In Yellowstone National Park, the World’s Tallest Active Geyser Has Gone Abnormally Silent

Steamboat Geyser is the world’s tallest active geyser, and it used to be really active. For the past several years, the feature blasted steaming hot water hundreds of feet into the air above Yellowstone National Park, sometimes dozens of times annually. But the geyser hasn’t erupted in over 230 days, and scientists aren’t seeing any signs that it will again soon.

The Wyoming news outlet Cowboy State Daily reports that the geyser—which erupted a staggering 165 times between 2018 and early 2023—has entered a period of stagnation. Steamboat has only erupted twice in 2025, most recently on April 14, some 237 days ago.

This pause in eruptions isn’t exactly unusual in and of itself. Steamboat has gone through such periods in the past, but geologists like Mike Poland, scientist-in-charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, say that something is different this time.

“In the past, we would see a buildup of minor activity that would culminate in a major eruption,” he told the Daily. “Now, we’re not seeing those minor eruptions lead to anything. There’s a period of minor activity, then it might go quiet for a while, then a period of minor activity, and it’ll go quiet again.”

Poland said that there could be a scientific explanation for this change in behavior, such as mineral precipitation clogging the geyser’s vents, or the geyser’s heat source migrating elsewhere. Still, he and his team aren’t sure what it is.

“It’s still an active system,” he said, “but it’s broken the pattern that it had when it was actively erupting.”

Unlike Yellowstone’s more famous geyser, Old Faithful, Steamboat Geyser is anything but predictable. National Park Service (NPS) records, which date back to 1878, show that before the remarkably active period between 2018 and 2023, which saw as many as 48 eruptions per year, the geyser often went years, or even decades, without a single eruption. Old Faithful, on the other hand, erupts like clockwork, averaging about every 90 minutes or so.

For 50 years, between 1911 and 1961, Steamboat didn’t erupt at all. More recently, it went eight years without an eruption from 1991 to 2000, and six years without one between 2007 and 2013.

Poland told the Daily that scientists don’t exactly know what causes these pauses, but that it’s not uncommon for geysers in Yellowstone. The features go through periods of greater activity, then “basically go to sleep,” he said.

Despite the silence since April, the geyser is not dormant. Steam is still rising from its vents, and monitoring equipment suggests it still meets the scientific definition of active. Poland also doesn’t think it will be too long before another eruption occurs.

“In the short history we have for Steamboat, it’s strange for it to go decades without an eruption,” he told the Daily. “Even when it’s less active, it might erupt once every year or every few years.”

However, since the Steamboat Geyser has now broken its typical pattern, Poland adds that “the sequence of frequent, predictable eruptions is probably over.”