Castle Geyser and Its "Indicator" in Activity, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.

Publication

Castle Geyser and Its "Indicator" in Activity, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.

Description

CASTLE GEYSER AND ITS INDICATOR IN ACTIVITY, YELLOWSTONE PARK. "The Castle" has the largest and highest cone of any geyser in the park. It is about thirty feet in height and has a base whose diameter is approximately 100 feet. Judging from the limited amount of water it discharges, compared with the size of its craters, we infer that it is one of the oldest geysers in the Upper Basin. It plays so frequently (usually about once each day) that a majority of tourists who visit the Upper basin have the pleasure of seeing it in action. but few, however, are privileged to see it at its best. Ordinarily it throws a column of water only fifty or sixty feet high, and continues to play only from ten to twenty minutes; but occasionally it holds back as to time, and then plays as high as 200 feet, and continues it so long that one almost imagines that it is trying to show the neighboring geysers that it can equal any of them in majesty and beauty of action. the minute structure of the cone is exceedingly interesting. One is surprised at the variations in its detail forms; but he is more surprised at the variations in the structure of deposits as he passes along from one geyser to another. the deposit from the hot water of geysers consists largely of silica, and is called geyserite. The deposits at Mammoth Hot Springs are largely calcareous, and are laid down at least a hundred times more rapidly than geyserite is deposited.