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One of Yellowstone National Park’s thermal features erupted with a powerful explosion on Tuesday morning, blasting debris into the sky and sending tourists scurrying for safety.
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One of Yellowstone National Park’s thermal features erupted with a powerful explosion on Tuesday morning, blasting debris into the sky and sending tourists scurrying for safety.
The explosion occured at 10:19 a.m. in Biscuit Basin, near Black Diamond Pool.
Although the powerful hydrothermal event damaged the boardwalk, there were no apparent injuries, Yellowstone officials said in a release. The Biscuit Basin area, which lies north of Old Faithful, has been temporarily closed to the public while staff from the park and the U.S. Geological Survey monitor conditions and survey the damage. However, the park and the Grand Loop Road remain open.
Video footage shared to social media by Vlada March of California shows children and adults fleeing from the towering, black-colored plume of material on Tuesday morning while debris rains down and a massive cloud envelops the area.
“Run run run — run!” the videographer yells in one clip, amid expletives, as she hustles away from the explosion. As the dust settles, another person remarks that they’ve worked in the park and, “I don’t know that that’s ever happened. Ever.”
But according to Yellowstone officials, it has: A similar explosion rocked Biscuit Basin on May 17, 2009.
“Hydrothermal explosions occur when water suddenly flashes to steam underground, and they are relatively common in Yellowstone,” the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory explained in a statement.
For example, the statement noted a 1989 explosion at Porkchop Geyser and a “small event” in Norris Geyser Basin in April. The observatory’s release classified Tuesday’s blast as a “small” hydrothermal explosion.
“Hydrothermal explosions like that of today are not a sign of impending volcanic eruptions, and they are not caused by magma rising towards the surface,” the observatory added, reporting that the activity within Yellowstone’s volcanic system “remains at normal background levels of activity.”
While the hydrothermal explosions may be relatively common in the park, it’s not as often that they’re documented on camera. Within hours of Tuesday’s blast, March’s videos had already been viewed millions of times and shared by media outlets across the country.
