Anonymous ID: 92adfa June 10, 2018, 9:48 p.m. No.1695363   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5369

>>1695174 (There are several of what we call watch the water references in other articles here also, all recent few days.)

 

Yellowstone's active hydrothermal system: What's with the hot water?

 

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Pat Shanks, scientist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

Steamboat Geyser in Norris Geyser Basin has been measured as the world's tallest geyser (230-294 feet). The recent series of geyser eruptions emphasize the importance, variability, power, and beauty of Yellowstone's hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and mudpots.

 

Steamboat Geyser, which had not erupted since 2014, entered a new period of activity with seven eruptions from March 15 to May 27. Geysers are known to change eruption patterns periodically, and the present activity is similar to periods of frequent Steamboat eruptions in the 1960s and 1980s. But where does the hot water come from?

 

The water that ends up in Yellowstone's hydrothermal systems comes from rain and snowfall that seeps down through the ground. It then becomes part of a groundwater system for the whole Yellowstone region. Within the Yellowstone Caldera, groundwater fluids at depths of approximately 1.9-5.6 miles are heated as they circulate through rocks that overlie the magma storage region. At this depth, the chemical composition of the fluid and rock become altered by geochemical reactions. The result? Heated and altered "hydrothermal fluids" that absorb gases and chemical compounds from the magma and crust (carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, methane, argon and helium).

 

These heated fluids are lighter than colder groundwaters and buoyantly rise to the surface. When they near the surface, hydrothermal fluids mix with the cold groundwaters and deposit siliceous (SiO2) sinter or calcareous (CaCO3) travertine that form the impressive cones, mounds, and terraces in Yellowstone's thermal basins.

 

Hot springs are a natural outflow of hot water at the Earth's surface. They typically collect in shallow depressions to form thermal pools. In Yellowstone, hot springs can form from:

 

silica-bearing alkaline chloride waters.

travertine-forming calcium carbonate waters.

steam condensation originating from fumaroles.

 

https:// billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/yellowstone-s-active-hydrothermal-system-what-s-with-the-hot/article_760bc505-b6e6-5ce3-b4a7-b038235f4979.html