Latest From Yellowstone: Thermal Activity Increases, Geysers Shoot ROCKS

The latest news from Yellowstone National Park is a little terrifying, but experts keep reminding us that we have nothing to fear.  The thermal activity in the park has been increasing lately, and geysers have reportedly been shooting out rocks.

Authorities have been forced to shut down certain areas of the park after hot plumes of water erupted from the ground several feet up in the air.  This prompted fears that new geysers are forming over the caldera.  New vents were seen blasting water and steam across the basin area in Geyser Hill, ever since the Ear Spring erupted on Saturday shooting water up to 30 feet in the air.  The new activity was said to be endangering visitors as “debris and rocks flew into the sky,” according to The Express UK. 

The last known eruption on that scale occurred in 1957, though several smaller eruptions were observed in 2004. Ear Spring is one of the hottest pools in Yellowstone National Park and contains water above the boiling point up to 200 degrees

Authorities have attributed the rise in geothermal activity to Saturday’s eruption, after several new surface fractures and splashes of water were spotted at the Upper Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park.  On Tuesday, spouts of water shot from the ground west of Pump Geyser and north of Sponge Geyser, also ejecting large amounts of hot steam. The new feature, which is eight feet in diameter, continues to show increased signs of geothermal activity after geologists observed the ground rising and falling by six inches every 10 minutes.

Additionally, geologists have also observed new geysers formin and some boiling at the hot spring Doublet Pool and North Goggles Geyser, located in the Upper Geyser Basin. Officials have warned visitors to beware of new eruptions and have closed down several parts of the basin as they continue to study the rare change in the area’s activity.

The activity in the Upper Geyser Basin will have no impact on any of the other geysers such as the world-famous Old Faithful. And geologists still say that his kind of activity is completely normal and that Yellowstone isn’t going to erupt anytime soon.  “Shifts in hydrothermal systems occur only the upper few hundred feet of the Earth’s crust and are not directly related to [the] movement of magma several kilometers deep. There are no signs of impending volcanic activity,” The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory said.  “There has been no significant increase in seismicity nor broad-scale variations in ground movement.

This article has been contributed by SHTF Plan. Visit www.SHTFplan.com for alternative news, commentary and preparedness info.