Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s contribution is from Michael Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.<\/p>\n
Norris Geyser Basin<\/a> is known for being the hottest and most dynamic of Yellowstone National Park\u2019s thermal areas\u2014and that\u2019s saying something!\u00a0 It is home to Steamboat Geyser<\/a>, the tallest active geyser on Earth, and it contains an interesting and chaotic mix of acidic<\/a> and neutral<\/a> features in terms of chemistry.<\/p>\n Echinus is a rare acidic geyser. Temperature is measured in the outlet channel that carries much of the erupted water. Rapid temperature increases in geyser outlet channels typically reflect increases in flow due to eruptions.<\/p>\n In the Back Basin<\/a> of Norris Geyser Basin, about 200 meters (660 feet) away from Steamboat Geyser, is Echinus Geyser<\/a>.\u00a0 The name comes from mineralogist Albert Charles Peale, who visited the geyser in 1878 and thought the rocks around the geyser looked like sea urchins\u2014a type of animal known as an echinoderm.<\/p>\n The geyser pool is about 20 meters (66 feet) across.\u00a0 Paradoxically, the geyser has an acidic chemistry, and it is the largest acidic geyser in the world.\u00a0 That sounds a bit scary, but the acid is not concentrated.\u00a0 Rather, it\u2019s a bit like orange juice or vinegar.<\/p>\n Acid geysers are rare because acidic water can break down the rock that makes up a geyser\u2019s plumbing system.\u00a0 At Echinus Geyser, however, the composition is due to mixing between acidic gases and neutral waters, and the acidity is not sufficient to eat away at the rock.\u00a0The somewhat unique water chemistry results in interesting formations and compositions, including the red color (from iron, aluminum, and arsenic) that rims the geyser pool and the silica-covered spiny rocks that give the geyser its name.<\/p>\n The boardwalk around Echinus Geyser contains several benches and multiple tiers of platforms.\u00a0 Visitors to the geyser during most of the 21st century might have wondered why there were so many viewing areas, because eruptions are not common.\u00a0 But in the latter half of the 20th century, the geyser was a consistent performer, and visitors could get closer to an eruption there than almost anywhere in the park!<\/p>\n The geyser appears to have been mostly dormant with only occasional eruptions prior to 1948.\u00a0 In the 1970s Echinus Geyser was erupting regularly at 40\u201380-minute intervals.\u00a0 In the 1980s and 1990s, the eruption durations could be quite extreme, sometimes lasting more than 90 minutes!<\/p>\n Eruptions of Echinus Geyser varied tremendously when the geyser was vigorously active.\u00a0 Some were small while others reached about 23 meters (75 feet).\u00a0 They could be vertical or inclined, occasionally soaking onlookers with warm water, and could be regular enough that the park would sometimes post predictions\u2014the duration of an eruption could often be used to forecast the timing of the subsequent eruption.\u00a0By the early 2000s, however, eruptions started to wane, and activity became much less common.<\/p>\n In 2010, a temperature monitoring system<\/a> was established in the outflow channel of Echinus Geyser as a means of tracking any changes.\u00a0 Data from that system recorded 15 sporadic eruptions during October 2010\u2013January 2011.\u00a0 After that time there were a few eruptions here and there until the geyser came alive in 2017.<\/p>\n Temperature record from Echinus geyser outflow channel for October 17\u201320, 2017. The plot captures a time when the geyser went from occasional eruptions to semi-regular eruptions (signified by temperature spikes after about 12:00 on October 18) occurring about every 2 hours.<\/p>\n Echinus Geyser in eruption on October 24, 2017. \u00a0Photo by MA Bellingham, used with permission.<\/p>\n Starting in mid-September of that year, the temperature sensor recorded spikes followed by decreases happening many times throughout the day.\u00a0 These were associated not with eruptions but rather surges from the pool where the surface became agitated, releasing hot water down the channel, and then calming, with lower water levels that gradually returned to normal.\u00a0 In October, true eruptions started, indicated by higher temperature spikes as more hot water went down the channel.\u00a0 From October 18 to November 10, 2017, eruptions took place very consistently about every 2\u20133 hours.\u00a0 Then the activity suddenly stopped.\u00a0 There was one eruption in January 2018, one in January 2019, and two in December 2020.\u00a0 Then quiet.<\/p>\n Until now.<\/p>\n In early February 2026, repeated surges of the geyser began\u2014as before, with the surface becoming agitated and releasing more water down the runoff channel.\u00a0 The first eruption since 2020 occurred on February 7, followed by additional eruptions on February 9, 12, and 15.\u00a0 Starting on February 16, eruptions began occurring every 2 to 5 hours.\u00a0 These eruptions last 2\u20133 minutes and reach about 6\u201310 meters (20\u201330 feet) in height.\u00a0After eruption, the water level decreases significantly and doesn\u2019t return to normal for about an hour.\u00a0 Overall, this pattern resembles that of late 2017.<\/p>\n Temperature record from Echinus Geyser outflow channel for February 6, 2026, at 8 p.m. MST to February 7, 2026, at 8 a.m. MST. \u00a0The plot shows initial baseline temperatures, then two spikes to 50 \u00b0C representing water surges, then an eruption marked by a spike to 70 \u00b0C followed by a lull to 10 \u00b0C, and finally a return to baseline. \u00a0Another surge is present at the end of the record. \u00a0The eruption shown is the first recorded at the geyser since December 2020.<\/p>\n You can follow the activity of Echinus Geyser via the temperature graphs on the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory website<\/a>\u2014look for the spikes that reach about 70 \u00b0C (158 \u00b0F).\u00a0 Those are the eruptions!\u00a0 Spikes that reach 40\u201350 \u00b0C (104\u2013122 \u00b0F) are the surges.<\/p>\n Will the eruptions continue into the summertime, allowing visitors to use the seating and viewing areas around the geyser for their intended purpose?\u00a0 It\u2019s probably not too likely given the geyser\u2019s tendency to wake up for a month or two before going back to sleep, and there were no eruptions during the last few days of February so it might already have gone quiet.\u00a0 But change is constant at Norris Geyser Basin, so perhaps the show will continue into the summer!\u00a0 Fingers crossed\u2026<\/p>\n Acknowledgement: Some of the information for this article was derived from T. Scott Bryan\u2019s The Geysers of Yellowstone, Lee H. Whittlesey\u2019s Yellowstone Place Names, the online GeyserTimes database for Echinus Geyser<\/a>, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1456<\/a>, and research by M.A. Bellingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[19478,150659,150662,150661,61,60,150660,82,19479,19480],"class_list":{"0":"post-324982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-caldera-chronicles","9":"tag-echinus-geyser","10":"tag-geyser-eruption","11":"tag-hydrothermal-activity","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-norris-geyser-basin","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-yellowstone","17":"tag-yellowstone-national-park"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}