Spectacular and extremely dangerous:Yellowstone geyser erupt, spewing steam and debris onto tourists

A shocking hydrothermal eruption in Yellowstone National Park has sent out a massive cloud of steam and ash, the National Park Service (NPS) said, prompting visitors to evacuate and staff to close off the area. Video posted online showed dozens of people running along a boardwalk to avoid a 100-foot (30-meter) plume of debris in Yellowstone's Biscuit Basin, located just north of Old Faithful geyser. Biscuit Basin is known for its colorful geysers and hot pools, including Sapphire Pool, which is close to the eruption site.

No one was injured in the eruption, which occurred at 10:19 a.m. Mountain Time (12:19 p.m. EDT), but the nearby boardwalk "will need some repairs," a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) representative wrote in a post on the social platform X. Images taken after the eruption showed rocky debris and mud strewn across boards and guardrails.

"What we saw today was spectacular and absolutely dangerous," Michael Poland, a research physicist and the chief scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, told the Associated Press . The eruption, which was "relatively small" compared to previous eruptions at Yellowstone, was nonetheless "a great reminder of the dangers that are not being recognized," Poland said.

A blockage in the natural plumbing system beneath Yellowstone may have triggered the eruption, Poland said. The blockage may have caused heat and pressure to build up in the passageway beneath Biscuit Basin, which in turn may have turned water into steam, causing a sudden expansion of volume that triggered the explosion, he said. "We saw more steam coming up and within seconds, it turned into a big thing.

"It exploded and it turned into this black cloud that covered the sun," a California real estate agent who was visiting Yellowstone with his family told the AP. The eruption does not mean volcanic activity beneath Yellowstone is increasing, according to the NPS. “Today’s eruption does not reflect a change in the volcanic system, which remains at normal background activity levels,” the agency wrote.

The eruption was small compared to previous hydrothermal events at Yellowstone, including a series of eruptions 13,800 years ago in the Mary Bay area on the northeast side of Yellowstone Lake. That eruption blasted a 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) crater — the largest known from a hydrothermal vent on Earth, Poland said. Yellowstone staff and USGS geologists are monitoring the area and will reopen it to visitors once it is safe to do so, the NPS said.

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