of the park, although it is outside the caldera area.

Mud Volcano

Shots above include Old Faithful geyser, another smaller geyser and Grand Geyser in the OF area. Then a shot of bison (buffalo) wandering thru the OF geyser area. Next is the Dragon's Mouth Spring from the Mud Volcano area. Then a shot of the Norris area with raised boardwalks that is located on the north edge of the caldera and is the hottest area in the park. Next is the Great Fountain Geyser. Lastly is the Mud Volcano.


So, this instructor (I) who stayed in one of our cabins last year, said he enjoys just standing around some of the features in the park and listening to people talk. When he was around OF one time, and it wasn't spouting yet, a Visitor (V) walked up to him, since he (I) had a Yellowstone shirt on, and asked what time it would start to spout. (I): 'Just what the sign says, around such and such a time, but no one can say for sure.' (V): No, I mean what time will someone push the button. (I): 'What button?' (V): 'The one that sets off OF.' (I): 'What do you mean?' (V): 'Everyone knows a Ranger or someone just goes over and pushes a button to make this thing spout the water from underground hoses. What's the big deal?' (I)-Speechless, just stared at V! And V turns to members of same party and says ' They must think we're all a bunch of idiots.' Hmmmm!