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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Yellowstone National Park’s Steamboat Geyser sped up its eruption cycle earlier in June, setting a new mark for recorded intervals between eruptions.

The geyser’s shortest rest between noted eruptions occurred June 15 when it blasted steam and water into the air only three days, three hours and 48 minutes after its previous spouting June 12.

Earlier quick recharges included a 1982 eruption after only four days, 19 hours and 43 minutes. On June 15, 2018, it went off after four days, 15 hours, 49 minutes. And on Sept. 12, 2018, it gushed forth after four days, 18 hours and 3 minutes.

Why have the eruptions sped up?

“I wish I could tell you,” said Michael Manga, of the University of California, Berkeley, who studies geysers.

[...]Manga added that it “should trouble everyone” that scientists can’t better explain geysers, since they are similar in many respects to their much more dangerous cousin, the volcano.

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/yellowstone-s-tallest-geyser-breaks-its-record-for-shortest-time/article_af8e9ec4-1504-5113-8798-3cd3ac0700ff.html

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