Important Takeaways:

• Scientists from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have discovered a newly opened volcanic vent in Norris Geyser Basin.
• The vent is at the foot of a rhyloite lava flow, and is spewing hot steam up into the air.
• ‘While driving south from Mammoth Hot Springs towards Norris Geyser Basin early on August 5 last summer, a park scientist noticed a billowing steam column through the trees and across a marshy expanse,’ the USGS explained.
• The new vent was discovered last summer within a region called the Roadside Springs thermal area.
• Lying within a swath of warm, hydrothermally altered ground, approximately 200ft (60 meters) long, the new feature is about 9.8ft (three meters) below the marsh surface.
• Shortly after it was identified, park geologists visited the vent to get a closer look.
• There, they discovered a very thin veneer of grey silicious clay barely covering the ground, and temperatures of 77°C (171°F).
• According to the team, this indicates the new vent is ‘very young’ in nature.
• This isn’t the first time that this type of hydrothermal activity has been spotted in the area.
• Back in 2003, a similar vent was spotted just on the other side of the same rhyolite lava flow.
• ‘Are the new feature and the activity that started in 2003 hydrologically connected?’ USGS asked.
• ‘Probably.
• ‘One could run a line along the axis of the older active area and it would intersect the new feature.
• ‘This line also follows the trend of faults that run from Norris Geyser Basin northward to Mammoth Hot Springs and beyond.’
• So far, geologists have mapped more than 100 major hydrothermal areas in Yellowstone National Park, as well as more than 10,000 within its boundaries.
• Thankfully, USGS reassures that there is still about 100,000 years to go before the supervolcano is likely to erupt.

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