YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — According to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) monthly update on Wednesday, Jan. 1, Steamboat Geyser could have a major eruption in the new few weeks.
Located in the Norris Geyser Basin, Steamboat Geyser is the world’s tallest active geyser. According to the YVO, minor eruptions began at Steamboat Geyser in mid-December, “suggesting that a major eruption may occur during the first few weeks of 2025.”
YVO confirms that Steamboat Geyser experienced only six major eruptions during 2024, the fewest since the geyser became frequently active in 2018:
- 2024: six
- 2023: nine
- 2022: 11
- 2021: 20
- 2020: 48
- 2019: 48
- 2018: 32
According to YVO Scientist-in-Charge Michael Poland, the decrease in Steamboat’s annual eruptions is most likely related to changes in its hot-water plumbing system. Poland says scientists have ruled out earthquake activity, changes in thermal input and climate conditions as possible causes after measurements of those parameters.
“So this really just seems to be Steamboat’s personality.”
Michael Poland
“Steamboat seems to go through phases of more activity and then less (which is also what lots of other geysers in Yellowstone do),” Poland tells Buckrail. “It had very active phases in the 1960s, early 1980s and since 2018…So this really just seems to be Steamboat’s personality, and the fact that the number of annual eruptions has been decreasing over the past few years probably means it is headed back to a state of dormancy, possibly with years between eruptions.”
Yellowstone National Park (YNP) warns that when Steamboat Geyser does erupt, dissolved minerals in the spray can damage glass and paint on vehicles. Its major eruptions can shoot water more than 300 feet.
“Mature lodgepole pines have been broken by the downpour, undermined and then washed away by the geyser’s massive discharge,” YNP writes on its website. “The boardwalk at the base of the hill has been covered by the geyser’s outwash.”
According to YNP, the water phase of a major eruption lasts as little as three but up to more than 40 minutes. Once the water supply runs out, the geyser continues with a powerful steam phase lasting several hours to several days. YNP confirms Steamboat can roar so loudly that conversation near the geyser becomes difficult, and visitors in the Norris Campground a mile to the north have reportedly been woken up by the noise.
YNP also emphasizes that both Steamboat’s minor and major eruptions are unpredictable.
