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On the morning of July 23, a hydrothermal explosion occurred in Yellowstone National Park. A tall column of boiling water, mud and rocks rushed into the air, destroying a section of the wooden boardwalk and forcing dozens of tourists to flee for their lives.

No injuries were reported, but the area remains closed to the public, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Several visitors filmed the blast, which occurred around 10 a.m. in the Biscuit Basin area of ​​the park, and in some of the videos a woman can be heard yelling for her two children to run.

The Biscuit Basin is located between the Grand Prismatic and Old Faithful Springs in Yellowstone Park. The area is famous for its active geothermal activity and frequent geyser eruptions. The explosion caused a large amount of hydrothermal fluid to erupt, forming a water column and steam cloud tens of meters high.

Vlada March, a tourist from Palm Springs in Southern California, was the one who took the video. She was visiting Yellowstone Park with her mother and two children. She described the scene at the time: "We were enjoying the beauty of the geyser when we suddenly heard a loud noise and saw a lot of hot water and steam gushing out. The scene was amazing."

She yelled at her two young sons to run and frantically searched for her 70-year-old mother, but she was gone. When her mother reappeared, March said, "she was covered in ash from head to toe."

reason

Pressure changes lead to hydrothermal explosions

The eruption occurred a few miles north of Old Faithful, a geyser that regularly spews steam into the sky. "This is very different from Old Faithful," said Michael Poland, director of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. The hydrothermal explosion occurred when water in the underground "pipes" of the park's hydrothermal system suddenly turned into steam, a change that could be caused by a major event such as an earthquake.

The United States Geological Survey explains: "Hydrothermal explosions are violent events that result in the rapid eruption of boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragments."

They "occur in shallow, connected reservoirs of fluids at or near boiling temperature, beneath thermal fields. If the pressure suddenly drops, these fluids can rapidly transform into steam, and because steam molecules take up much more space than liquid molecules, the transformation into steam can cause significant expansion, blasting away surrounding rock and ejecting debris," the agency said.

United States Geological Survey

No volcanic eruption

In fact, Yellowstone Park has had similar explosions in the past. Records show that the Pork Chop Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin erupted in 1989, and monitoring equipment recorded a small-scale eruption in the Norris Geyser Basin on April 15, 2024. On May 17, 2009, Biscuit Basin also had an eruption similar to today's. "

Many netizens are worried that the eruption of Yellowstone Park will be as devastating as in the movie "2012". In a statement, officials from the United States Geological Survey assured that the incident was not related to changes in volcanic activity.

The U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement: "Monitoring data shows no changes in the Yellowstone area. Today's explosion does not reflect activity within the volcanic system, which remains at normal activity levels. Hydrothermal explosions such as today are not a sign of an imminent eruption, nor are they caused by magma rising to the surface."

"Although large hydrothermal eruptions are uncommon in human history, it is possible that Yellowstone National Park could experience such an event again in the future. Based on the occurrence of large hydrothermal eruptions over the past 16,000 years, they may occur every few hundred years, with the largest eruptions being large enough to form a crater-like vent 100 meters (328 feet) wide," the report added.