Trying to predict when a geyser will erupt is, in most cases, an effort that’s doomed to failure. If you’ve ever stood in a park staring at a hole in the ground for minutes on end, then hours, you know this well. For a small number of geysers, however, there’s a kind of regularity. You might not be able to set your watch to it, but you can at least be reasonably confident in seeing a geyser at work. As befits its name, Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park is one of these rare geysers.
A new report from Earther brings with it some alarming news about Old Faithful, however — it might be added to the list of things climate change has ruined before too long. The article, by Dharna Noor, points to a new study that suggests that, many centuries ago, a massive drought prompted the geyser to temporarily stop erupting.
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Could climate change create similar drought conditions? It seems all too likely.
The study mentioned in Earther’s article involves the analysis of petrified wood found around Old Faithful — which suggests that trees grew there at some point. Geysers are not exactly the ideal habitat for trees to grow — which suggests that Old Faithful was effectively paused during a period of time.
The trees in question grew between 1233 and 1362, which coincides with the Medieval Warm Period, a time of — as the name suggests — warmer climates globally. If that sounds familiar, it’s not hard to see why — and it suggests why these findings might herald a worrying future for one of the nation’s most well-known natural features.
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