Steamboat Geyser eruption signals

Steamboat Geyser eruption signals recorded by nearby monitoring instruments. The vertical pink lines mark when the signal first appears. (A) Seismic station YNM records a signal which slowly tapers as the eruption decreases in intensity. Spikes seen before the eruption are mostly due to human activity. (B) Moments before a major eruption begins, there is often a surge of water discharged from both geyser vents, which corresponds to the slight uptick in runoff channel temperature. Then, as the eruption column climbs higher and higher, the water droplets actually cool faster as they spend more time flying through the air—this is why the temperature suddenly decreases. (C) Erupted water must travel over 2 km (1.25 mi) before reaching a streamgage on Tantalus Creek, which is why the increase in streamflow is observed more than an hour after the eruption start.