Nearly 150 years later, about 4 million people visit the park annually to see its most famous geyser: Old Faithful. It is a sight to behold, shooting tens of thousands of litres of boiling water hundreds of feet into the air about 17 times a day.
While the geyser is highly predictable – it has erupted every 44 to 125 minutes since 2000 – a new climate assessment and a recent study have revealed that rising temperatures, reduced snowfall and increased rain threaten to shut Old Faithful off completely by the end of the century.
he land in and around Yellowstone, often called the Greater Yellowstone Area, is among the world’s last intact temperate ecosystems, and includes two national parks, five national forests, half a dozen tribal nations and stunning biodiversity. It’s also a super volcano that’s home to 10,000 hydrothermal features, including 500 geysers, the world’s greatest concentration.
If temperatures at Yellowstone rise 10F (5.6C) by the end of the century, as they are projected to, this vast ecosystem will be disrupted. Old Faithful will almost surely shut off completely, and the snowpack that feeds rivers throughout the west may disappear.
While the story of climate change is well-known, what’s new is the startling connection between temperature and water, a shift which threatens the extensive geyser system that makes this place so iconic.
But it is not the first time this has happened. About 800 years ago, extreme heat and drought made Old Faithful come to a complete standstill for decades, a shift which changed everything from what plant species grew in the area to what the land looked like.
Update: the correct link is https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/02/yellowstone-geyser-old-faithful-stop-erupting-ramifications
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