The Pros And Cons Of Old Faithful

We can compare the boiling water or large pressure cooker to the massive pressure that is placed on the geyser’s plumbing system (Atteberry 2009). The water in the system reaches an unbelievably high temperature before the water starts to boil. The magma at the base of the surface moves heat through the system causing more energy to become trapped in the water (Atteberry 2009). At some point, the water will reach the boiling point and becomes chaotic. The chaos pushes a small amount of water to the opening of the geyser which causes a decrease in pressure on the water that is still in the geyser (Atteberry 2009). The quick drop in pressure causes the water in the geyser to become steam. According to Atteberry, the steam “expands to 1,500 times the volume of water and this expansion pushes water and steam from the mouth of the geyser in an eruption”. The eruption can last as long as the water in the geyser

According to some measurements, Old Faithful is still as tall as it has ever been, approximately 90 to 180 feet. There are multiple reasons as to why people may seem to believe that Old Faithful is getting shorter. Some may have observed an exceptionally tall eruption last time and then the next time they observe an ordinary or even a short eruption (Old Faithful). Usually, the first-time people observe an eruption, they tend to become more excited and their excitement causes them to overestimate Old Faithful’s height. Recently, the boardwalk has been moved further back, so people do not realize the distance between the geyser and the boardwalk (Old Faithful). People tend to forget about the distance between the boardwalk and the geyser causing people to underestimate the actual height of Old Faithful (Old Faithful). When people finally realize how far away they are from the geyser, they then tend to realize just how big the geyser