Yellowstone’s Greatest Geyser Goes Dormant

Has Steamboat the world's largest geyser, gone dormant?  

How is this possible?

Steamboat is not like Old Faithful. Major eruptions for Steamboat are rare. But when they do happen they are spectacular.

According to a website tracking each eruption, the last time Steamboat erupted was May 31, when it spewed water into the air for an impressive 10 minutes. The most recent previous eruption had been 26 days prior to that. (Cowboy State Daily).

Don't panic. This was not unexpected according to Michael Poland, a scientist in charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

Geysers need water. Regional droughts cause a slowdown and at times a halt to activity. Since rainy seasons come and go we can expect to see eruptions once we start getting rain again.

Get our free mobile app

“Recent research suggests that Old Faithful even turned off for about 150 years during a period 650-800 years ago when there was a major regional drought,” he said. “So I suspect that might play a role,”  said Mr. Poland. (CSD).

According to Don Day, regional weatherman at Dayweather.com, the pacific weather system known as La Nina & El Nino affects how much moisture we get in this part of the county. The pattern is changing, slowly. At this time Don sees wetter weather returning to Wyoming by 2022. 

So, while the weatherman expects wet weather to return in 2022 let's just pretend for a moment that it does not. That, according to the geologist, Mr. Poland, would not be unusual. This area has gone through long severe droughts that have lasted hundreds of years.