YELLOWSTONE GEYSER CYCLES WITH CIRCA 22-YEAR SUNSPOT CYCLES

Cycle Scientists:

Has any cycle scientists notice that the Yellowstone
Geyser cycles with circa 22-year Sunspot Cycles? It
is about time they did, and take note that cycles
rule the universe! Our weather cycles are dependent
upon the 22-year sunspot cycles, and their harmonics,
and this music of the spheres is in step with the dance
of the planets round our central star, the Sun.

Bill Arnold
billarnoldfla@yahoo.com
barnold_pb@yahoo.com

Cross-posted to interested groups:
cyclesi@yahoogroups.com,tuning@yahoogroups.com,
celestial-tuning@yahoogroups.com,physicsdebate@yahoogroups.com,
astrophysics2@yahoogroups.com,agrandunifiedtheory@yahoogroups.com,
cosmologyandastrophysics@yahoogroups.com,piclub@yahoogroups.com,
spacepeople@yahoogroups.com

Science - AP

Yellowstone Geyser Puzzles Geologists
Thu Sep 4, 8:58 AM ET - AP

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030904/ap_on_sc/geyser_guessing

Yellowstone National Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell

Norris Geyser Basin virtual tour:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/tours/norris/index.htm

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - Steam wafted over Hank Heasler as he
stood on a boardwalk and watched water from Steamboat Geyser shoot into
the air with an attention-grabbing "WHOOSH!"

� Steamboat Geyser (nps.gov)

"This could be it," the park geologist said excitedly, squinting
against the morning sun at the impressive spray. But Heasler had no
better idea than the tourists around him as to when the world's tallest
geyser would next erupt.

Unlike Old Faithful, Steamboat is anything but predictable. It's gone
as few as four days and as many as 50 years between major eruptions �
noisy, powerful spectacles that can send hot water 300 feet or higher
and churn out dense steam for hours.

Recently, though, it has been more active � its two eruptions so far
this year came just weeks apart � and the emergence of a forceful new
thermal feature nearby has scientists like Heasler wondering: What's
happening in Norris Geyser Basin, where Steamboat is located?

"That's the million dollar question. It's changing more than anyone has
noticed before," Heasler said. "Are we noticing because we're looking?
Or because something is abnormal?"

Researchers are trying to find answers. They've installed monitoring
devices throughout the basin � near features such as Steamboat and in
creek channels that collect water runoff from geysers � to gather data
on such things as water temperature and flow levels, basic information
that, they say, was previously lacking and could help unlock the
mysteries of Norris.

Among them: What's bubbling beneath the shallow surface of the volatile
basin and why has the basin floor been steadily bulging upward over the
past few years?

Adding to the intrigue is Norris' location. The basin � filled with hot
springs, geysers and steam vents called fumaroles � is outside
Yellowstone's caldera, formed by the last volcanic eruption about
640,000 years ago and considered the hotbed for geothermal activity in
the park.

Some 10,000 hot springs and geysers pock the park's landscape, their
telltale steam often visible to tourists traveling park roads. But the
Norris basin is frequently passed by, viewed from the car by motorists
headed south to Old Faithful.

Perhaps the reason Norris is so dynamic, researchers say, is that
there's molten material beneath the basin. Or, maybe, hot water from
the caldera has pushed north to Norris.

The trouble is, very little is known about the inner workings of
Norris, where a geyser eruption can trigger the draining � it looks
like the flushing � of a nearby pool.

Scientists for years have studied features within the basin �
Steamboat, for example, or Echinus, the world's only acidic geyser. But
the basin's "vital signs," measurements like the amount of heat it puts
out or the volume of water it generates, are hard to come by.

Relying now on grants, researchers hope to continue monitoring efforts
for at least the next three years, using what they find with satellite
imagery and other information, such as climate data, to help piece
together the puzzle.

"Our goal is to understand what's driving the volcanic system, and are
there indications it could be moving into a period of unrest?" said
Jacob Lowenstern, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey (news -
web sites) and scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano
Observatory, a consortium that monitors the volcano and regional
earthquakes (news - web sites).

Better understanding the Norris basin in west-central Yellowstone and
its volatility is important to visitor safety. So far, there's no cause
for alarm and no apparent looming threat, Lowenstern said. Steamboat's
renewed eruptions and the basin rising several centimeters in the past
few years could just be normal activity, he said.

The geyser's first major eruption was reported in 1878. After that, it
flared up occasionally before lying largely dormant from 1911-61.
Observers say the 1960s and the early 1980s were fairly active.

Then, quiet again, until May 2000. That was followed by two eruptions
in 2002 and two more again this spring � March 26 and April 27.

Paul Strasser, a self-proclaimed "geyser gazer" from Colorado, has
returned to the park religiously to document even the minor stirrings
of Steamboat since seeing the first of two major eruptions in 1982.

Though Strasser doubts it will ever be predictable or that its activity
is somehow linked to the inner workings of Norris, he believes
Steamboat may behave a certain way leading to an eruption.

"Steamboat does what it darn well wants to," he said. "Whether there is
more activity now, I don't know. All I can look for is the patterns."

Heasler said the new research could help determine if Steamboat is a
reliable predictor of more significant activity in the basin. But, for
now, he is like the tourists and interpretive ranger John Tebby, taken
with the shooting spray of the almost daily minor bursts and hoping to
be around for the next Big One.

"It's one of the reasons I love being here, having the chance to see
it," Tebby said. "It's like they say, 'You can't win the lottery unless
you buy a ticket.'"

___

On the Net:

Yellowstone National Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell

Norris Geyser Basin virtual tour:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/tours/norris/index.htm

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com