Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the hottest area. On this loop you pass the small frequent spouter called
Orbicular Geyser
(“Orby”), numerous other spouting vents, and Porkchop Geyser.
In the 1980s,
Porkchop Geyser
was a porkchop-shaped perpetual spouter that formed a
tall ice cone from its spray in the winter. Suddenly, on September 5, 1989, Porkchop exploded.
A few lucky people were watching as chunks of gey-serite were upended and debris thrown
about in a true hydrothermal explosion. What remains is a steaming pool surrounded by
jagged boulders.
Although very close to the side of Porkchop,
North
or
Second Eruptor,
with small erup-
tions from its deep vent, has a different temperature and water chemistry from Porkchop.
At the boardwalk corner is
Pearl Geyser.
Its almost translucent pearl-like deposits are now
sometimes covered with mud. Pearl Geyser erupts up to 8 feet (2.4 m) high but is unpredict-
able. In late summer of 2012 Pearl's usually clear water was opalescent, and several pools and
bubbling holes appeared across the boardwalk from it.
Bastille Geyser
south of Pearl was born in 1992 on France's Bastille Day, July 14. It grew
from a 2-inch (5 cm) hole to a 3-foot (1 m) crater in eight hours during a seasonal disturbance.
It erupted up to 3 feet (1 m) high every four or five minutes when active, but it has stopped
erupting and has filled in its vents with sinter. In late 2012 there were three large unnamed
bubbling holes in a row here, one with a gold lining spurting water from deep below.
The next feature is
Vixen Geyser,
which may erupt from its red-stained crater for a few
seconds every few minutes, except for its rare major eruptions up to 35 feet (11 m). Its much
more usual eruptions spout no more than 10 feet (3 m) high. Almost all Vixen's water drains
back into its rectangular vent.
This geyser was named by a woman tourist who was splattered by an eruption in 1881 and
exclaimed, “You vixen, you,” according to tour guide George L. Henderson. In 1883, geologist
Walter Weed wrote that according to Superintendent Norris, a geyserite cone displayed at the
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 came from Vixen. That cone has apparently
been lost.
On display now at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington
is a geyserite cone from Yellowstone measuring about 30 inches high by 18 inches diameter
(75 by 45 cm). Labeled as collected in 1881 by Norris himself, this could not be the older cone.
The provenance of the pictured cone is an unsolved mystery.
After crossing Tantalus Creek, you must choose between going right (east toward Echinus
via Cistern Spring) or straight ahead (north toward the museum via the shortest path).
