Eruptions
Eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 US gallons (14,000 to 32,000 L) of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet (32 to 56 m) lasting from 1.5 to 5 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 145 feet (44 m). The highest recorded eruption was 185 feet (56 m). Intervals between eruptions can range from 45 to 125 minutes, averaging 66.5 minutes in 1939, slowly increasing to an average of 90 minutes apart today. The time between eruptions has a bimodal distribution.
More than 137,000 eruptions have been recorded. Harry Woodward first described a mathematical relationship between the duration and intervals of the eruptions (1938). Old Faithful is not the tallest or largest geyser in the park; that title belongs to the less predictable Steamboat Geyser. Its popularity is more likely due to the small eruption window and high frequency.
Read more about this topic: Old Faithful
Famous quotes containing the word eruptions:
“All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people.”
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)