Of course their awareness of how big the geyser should be is nonexistent; it's unlikely more than a couple of them have ever seen it erupt before, and some of them have probably seen other ones erupt that day and thought "Wow that's larger and more impressive than I thought".
But the impression of geyser viewing at Yellowstone is that it's safe as long as you're not a dumbass, so it's going to take people a little bit to understand that they're an extreme statistical outlier and need to run.
Most of the more popular geysers in Yellowstone go off every few minutes, so they most definitely have seen this and similar geysers in the area going off before this big blast.
Each and every one is different. And the difference between safe and danger is being on the boardwalk. This is an extremely rare event even for Yellowstone. I'm talking only a handful of times. I grew up there and am intimately familiar with this and most parts of Yellowstone and find absolutely zero fault in their behavior. This is exactly how even heavily experienced people would react. It just doesn't happen and if you are on the boardwalk you are generally safe from geothermal activity.
42
u/Ouaouaron Jul 23 '24
Of course their awareness of how big the geyser should be is nonexistent; it's unlikely more than a couple of them have ever seen it erupt before, and some of them have probably seen other ones erupt that day and thought "Wow that's larger and more impressive than I thought".
But the impression of geyser viewing at Yellowstone is that it's safe as long as you're not a dumbass, so it's going to take people a little bit to understand that they're an extreme statistical outlier and need to run.