The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.
John Muir
On July 23, 2024 a hydrothermal explosion at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone sent tourists running. Luckily no one was injured. As far as explosions go, it was relatively mild for the area. In fact, hydrothermal explosions, where water is flash boiled to steam, happens a lot and can be much bigger than the one we saw here.
Was this volcanic?
In a word, no. It was an explosion of super heated water, not magma. Yet is is because the water was heated from all the the geothermal energy of the Yellowstone supervolcano that it happened. This, and many other phenomena all happen in the Earth’s Crust and could be covered in this year’s Science Olympiad event Dynamic Planet.
Dynamic Planet 2025 – Earth’s Crust
Dynamic Planet is Science Olympiad‘s yearly event that focuses on geology. The 2025 season will specifically focus on the Earth’s Crust. While the rules will add more clarification as to what exactly will be covered, National Geographic has several lessons on topics that will most likely be a part of this year’s event. These are great overviews to get us started while we wait for the details to come out in September. Click on the following lesson links to give your team a head start on this event and look for updates here once the official rules come out.
