Emerald Spring

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Emerald Spring
NorrisGeyserBasin-Emerald Spring.JPG
Norris Geyser Basin
Name origin Philetus Norris, park superintendent (1877-82)
LocationNorris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Park County, Wyoming
Coordinates 44°43′32″N110°42′15″W / 44.725665°N 110.704276°W / 44.725665; -110.704276 Coordinates: 44°43′32″N110°42′15″W / 44.725665°N 110.704276°W / 44.725665; -110.704276 [1]
Elevation8,448 feet (2,575 m) [2]
Type Hot Spring
Temperature83.3 °C (181.9 °F) [1]
Depth27 feet (8.2 m)

Emerald Spring is a hot spring located in Norris Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.

Hot spring spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater

A hot spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater that rises from the Earth's crust. While some of these springs contain water that is a safe temperature for bathing, others are so hot that immersion can result in an injury or death.

Yellowstone National Park First national park in the world, located in the US states Wyoming, Montana and Idaho

Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular features. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

Contents

History

Emerald Spring, 1989 Emerald spring.jpg
Emerald Spring, 1989

Originally named Emerald Geyser by Philetus Norris, park superintendent (1877–1882) because of its color, the name was later officially changed to Emerald Spring by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1930. [3]

Philetus Norris Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park

Philetus W. Norris was the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and was the first person to be paid for that position.

In 1892 Robert W. Wood, an American optical physicist, used the spring for a prank. He stealthy dissolved a pint of fluorescein in the pool to surprise several witnesses with unusually colorful water. [4]

Robert W. Wood American physicist and inventor

Robert Williams Wood was an American physicist and inventor. He is often cited as being a pivotal contributor to the field of optics and a pioneer of infrared and ultraviolet photography. Wood's patents and theoretical work inform modern understanding of the nature and physics of ultraviolet radiation, and made possible the myriad uses of UV-fluorescence which became popular after World War I.

Fluorescein chemical compound

Fluorescein is a manufactured organic compound and dye. It is available as a dark orange/red powder slightly soluble in water and alcohol. It is widely used as a fluorescent tracer for many applications.

Colorfulness perceived intensity of a specific color

Colorfulness, chroma and saturation are attributes of perceived color relating to chromatic intensity. As defined formally by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) they respectively describe three different aspects of chromatic intensity, but the terms are often used loosely and interchangeably in contexts where these aspects are not clearly distinguished. The precise meanings of the terms vary by what other functions they are dependent on.

Characteristics

Emerald Spring is 27 feet (8.2 m) deep. [5] The water temperature in the spring is around 83.3 °C (181.9 °F). [1] The spring gets its name from the emerald green color of the water created by sunlight filtering through the water, giving the light a blue color, and reflecting off the yellow sulphur creating the green hue. [5]

While Emerald Spring is a mostly calm pool, which usually only has a few bubbles rising to the surface, it does experience periods of turbidity and small 3-foot (1-m) high eruptions. In 1931, Emerald experienced a period of extremely vigorous activity with eruptions measuring 60 to 75 feet (18.2–22.9 m) in height. [6]

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The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. The number of thermal features in Yellowstone is estimated at 10,000. A study that was completed in 2011 found that a total of 1,283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone, 465 of which are active during an average year. These are distributed among nine geyser basins, with a few geysers found in smaller thermal areas throughout the Park. The number of geysers in each geyser basin are as follows: Upper Geyser Basin (410), Midway Geyser Basin (59), Lower Geyser Basin (283), Norris Geyser Basin (193), West Thumb Geyser Basin (84), Gibbon Geyser Basin (24), Lone Star Geyser Basin (21), Shoshone Geyser Basin (107), Heart Lake Geyser Basin (69), other areas (33). Although famous large geysers like Old Faithful are part of the total, most of Yellowstone's geysers are small, erupting to only a foot or two. The hydrothermal system that supplies the geysers with hot water sits within an ancient active caldera. Many of the thermal features in Yellowstone build up sinter, geyserite, or travertine deposits around and within them.

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Ear Spring

Ear Spring is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Located close to Old Faithful, on rare occasions Ear Spring will erupt as a geyser, and can shoot rocks and debris as well as water more than 25 feet (7.6 m) for a few minutes. On September 15, 2018, Ear Spring was seen on the National Park Service webcam at Old Faithful erupting for a minute and reached heights of 20 to 30 ft. This was the largest eruption the pool may have had since 1957. The eruption tossed small rocks out and the heated water killed the surrounding bacterial mats that normally thrive in less heated conditions. Likely related to the eruption of Ear Spring, a new thermal feature opened up under the pedestrian boardwalk near Pump Geyser which resulted in the National Park Service temporarily closing off the boardwalk. This new thermal feature was spouting water the night of September 18-19, 2018. Additionally, Doublet Pool and North Goggles Geyser have both been more active in the period immediately after the rare eruption of Ear Spring.

Semi-Centennial Geyser is located just north of Roaring Mountain in Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. state of Wyoming. Situated next to the Grand Loop Road, the geyser was first noticed when it had a few small eruptions in 1919. A few years later at 6:40am on August 14, 1922 the geyser erupted in the first of a series of increasingly violent eruptions, which by the afternoon on the same day reports stated that the ejected water was exceeding 300 feet (91 m) in height. By the evening of the 14th, the geyser had scattered debris and rocks a distance of 450 ft (140 m) from the crater. Short lived, Semi-Centennial Geyser has been quiet since and a small pool of water now sits where the geyser erupted. As the geyser showed its biggest activity in 1922, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, it was accorded the name of Semi-Centennial.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Emerald Spring". Yellowstone Geothermal Features Database. Montana State University.
  2. ↑ "Emerald Spring". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey.
  3. ↑ Haines, Aubrey L. (1996). Yellowstone Place Names-Mirrors of History. Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado. p. 148. ISBN   0-87081-383-8.
  4. ↑ Seabrook, W. (1941). "Alarms, excursions, and explosions at Johns Hopkins ending in early marriage and a job at the University of Chicago". Doctor Wood, Modern Wizard of the Laboratory. New York: Harcourt Brace.
  5. 1 2 "Emerald Spring". Yellowstone Online Tours. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2010-05-18.
  6. ↑ "Emerald Spring". Geyser Observation and Study Association (GOSA).
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