Timing and prediction of CO2 eruptions from Crystal Geyser, UT

Special instruments were deployed at Crystal Geyser, Utah, in August 2005 creating a contiguous 76-day record of eruptions from this cold geyser. Sensors measured temperature and fluid movement at the base of the geyser. Analysis of the time series that contains the start time and duration of 140 eruptions reveals a striking bimodal distribution in eruption duration. About two thirds of the eruptions were short (7-32 min), and about one third were long (98-113 min). No eruption lasted between 32 and 98 min. There is a strong correlation between the duration of an eruption and the subsequent time until the next eruption. A linear least-squares fit of these data can be used to predict the time of the next eruption. The predictions were within one hour of actual eruption time for 90% of the very short eruptions (7-19 min), and about 45% of the long eruptions. Combined with emission estimates from a previous study, we estimate the annual CO{sub 2} emission from Crystal Geyser to be about 11 gigagrams (11,000 tons)