Norris Basin, Yellowtone National Park, "Old Constant" Geyser at Play, Wyo., U.S.A.

Publication

Norris Basin, Yellowtone National Park, "Old Constant" Geyser at Play, Wyo., U.S.A.

Description

NORRIS GEYSER BASIN, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. Tourists who visit Yellowstone Park are quite apt to bring back bits of wood or twigs, covered with a brittle, crumbling coat which they call petrifactions. These bits of wood are not "petrified" at all but are covered with a coating of some substance which the water of the geyser carried in solution. On account of its very great heat, the water of the geyser, as it passes through the ground, can dissolve a large amount of solid matter. When this water reaches the surface it evaporates and the solid matter is deposited. this so-called "Frozen Tree" in the foreground has received for a long time the spray from rom the geyser. As the water evaporated, the matter held in solution coated the tree. The geyser in the background of the picture is known as Old Constant. It plays every half minutes. it discharges from ten to fifteen seconds, and then fills up again in about the same time. Night and day, summer and winter, it continues its work. When first known this geyser played about once in sixty seconds and continued in action about double the time it does now."