Castle Geyser Eruption Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Castle Geyser erupting, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.... more

by Ram Vasudev

Title

Castle Geyser Eruption Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Artist

Ram Vasudev

Medium

Photograph

Description

Castle Geyser erupting, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Castle Geyser is a cone geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. It is known for large geyserite sinter deposits that form its cone and look like a castle. The top edges of the structure resemble a castle, with a large keep, multiple turrets, and a crenellation along the top edges its towers. Over time the cone's shape changes because of the layers of mineral deposited in successive eruptions. The Castle Geyser has a 10 to 12 hour eruption cycle. The geyser expels hot water for about 20 minutes in a vertical column that reaches a height of 90 feet before changing to a noisy steam phase for 30 to 40 minutes, as in this photo.

The sinter cone for Castle Geyser has been dated to the year 1022 using the radiocarbon dating technique. A 3-D laser scan of the cone shows that this geyser has evolved through four to five distinct stages to reach its current state. It is interesting that an earthquake in the far-away Denali National Park in Alaska in 2002 caused Castle Geyser and other geysers in Yellowstone to decrease their eruption frequency - obviously the underground plumbing even in such far-away locations are interconnected!!! The geysers have since returned to their previous eruption frequency.
Info extracted from Wikipedia.org.

Copyright © Ram Vasudev. All rights reserved.

Uploaded

April 18th, 2014