A natural wonder — and a faithful legend

The legend of the healing waters

Long before it was named, the upper Napa Valley was known as aguas calientes — ‘hot waters.’ Centuries ago the native Wappo people told of the ‘Legend of the Healing Waters,’ soaking in the natural pools and using the warm mineral mud to soothe tired muscles. Word spread, and travelers journeyed great distances to experience the serenity beneath Mount Saint Helena.

In the early days of the National Geographic Society, Old Faithful Geyser of California was declared one of only three ‘faithful’ geysers in the world — geysers regular enough to set a clock by. It soon became one of the most visited, and most photographed, places in the American West.

The science that made headlines

The geyser that predicts earthquakes

Here is what sets this geyser apart. Decades ago, longtime steward Olga Kolbek noticed something remarkable: the geyser’s steady rhythm would change in the days before an earthquake. She brought it to the attention of scientists, and a sixteen-year study by the U.S. Geological Survey — led by geophysicist Paul Silver — confirmed it.

The geyser’s eruption intervals shifted days ahead of three major Northern California earthquakes: Oroville in 1975, Morgan Hill in 1984, and Loma Prieta in 1989. The odds of coincidence were calculated at less than one in a thousand. The findings were published in the journal Science and covered by the New York Times, Time and the San Francisco Chronicle.