YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Last July, an explosion tore out of a thermal pond next to a boardwalk at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park. People walking by ran for safety as rocks were thrown dozens of feet into the air. Mud and steam shot more than a hundred feet up. In a few seconds, it was over. No one was hurt, but the boardwalk was heavily damaged.
Scientists say it was mostly luck that park visitors walked away from the event uninjured. The explosion blew out at an angle, away from the people nearby and toward the nearby Firehole River.
Discover how the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory is enhancing safety measures after last summer's explosive event—watch the full story here
Now, for the first time in 11 years, there's a new plan for dealing with events like that steam explosion, and some changes in the plan were inspired by what happened on that summer day.
Dr. Mike Poland, the Scientist in Charge for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory said, “ [It’s] A plan, a blueprint for how the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory would deal with some sort of geologic hazard.”
Hear from the family who caught the explosion on camera - check out this video
Poland told MTN News there was one overriding lesson from last summer's explosion. It was that scientists may not be the first to know what's happening. He added, “The information flow initially came in the direction that we didn't expect, that it came from visitors and park staff to the volcanologists.”
The thermal area at Biscuit Basin is still plenty active. Video from a new camera at the site captured a smaller, but still potent, explosion in the same place early this spring. Eyewitness accounts over the winter told of other, similar explosions. The camera can transmit still pictures and record video. It sends the data to monitoring stations via a cellular modem. Poland said the site is just on the edge of cell reception, and that’s why it can only send still photos, but is able to record video and other seismic data.
“And we don't know if there are really reliable precursors to things like what happened at Biscuit Basin. So that's an area where I think we have a lot more we can learn,” said Poland
But it's a pretty steep learning curve. He said, “That's a pretty big challenge, forecasting those sorts of small events. They may be small, but as the Biscuit Basin episode showed us, they can be pretty impactful.”
That's not the only geologic hazard in Yellowstone, but some are pretty rare. A major volcano only happens once or twice every million years. You get about 100 lava flows in a million years. And Poland says one is not likely anytime soon. Then there are more common events, such as one or two strong earthquakes every 100 years. Speaking about quakes, Poland said, “We don't know that much about which faults are the most likely to go, but there are a lot of them that could go. So that hazard is a pretty important one.”
Small hydrothermal explosions happen almost every year. But Poland said it's not the geologists who coordinate an emergency response. He explained, “So it's our responsibility to get the information that the land managers need so that they can make smart decisions.”
The plan states, “The USGS has the Federal responsibility to provide warnings of volcanic activity in the United States. Through the USGS, YVO is also responsible for monitoring and responding to volcanic unrest and eruptions in southwestern states, including Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado.
As the land manager, Yellowstone National Park is responsible for all emergency response to natural disasters within the park boundary, and Yellowstone National Park scientists have substantial expertise in the hydrothermal systems found throughout the region.”
To do that, the scientists need information. And while Poland said Yellowstone is the most monitored volcano in the world, most of the monitoring is aimed at earthquakes. But he said that is changing, “And we're going to be expanding to some of the other geyser basins as resources allow in the years to come. So Biscuit is sort of the next target, trying to get a handle of monitoring Upper Geyser Basin, and then hopefully moving to other basins in the park in the years to come.”
The goal is to keep people in the park safe.
“I mean, ultimately, that's the whole point of these response plans, is to make sure that people are protected,” said Poland.
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