Old Faithful

For other uses, see Old Faithful (disambiguation).

Old Faithful
Eruption of Old Faithful
Name origin	Named by Henry D. Washburn, September 18, 1870
Location	Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Teton County, Wyoming
Coordinates
Elevation	7,349 feet (2,240 m)
Type	Cone geyser
Eruption height	106 feet (32 m) to 185 feet (56 m)
Frequency	45 to 125 minutes
Duration	1.5 to 5 minutes
Discharge	3,700 US gallons (14 m3) to 8,400 US gallons (32 m3)
Southern section of Upper Geyser Basin Southern section of Upper Geyser Basin

Old Faithful is a cone geyser located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States. Old Faithful was named in 1870 during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition and was the first geyser in the park to receive a name. It is one of the most predictable geographical features on Earth, erupting every 35 to 120 minutes. The geyser, as well as the nearby Old Faithful Inn, is part of the Old Faithful Historic District.

History

On the afternoon of September 18, 1870, the members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition traveled down the Firehole River from the Kepler Cascades and entered the Upper Geyser Basin. The first geyser they saw was Old Faithful. In his 1871 Scribner's account of the expedition, Nathaniel P. Langford wrote:

Judge, then, what must have been our astonishment, as we entered the basin at mid-afternoon of our second day's travel, to see in the clear sunlight, at no great distance, an immense volume of clear, sparkling water projected into the air to the height of one hundred and twenty-five feet. "Geysers! geysers!" exclaimed one of our company, and, spurring our jaded horses, we soon gathered around this wonderful phenomenon. It was indeed a perfect geyser. The aperture through which the jet was projected was an irregular oval, three feet by seven in diameter. The margin of sinter was curiously piled up, and the exterior crust was filled with little hollows full of water, in which were small globules of sediment, some having gathered around bits of wood and other nuclei. This geyser is elevated thirty feet above the level of the surrounding plain, and the crater rises five or six feet above the mound. It spouted at regular intervals nine times during our stay, the columns of boiling water being thrown from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five feet at each discharge, which lasted from fifteen to twenty minutes. We gave it the name of "Old Faithful."

In the early days of the park, Old Faithful was often used as a laundry:

Old Faithful is sometimes degraded by being made a laundry. Garments placed in the crater during quiescence are ejected thoroughly washed when the eruption takes place. Gen. Sheridan's men, in 1882, found that linen and cotton fabrics were uninjured by the action of the water, but woolen clothes were torn to shreds.

Eruptions

16-second video clip of an eruption

Eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 US gallons (14,000 to 32,000 L) of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet (32 to 56 m) lasting from 1.5 to 5 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 145 feet (44 m). Intervals between eruptions can range from 45 to 125 minutes, averaging 66.5 minutes in 1939, slowly increasing to an average of 90 minutes apart today. The time between eruptions has a bimodal distribution, with the mean interval being either 65 or 91 minutes.

More than 137,000 eruptions have been recorded. Harry Woodward first described a mathematical relationship between the duration and intervals of the eruptions in 1938. Old Faithful is not the tallest or largest geyser in the park; those titles belong to the less predictable Steamboat Geyser.

Increasing interval

Over the years, the length of the interval has increased, which may be the result of earthquakes affecting subterranean water levels. These disruptions have made the earlier mathematical relationship inaccurate, but have in fact made Old Faithful more predictable. With a margin of error of 10 minutes, Old Faithful will erupt 65 minutes after an eruption lasting less than 2.5 minutes or 91 minutes after an eruption lasting more than 2.5 minutes. The reliability of Old Faithful can be attributed to the fact that it is not connected to any other thermal features of the Upper Geyser Basin.

Measurement

Between 1983 and 1994, four probes containing temperature and pressure measurement devices and video equipment were lowered into Old Faithful. The probes were lowered as deep as 72 feet (22 m). Temperature measurements of the water at this depth was 244 °F (118 °C), the same as was measured in 1942. The video probes were lowered to a maximum depth of 42 feet (13 m) to observe the conduit formation and the processes that took place in the conduit. Some of the processes observed include fog formation from the interaction of cool air from above mixing with heated air from below, the recharge processes of water entering into the conduit and expanding from below, and entry of superheated steam measuring as high as 265 °F (129 °C) into the conduit.

Gallery

Images of Old Faithful Geyser

Old Faithful Crater, 1872 William Henry Jackson Old Faithful Crater, 1872 William Henry Jackson  1877 US geological survey of the Territories 1877 US geological survey of the Territories  Albert Bierstadt, circa 1881 Albert Bierstadt, circa 1881  Photo by W. H. Jackson, 1892 Photo by W. H. Jackson, 1892  Color, Photochromatic print, 1898 Color, Photochromatic print, 1898  Eruption, 1912 Eruption, 1912  Old Faithful on the 1916 Haynes Guide Old Faithful on the 1916 Haynes Guide  Old Faithful, by Ansel Adams in 1941 Old Faithful, by Ansel Adams in 1941  Ansel Adams, 1942 Ansel Adams, 1942  Eruption, 1948 Eruption, 1948  Old Faithful Vent, 1953 Old Faithful Vent, 1953  Winter, 1969 Winter, 1969  From Observation Point, 2003 From Observation Point, 2003  At peak of eruption, 2014 At peak of eruption, 2014  Old Faithful and Big Dipper, 2014 Old Faithful and Big Dipper, 2014  From view of Visitor Center, 2015 From view of Visitor Center, 2015