Yellowstone hot spring spews forth spectacular muddy plumes | US news
A hot spring in Yellowstone National Park that erupts sporadically was caught on official camera exploding in spectacular plumes of mud over the weekend.
Volcano experts with the US Geological Survey described the eruption as simply “Kablooey!” »
The tumult occurred Saturday morning at Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone and provided dramatic images.
Video shared by the USGS on social media shows mud gushing from the murky hot spring just before 9:23 a.m. local time in Biscuit Basin.
It is midway between the famous Old Faithful Geyser which gushes water and steam at frequent intervals and the wide and calm Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest spring in the park, which gushes and shows brightly colored rings formed by heat-loving bacteria.
Other recent eruptions in the lesser-known Black Diamond Pool have mostly been audible and not visible, as they occurred either at night or when the nearby camera was obscured by ice.
A hydrothermal explosion at Black Diamond in July 2024 sent rocks and mud flying hundreds of feet high and damaged a boardwalk used by visitors, causing the area to close.
Since then, so-called dirty eruptions reaching up to 40 feet have occurred sporadically.
Researchers installed a new camera and seismic and acoustic monitoring station this summer, and they say the instruments, along with temperature sensors maintained by Yellowstone National Park’s geological program, can better detect and characterize eruptions. It paid off on Saturday.
“We had a nice clear view of one of these dirty eruptions under a bright blue sky with the surrounding area covered in snow (ah, winter in Yellowstone!),” USGS Volcanoes said on social media, noting that it was a great example of the type of activity that has been happening on site over the past 19 months.
Yellowstone preserves the most extraordinary collection of hot springs, geysers, mud pots and fumaroles on Earth. More than 10,000 hydrothermal features are found in the park, including more than 500 geysers. Bison, bears, elk and other wildlife stars call the park home.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
