Posted by Ranger Sally on October 12, 2001 at 14:05:42:
In Reply to: Old Faithful posted by Ashlee Kuper on October 12, 2001 at 13:39:56:
: How did Old Faithful form?
Maki-Thanks for your question. This field trip is concerned with history and later on we will be exploring Yellowstone's geology. Briefly I can tell you that geysers like Old Faithful need several incredients to form: heat, plenty of water and the right kind of plumbing system.
Old Faithful Geyser has been active as a hot spring for about 750 years, and as a geyser for not more than 300 years. This age does not tell Old Faithful's whole story, though; it is only descriptive of the modern geyser we see. Old Faithful's deposits are sitting on top of much older geyserite, formed by an earlier spring about which almost nothing is known.