Beginning in 1931, George D. Marler (1898–78) worked as a ranger and naturalist at Yellowstone National Park for over 40 years. A number of his in-depth observations and interpretations were published in a series of groundbreaking, peer-reviewed scientific articles, and he made enduring contributions to our understanding of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal activity. His writings mostly detailed and clarified the reactions of geyser basin hot springs to climate change and earthquakes.
Marler recorded geyser eruptions during more than 50 months of monitoring, including during Yellowstone’s bitterly cold winter months, in a 1951 study titled Exchange of Function as a Cause of Geyser Irregularity [Wyoming]. He showed how variations in the intervals between subsequent eruptions are indicative of the erratic eruption patterns of numerous geysers.
He deduced from these observations that some geysers are subsurfacely related to other geysers and springs in the area. For instance, Marler proposed that the geysers and pools of the Daisy Group Comet, Daisy and Splendid Geysers, Bonita and Brilliant Pools, and Beauty and Chromatic Pools, which are situated roughly 150 feet apart, are all connected subsurfacely in the Upper Geyser Basin. He referred to the uneven patterns caused by the shifting groundwater flow between hot springs as an exchange of function.
Does the winter cold impact the thermal intensity of Yellowstone Park’s [Wyoming] hot springs? was the title of a 1954 article.(A more recent study that relied on more frequent measurements of geyser eruptions than were available to Marler found small seasonal variations in eruption patterns of some geysers.) He looked at the effects of extreme seasonal changes on geyser activity in the Upper Geyser Basin and came to the conclusion that there are negligible differences in the eruption patterns of geysers between winter and summer.
Marler proposed that even slight temperature variations in groundwater flowing toward geysers could have a big impact on the eruption patterns, like at Great Fountain Geyserin Lower Geyser Basin, in a 1964 paper titled Seasonal fluctuations in ground water in connection to hot spring activity.
How ancient is ancient Faithful Geyser [Wyoming]? is the title of a 1956 paper.presented a sample of salicidated wood from a tree that stood atop the Old Faithful Geyser Mound. In one of the first uses of the radiocarbon method (carbon 14 or 14C), the wood sample was dated to 730 200 years. After calibration, this equates to 703 200 years prior to 1950, or 1247 200 CE.
Marler penned that Based on the information provided in this research, it is fairly probable that the intermediate spring’s genesis dates back to the carbon 14 era. This spring’s origin and the wood’s age are nearly identical. The identical silicified wood’s radiocarbon dates, which were created using contemporary methods and more than 65 years after Marler’s findings, proved to be in agreement with the earlier dates.However, the more recent study indicated that trees grew on and around the geyser mound between roughly 1233 and 1362 CE, and that Old Faithful Geyser was spewing long before the trees were there. Toward the end of a period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, the Western United States saw a number of severe regional droughts that coincided with this time period.
George Marler’s work with Donald E. White of the U.S. Geological Survey, which described changes in hot spring discharge and geyser eruption patterns in response to the August 17, 1959, M7.3 Hebgen Lake, Montana, earthquake—which had an epicenter roughly 30 miles northwest of the Upper Geyser Basin—may have been his most well-known contribution.At least 289 springs in the geyser basins along the Firehole River erupted as geysers the day after the earthquake, of which 160 were springs with no prior eruption records, according to a 1975 report by Marler and White.
Additionally, they noted the emergence of new hot ground in certain locations, which by the next spring was visible as linear zones of dead or dying trees or as new fissures in hot spring deposits. A couple of these developed into hot springs, while others created fumaroles in newly formed fissures.
Future generations of researchers and geyser enthusiasts have benefited greatly from George Marler’s painstaking observations and documentation of hydrothermal activity in Yellowstone National Park. This information has greatly enhanced our understanding of hydrothermal activity, and in particular, the dynamics of geyser eruptions. He illustrated editions of the staff newspaper Nature Notes and produced numerous reports on the park’s hydrothermal features in his capacity as a ranger naturalist.
The Yellowstone Research Library has a number of Marler’s other works, such as The Story of Old Faithful, Studies of Geysers and Hot Springs along the Firehole River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, and Story of Great Fountain Geyser to 1965. Brigham Young University recognized Marler’s important contributions in 1962 by awarding him an honorary doctorate in science. In 1967, the U.S. Department of Interior recognized his contributions to the field of hydrothermal geology at Yellowstone National Park with a distinguished service award.
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s scientists and partners write a weekly column called Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles.
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