Surprise Blast of Rock, Water and Steam in Yellowstone Sends Dozens Running for Safety

Photos and video of the aftermath showed damaged guardrails and boards covered in rock and silt near muddy pools. - The AP
Photos and video of the aftermath showed damaged guardrails and boards covered in rock and silt near muddy pools. - The AP
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Surprise Blast of Rock, Water and Steam in Yellowstone Sends Dozens Running for Safety

Photos and video of the aftermath showed damaged guardrails and boards covered in rock and silt near muddy pools. - The AP
Photos and video of the aftermath showed damaged guardrails and boards covered in rock and silt near muddy pools. - The AP

A surprise eruption in Yellowstone National Park shot steam, water and dark-colored rock and dirt high into the sky Tuesday and sent sightseers running for safety.

The hydrothermal explosion happened around 10 a.m. in Biscuit Basin, a collection of hot springs a couple miles north of the famous Old Faithful Geyser, The AP reported.

Video posted online showed a couple dozen people watching from a boardwalk as the eruption sprayed and grew in front of them. As water and debris began to fall, they ran to keep clear, some yelling “Back up!" People then turned to watch the spectacle under a huge cloud of steam.

No injuries were reported, but the Biscuit Basin area was closed for visitor safety. The eruption damaged a boardwalk that keeps people off Yellowstone’s fragile and often dangerous geothermal areas.

Vlada March was on a tour in the basin when her guide said something unusual was happening. March started taking video.

“We saw more steam coming up and within seconds it became this huge thing,” said March, a California real estate agent who was with her mom, husband and their two kids. “It just exploded and became like a black cloud that covered the sun.”

“I think our tour guide said ‘Run,’ and I started running and I started screaming at the kids, ‘Run, run, run,’ and I continued filming what I could,” she said.

Rocks that fell from the sky smashed the boardwalk they had been walking on. March's mom, who had been sitting on a bench near the explosion, was shaken and dirty but otherwise fine, she said.

Walking back on the broken boardwalk “was a little scary,” she said, “but thankfully it didn’t break under us.”

Photos and video of the aftermath showed damaged guardrails and boards covered in rock and silt near muddy pools.

The explosion could have resulted from a clogged passageway in the extensive natural plumbing network that underlies Yellowstone's world-famous geysers, hot springs and other thermal features, said scientist Mike Poland with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

A clog would have caused a buildup of heat and pressure such as happens inside a pressure cooker, he said, until the water suddenly flashed to steam, causing an instantaneous and huge expansion in volume and triggering the explosion.

After viewing video from the event Poland estimated that the explosion sent material about 100 feet (30 meters) into the air.

He said the explosion was “on the big side” of eruptions that occur periodically — usually when no one is around let alone throngs of tourists.

On occasion they get much bigger: The largest known crater from a hydrothermal explosion on Earth is in Yellowstone and measures 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) across, Poland said. Scientists theorize that a series of hydrothermal explosions created that crater some 13,800 years ago in the Mary Bay area on the northeastern side of Yellowstone Lake.



Chinese Marriages Slid by a Fifth in 2024, Fanning Birthrate Concerns

A woman (L) and a girl pose for a picture in Beijing on February 9, 2025. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)
A woman (L) and a girl pose for a picture in Beijing on February 9, 2025. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)
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Chinese Marriages Slid by a Fifth in 2024, Fanning Birthrate Concerns

A woman (L) and a girl pose for a picture in Beijing on February 9, 2025. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)
A woman (L) and a girl pose for a picture in Beijing on February 9, 2025. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)

Marriages in China dropped by a fifth last year, the biggest drop on record, despite manifold efforts by authorities to encourage young couples to wed and have children to boost the country's declining population.
More than 6.1 million couples registered for marriage last year, down from 7.68 million a year earlier, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed, according to Reuters.
Declining interest in getting married and starting a family has long been blamed on the high cost of childcare and education in China. On top of that, sputtering economic growth over the past few years has made it difficult for university graduates to find work and those that do have jobs feel insecure about their long-term prospects.
But for Chinese authorities, boosting interest in marriage and baby-making is a pressing concern.
China has the second-biggest population in the world at 1.4 billion but it is aging quickly.
The birth rate fell for decades due to China's 1980-2015 one-child policy and rapid urbanization. And in the coming decade, roughly 300 million Chinese - the equivalent of almost the entire US population - are expected to enter retirement.
Measures taken last year by authorities to tackle the problem included urging China's colleges and universities to provide "love education" to emphasize positive views on marriage, love, fertility and family.
And in November, China's state council or cabinet, told local governments to direct resources towards fixing China's population crisis and spread respect for childbearing and marriages "at the right age."
Last year saw a slight rise in births after a lull due to the pandemic and because 2024 was the Chinese zodiac year of the dragon - with children born that year considered likely to be ambitious and have great fortune.
But even with the increase in births, the country's population fell for a third consecutive year.
The data also showed that more than 2.6 million couples filed for divorce last year, up 1.1% from 2023.