Biscuit Basin, 2 miles northwest of Old Faithful, was temporarily closed after a hydrothermal vent near Sapphire Pool around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday. A press release From the park. No one was injured and the park is investigating the damage. A photo accompanying the news release shows workers looking at destroyed rails and blackened debris on a boardwalk.
In a video he shared with The Washington Post, March told his family to “Run, run, run!” He shouts. Others flee from the cloud rising over the boardwalk.
March and her husband, Steve, were worried that one of their children would fall and get trapped as they fled the explosion.
Their children, Maxwell, 9, and Ethan, 6, had never been to a national park before. They mostly worry about their grandmother, March said. March’s mother, Natalia, was very close to the explosion and covered herself with a dirty jacket.
About 30 people were in the area at the time of the explosion, March said.
A tour guide said in March that the blast rose at least 200 feet into the air.
The parking lot and signage around the area will be closed for “safety reasons,” according to the news release. Park staff and US Geological Survey staff will reopen the area when it is safe to do so.
Hydrothermal vents occur when bubbles of hot water vapor form, leading to underground pressure that eventually erupts through the surface. Ken Sims, a professor of geology at the University of Wyoming and a member of the Yellowstone Volcanology Laboratory, said it’s not like the steam that forms in a sealed pressure cooker.
“Eventually it’s going to get so steamy, it’s going to pop,” Sims said.
The eruption did not reflect any changes in the volcanic structure and “no other monitoring data in the Yellowstone area show changes,” the park’s statement said.
Sims said the volcanic and hydrothermal systems are separate.
“These eruptions are common — that’s what makes Yellowstone so special,” Sims said. “If magma was involved, there would be earth rupture, gas emissions and all that change, whereas this is an isolated pocket of steam that erupted the earth.”
