Great Fountain Geyser
| Great Fountain Geyser | |
|---|---|
 Sunset eruption | |
 | |
| Location | Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming |
| Coordinates | 44°32′11″N 110°48′00″W / 44.536424°N 110.7998826°W[1] |
| Elevation | 7,349 feet (2,240 m) [2] |
| Type | Fountain geyser |
| Eruption height | 75 feet (23 m) to 220 feet (67 m) |
| Frequency | 9 to 15 hours |
| Duration | 1 hour (2 hours max) |
| Temperature | 49 °C (120 °F) [1] |
The Great Fountain Geyser is a fountain-type geyser located in the Firehole Lake area of Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It is the only Lower Geyser Basin feature that the park makes predictions for.[3]
Eruption
[edit]The geyser erupts every 9 to 15 hours. Great Fountain's maximum height ranges from about 75 feet (23 m) to over 220 feet (67 m). Its duration is usually about one hour but durations of over two hours have been seen. The duration of an eruption affects the interval that will elapse before the next eruption, so that if the duration of an eruption is recorded, the time of the following eruption can be predicted to a precision of about two hours. around 1-2 hours the geyser overflows and drains until it gets so strong it reaches 1 meter and this is the start of the first burst. . The prediction can be refined, to plus or minus 15 minutes or so, through observation of overflow from the crater during the period between eruptions.[4] While this pattern of behavior is observed most of the time, there are occasional episodes of so-called "wild-phase" activity during which the eruptions are of greatly extended duration and intervals between eruptions may be as long as three days.[4] The geyser is then unpredictable until wild-phase activity ceases and more normal eruptions resume.
Nearby White Dome Geyser, which erupts considerably more frequently (albeit less powerfully) from a large geyserite cone, is easily seen from the same parking lot that affords a viewpoint for Great Fountain. The thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus, important because it produces an enzyme used in polymerase chain reaction laboratory procedures central to modern molecular biology, was first isolated from Mushroom Pool, a non-eruptive hot spring a few hundred feet from White Dome Geyser.[4]
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Crater, W.H. Jackson, 1883 -
Eruption, 1967
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Great Fountain Geyser". Yellowstone Geothermal Features Database. Montana State University.
- ^ "Great Fountain Geyser". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ "Great Fountain Geyser". The Geyser Observation and Study Association. Archived from the original on 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
- ^ a b c Bryan, T. Scott (2008). Geysers of Yellowstone, The (4th ed.). University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-0-87081-924-7.
External links
[edit]
- "Great Fountain Geyser". Geyser Observation and Study Association.
Yellowstone National Park - Lower and Midway Geyser Basins | ||
|---|---|---|
Geothermal features, geography, historic structures and other attractions in the Lower and Midway Geyser Basins | ||
| Lower Geyser Basin |
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| Midway Geyser Basin | ||
| Structures and history | ||
| Geography and geology | ||
