A Yellowstone geyser is very active ... but don't panic

Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser erupted June 12, then erupted again three days later on June 15.

That's a new record for the geyser – the shortest time ever recorded between eruptions, the Billings Gazette reported

But it's nothing to worry about: There's no connection to the infamous "Supervolcano" that lurks underneath the national park.

"Yellowstone has an incredible geyser system that is unrelated to magmatic activity – other than the magmatic system basically providing heat," tweeted volcanologist Janine Krippner.

The U.S. Geological Survey agreed, noting that "geysers are supposed to erupt, and most are erratic, like Steamboat."

In addition, as Live Science reported, records of the geyser's eruptions go back only to the early 1980s, the Billings Gazette said. That’s a pretty short period considering geysers have been active since the end of the last ice age about 14,000 years ago.

A couple of fun facts about geysers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey: The English word geyser is derived from Geysir, a name given by Icelanders in the 17th century to an intermittently discharging hot spring in southwest Iceland.

And of the 1,000 natural geysers around the world, half are in Yellowstone National Park.

As for the Supervolcano, there are no signs it's about to erupt. Scientists who study Yellowstone's 45-by-30-mile caldera, roughly the size of Rhode Island, said in 2018 that the underground system of the volcano will probably give decades of warning before it blows – and that isn't likely to happen for thousands of years.

So don't change your summer vacation plans just yet. 

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