Is the Old Faithful geyser fake?

A weird thought popped in my head this morning with all the talk of impending nuclear doom, what would happen if you nuked Yellowstone? Turns out, not much. But I found this in the comments of one page I was reading..

So yeah, I'm a geology dropout who's typing this up in a completely unrelated class so neither my prose nor my research are up to par, but it's a start. Also, rumors suggest that the Corp of Engineers working with the Park Service has Old Faithful rigged with subterranean waterworks to maintain the illusion of regularity.

Link

I had never heard that before, so I searched further. All I found was one link talking about the geyser conspiracy, and this is what they had to say:

The way the theory works is that the geyser was discovered in 1870 and it erupted like clockwork “for a long while”. Then it started becoming irregular in the 1940s and 1950s. To combat this problem, an underground pipeline runs from the nearby Firehole River to pumps beneath the Old Faithful Lodge and back to the new Mecha-Old Faithful. This work was probably done during a 1956 Old Faithful Lodge “laundry room” renovation [pdf source link].

Link

Now this isn't some world shaking conspiracy, but wouldn't it be funny if the park service has been piping water through Old Faithful for the past 61 years?

a reply to: underwerks

No. Old Faithful is a natural phenomenon.

It is Old Unfaithful now though. I took my daughter to see it some 12 years ago and it was notoriously unreliable then and worse now. Although it was still ticking along pretty close to clockwork when I saw it as a kid in the 80's.

a reply to: underwerks

I was there just a few months ago snow-shoeing in Yellowstone.

(don't laugh)

It's not very regular. It's always off by a few minutes. With the way of mechanics, I feel that an artificial Old Faithful would be subject to breakdowns over the decades and not work at all, subsequently calling even more attention to itself.

Personally, while Old Faithful was interesting, the colored hot springs and sulfur springs were far more interesting.

Plus the wildlife is quite impressive.

originally posted by: redhorse
a reply to: underwerks

No. Old Faithful is a natural phenomenon.

It is Old Unfaithful now though. I took my daughter to see it some 12 years ago and it was notoriously unreliable then and worse now. Although it was still ticking along pretty close to clockwork when I saw it as a kid in the 80's.

That's what I was thinking, I just thought it was a funny theory.

a reply to: underwerks

what would happen if you nuked Yellowstone?

Do nukes generally penetrate the ground before detonation, or do they detonate above ground?

Is the Old Faithful geyser fake?

...

Oh boy.

a reply to: underwerks

Huh...I guess I wouldnt of ever guessed that in a million years.

I wouldnt put it past folks wanting to keep their tourist dollars, but lol nice conspiracy!

a reply to: DBCowboy

It's not very regular.

Perhaps some Metamucil is in order?

the colored hot springs and sulfur springs were far more interesting.

Glad ya didn't fall in.

a reply to: Liquesence

Nukes would be detonated well above ground..air burst will cause much more damage than on the ground or below.

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: underwerks

what would happen if you nuked Yellowstone?

Do nukes generally penetrate the ground before detonation, or do they detonate above ground?

Is the Old Faithful geyser fake?

...

Oh boy.

I don't believe it's fake, lmao.

I just thought it was a neat conspiracy I'd never heard before. And by this point, I've heard everything.

Its funny you bring that up because I live in Calistoga, Ca and we have a lot of geothermal activity here. Anyway we have a tourist attraction called the old faithful geyser and everyone who tours here thinks its legit, well its not, its rigged with a valve and its on a well pump, so maybe if my town does it, so do they.

I would be so pissed if this were true, you know, being so misled. But, like you, I don't believe it.

originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: Liquesence

Nukes would be detonated well above ground..air burst will cause much more damage than on the ground or below.

Hence my point.

originally posted by: underwerks

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: underwerks

what would happen if you nuked Yellowstone?

Do nukes generally penetrate the ground before detonation, or do they detonate above ground?

Is the Old Faithful geyser fake?

...

Oh boy.

I don't believe it's fake, lmao.

I just thought it was a neat conspiracy I'd never heard before. And by this point, I've heard everything.

Definitely an interesting conspiracy, but, um...no. Lol.

originally posted by: bananashooter
Its funny you bring that up because I live in Calistoga, Ca and we have a lot of geothermal activity here. Anyway we have a tourist attraction called the old faithful geyser and everyone who tours here thinks its legit, well its not, its rigged with a valve and its on a well pump, so maybe if my town does it, so do they.

So there is a precedent..

(My tin foil hat is tingling)

a reply to: Liquesence

Gotcha

originally posted by: redhorse
a reply to: underwerks

No. Old Faithful is a natural phenomenon.

It is Old Unfaithful now though. I took my daughter to see it some 12 years ago and it was notoriously unreliable then and worse now. Although it was still ticking along pretty close to clockwork when I saw it as a kid in the 80's.

It's still very predictable and the forest service can predict it within 10 min. What has happened after 1989 their was an earth quake that increased the average time between eruptions. Averages about 60 to 90 min. The tune difference depends on how long the previous eruption was. Anything under 2.5 min takes 60 min to reset. Over that and it's 90 min on the average it erupts 17 times a day. As for pipes that's just stupid this water would have eaten any pipes installed within a year or two.

originally posted by: dragonridr

originally posted by: redhorse
a reply to: underwerks

No. Old Faithful is a natural phenomenon.

It is Old Unfaithful now though. I took my daughter to see it some 12 years ago and it was notoriously unreliable then and worse now. Although it was still ticking along pretty close to clockwork when I saw it as a kid in the 80's.

It's still very predictable and the forest service can predict it within 10 min. What has happened after 1989 their was an earth quake that increased the average time between eruptions. Averages about 60 to 90 min. The tune difference depends on how long the previous eruption was. Anything under 2.5 min takes 60 min to reset. Over that and it's 90 min on the average it erupts 17 times a day. As for pipes that's just stupid this water would have eaten any pipes installed within a year or two.

If you say so. We were there when they said, and it was 20 minutes late. They said it was getting more unreliable and friends who have gone to Yellowstone recently said it's pretty unpredictable.

The quake in the mid 90's (96...? I think) made it worse. I heard that quake. Freaked out me and the dog (I had a wolf, golden retriever cross that adopted us).

a reply to: Liquesence

A man died in a Yellowstone hot spring trying to rescue his dog.
USA Today

I will ask my Brother, he works there as HVAC, been there twenty years now

originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: Liquesence

Nukes would be detonated well above ground..air burst will cause much more damage than on the ground or below.

Airburst causes less damage and radiation effects.

A nuke detonated on the ground will cause the entire area to be uninhabitable for over 10thousand years, the Nuclear detonation would cause the material on the ground and everything in the soil and rocks to become highly radioactive.

It is why we do airbursts.

And yes, we also have bunker style nukes that penetrate deep into the ground before they detonate.