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Picture of the day -
April 18, 2006
Old Faithful At Sunset
Photo courtesy of the
National Park Service.
Today's picture features a beautiful sunset silhouette of the geyser known
around the world as Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park's most
popular tourist attraction. Old Faithful got its name because its eruptions of
water and steam occur at more or less regular intervals - every 80 minutes on
average. You can almost set your watch by it!
Geysers are among nature's most interesting phenomena. This special type of hot
spring erupts when geothermal energy causes water to heat up to the point where
the increasing pressure becomes too great for the confined space in which it
lies to hold it. An explosion then sends water and steam shooting out of the
earth and up into the air until the pressure subsides.
Although hot springs are fairly common on the surface of the earth, geysers are
quite rare. In fact, there are only about 1,000 geysers on the entire planet -
and over half of them are in Yellowstone National Park!
Old Faithful is the world's most famous geyser, but it isn't the world's
largest. Actually, it isn't even the largest geyser in Yellowstone! That distinction goes
to Steamboat Geyser in Norris Geyser Basin. So when planning your next Yellowstone
vacation, be sure to visit Old Faithful...but keep in mind that there are plenty
of other geysers in the area - and several of them put on shows that are quite
spectacular!
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