Geological Society of America

T17 Hydrothermal Systems and Their Geologic Records

Sunday, 15 October 2023
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
319

THUMPING CYCLE VARIATIONS OF DOUBLET POOL IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, USA

Paper number: T17-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:40 AM – 8:55 AM

Authors

Cheng-Nan Liu
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Fan-Chi Lin
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Michael Manga Presenting Author
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Jamie Farrell
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Sin-Mei Wu
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA
Mara Reed
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Anna Barth
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Jefferson Hungerford
Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park, WY
Erin White
Water Resources Division, Ft. Collins, CO

Abstract

Doublet Pool is an active hydrothermal feature in Yellowstone National Park, USA. Approximately every half hour, it thumps for about 10 min due to bubbles collapsing at the base of the pool. To understand its thermodynamics and sensitivity to external factors, we performed a recurring multiple-year passive seismic experiment complemented by visual, pressure, and temperature measurements in the pool. We link recorded hydrothermal tremor with active thumping, and are able determine the onset and end of thumping, and the duration of silence between each thumping cycle. This silence interval decreased from around 30 min prior to November 2016 to around 13 min in September 2018. This change followed unusual thermal activity on the surrounding Geyser Hill. In May 2023 we document a large change in the silence interval that recovers exponentially over a period of a few days. On a shorter time scale, evaporative cooling by wind can lengthen the pre-thumping silence interval. Based on a model for energy conservation, we find a heating rate of 3–7 MW and that the accumulated heat needed to initiate thumping is ∼6 GJ.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-390105

© Copyright 2023 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.