YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - New research suggests that several years of drought may have added a minute or two to the eruption cycle of Old Faithful geyser. The geyser used to erupt about every 61 minutes. That cycle lengthened to more than an hour and 15 minutes following earthquakes in 1959, 1975 and 1983.
Now, the eruption cycle for Old Faithful is just over an hour and a half.
Shaul Hurwitz with the U.S. Geological Survey spent nine years studying five geysers in Yellowstone including Old Faithful. The study period covered Yellowstone's wettest winter in a century as well as several years of drought.
Hurwitz speculates that the drought decreased Old Faithful's water supply and has lengthened the time between eruptions.
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