When Did Old Faithful First Erupt

[7DSUSYstrings]

I've been searching for this and drawn a blank. Approximately when did Old Faithful first erupt?

[Turtle]

AGING A GEYSER

Hot springs and geysers are always changing due to many factors, making it difficult to calculate the age of a single hydrothermal feature.

 

Basing a geyser’s age on the size of its cone is inaccurate. Sinter usually forms at a rate of less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) per 100 years, but there are places in Yellowstone where the deposition rate is much greater. Also, a geyser may become dormant for a number of years and stop depositing sinter altogether or, conversely, experience a period of very frequent eruptions with exceptionally heavy deposition. The best that can be said is that a geyser with a large cone is probably quite old.

 

that said, judging by the most recent nearby eruption of lava -called the allard Lake dome- -the geyser is < 150,000 years old. scroll down to Figure C. at this link to see a map of yellostone's eruptive history.

 

An Overview of Yellowstone Geologic History

[7DSUSYstrings]

Ty :(

[7DSUSYstrings]

Commentary

 

It seems the 2nd link has some typos. It seems from all this that <150,000 years is a stealthy way of diguising "We don't know."

[Turtle]

Commentary

 

It seems the 2nd link has some typos. It seems from all this that <150,000 years is a stealthy way of diguising "We don't know."

 

first, it is poor form, if not against our rules, to refer readers to another forum. as to the typos, you might point them out specifically here, particularly if they bear on the facts. then as to stealthy, i see nothing of that in my references. your continuing bashing and suspicions of bona fide scientists is vexing to say the least, and it's at the heart of my referring to your assertions as "pseudo-scientific"*. to what end do you think a scientist would hide information about the age of Old Faithful in specific or yellowstone in general?

 

* pseudoscientific

n.

A theory, methodology, or practice that is considered to be without scientific foundation.

[CraigD]

I've been searching for this and drawn a blank. Approximately when did Old Faithful first erupt?

Good question. Were I a Yellowstone park ranger, or even an inquisitive visitor with a decent memory, I expect I’d know an answer off the top of my head. As I’m not, I had to search and read a little to get not just an answer, but a sense of the context of the question and its answers.

It seems from all this that <150,000 years is a stealthy way of disguising "We don't know."

I think you’ve gotten confused by all the information in the various linked-to articles Turtle provided, Dr. C.

 

The “less that 150,000 years” appears to me to answer a more general question about the age of the various geysers in the present day Yellowstone. Page 2 of “aging a geyser” provides a more specific answer to your question:

The results indicate that Old Faithful has only been active as a hot spring for approximately 750 years. Its life as a geyser has not lasted longer than 300 years. However, Old Faithful sits on deposits of much older sinter that were formed by a previous spring in the same place.

and gives a very brief, vague summary, but no references (which I hope will increase everyone's appreciation of hypography's rule concerning references), to how this was determined.

 

I get the impression that, because geysers and hot springs depend on underground water supplies that can suddenly change when these water paths are changed by earthquakes and other events, the lifetime of a particular geyser is typically on the order of hundreds, rather than tens of thousands, or years.

 

According to the above reference and various encyclopedia (such as its wikipedia article and information webpages, the current status of Old Faithful as the single big feature not very connected to others, is, geologically, a new one. From a roughly estimated 1250 AD to 1700, the area was a hot spring with many vents, but eventually settled down to only one “big hole”, with its famously regular period of eruption. This period has varied considerably since people have been measuring it: prior to an earthquake in 1959, it rarely exceeded 65 min. After another one in 1983, its average period has increased to its current values of around clustered around 65 and 91 min. At least in 1997, when this article was written, it was seasonally dependent, becoming longer in summer.

 

I also get the impression that geologists are less concerned with the history of individual geysers than the long history of successive whole systems of them.

 

Individual big geysers are beautiful (to me, at least) and great tourist attractions. Collectively, big and small geysers can be valuable indicators of changes in geothermal activity (I certainly know if I was sitting on top of a massive volcano system, and its geyser activity dramatically increased, I’d take that as an important indicator!). Geologically, however they’re ephemeral.

[7DSUSYstrings]

From a roughly estimated 1250 AD to 1700, the area was a hot spring with many vents, but eventually settled down to only one “big hole”, with its famously regular period of eruption.

 

Bless your heart, Craig!

 

I often have to read, then re-read to get everything. You may have partially confirmed what I've been suggesting, in that the basin, so in turn the springs, were affected critically by the "Little Ice Age" associated with the Maunder Minumum. Another piece of the puzzle.

 

Good man! :)

 

 

(BTW... would you be interested in participating in a discussion of LeSage "revisited" type of stuff? I'd happily start a thread on this. Also, Embarcadero also said no dice on the D7 PE. :( Those of us who registered back in 2008 are okay, but now it is pulled. I'm giving them my opinion concerning having such a "freeware" edition actually fights piracy. Don't know what the response will be...)

[Turtle]

Bless your heart, Craig!

 

I often have to read, then re-read to get everything. You may have partially confirmed what I've been suggesting, in that the basin, so in turn the springs, were affected critically by the "Little Ice Age" associated with the Maunder Minumum. Another piece of the puzzle.

 

Good man! :) ...

 

how careless of me to do all that work for you and fail to see there was a page 2. what a bad man am i. so did you also fail to see the second page? or did you not even visit my link? or did you read it and ignore it in favor of claiming stealthy main stream geologists?

 

let's hear all about your scientific evidence for the sun's role in old faithful then.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Turtle

[7DSUSYstrings]

And I wanted to thank you as well, Craig, for seeing that. Both my sister and I "suffer" from mild dyslexia. I often read a book twice, a good example being the Bible. I picked up a lot I missed at first in the second read, but I couldn't entertain a third for more than the halfway point. :rolleyes: