Canarystone Under Pressure

Yellowstone Lower Falls, Yellowstone Grand Canyon.

Climate at Yellowstone can be classified as BSk under Koppen's system. B is the major climate group, a dry climate. When evaporation exceeds precipitation results in a dry climate. K stands for midlatitude with a steppe. This is the same climate at Denver, CO. Yet they are quite vast in weather, the topography places a key role in the weather at Yellowstone. For a detailed chart of the climate and average precipitation click here.

Climate of Yellowstone over 30 years

The video below describes a unique process at Yellowstone. The geothermal heat underneath the park actually makes the winters much harsher.

The nights in Yellowstone can get brutal for the wild animals living in the caldera. The daytime valley breeze effect happens during the day when the warm land carries into the high altitudes of Yellowstone and during the nighttime the mountain diurnal flows bring the cold air to the valley of the caldera. Many time this process creates valley fog. Add this with the geothermal, hot springs in the caldera and you get heavy snow, fog, and vast cloud formations. Radiation fog can be found all around Yellowstone in the early morning and late evening. 

Causes by the cool air coming down from the mountains with the warm earth above the geothermal soils. As well as Yellowstone Lake has evaporation fog as the bottom of the lake has a direct hole to intense temperatures of the hot springs underneath. Stratus nebulosus clouds form in stable air mass conditions.

Sources:

• http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?wy990

• BBC's "Yellowstone Battle for Life"

• http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/radar.php?rid=riw&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no

Wx is The Secret Rx in Yellowstone

Mammoth Hot Springs, Obsidian Cliff and, Mary Bay a few of the unique geological formations created by weathering at Yellowstone National Park.

Shrugs going through chemical weathering at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Mammoth Hot Springs composes of the most extensive system of actively forming hot springs terraces within the park. These terraces are made up of travertine: dissolution of limestone (or calcium carbonate) deposits from thermal water. Limestone lives in the fault lines along Mammoth Hot Springs, which draw conclusions of how the network of hot springs formed over vast topography.

Dead Lodgepole Pines in Mammoth Springs by Wolfgang Wander

The precipitation of limestone propels the odor of rotten eggs. Photosynthetic bacteria actively breaking down the hydrogen sulfide in the water and creating Calcium Carbonate. The bacteria produce vibrate colors of yellows, oranges and browns as seen in the ionic images of Yellowstone's geothermal features. Prolific Calcium Carbonate is actually suffocating Lodgepole Pine Trees, found all around Mammoth Hot Springs.

The Southern view of Obsidian Cliff by Joseph Iddings 1888. 

Eleven miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs is Obsidian Cliff. The USGS Map of Geological Yellowstone indicates the unique rhyolite formations. Obsidian rock forms from rapidly cooling lava that has no crystallization, resulting in a dark volcanic glass. The photo above shows columnar joints, lava flow cooled and contracted as a single unit, in a rapid pace. The joints weaken the rock for erosion to occur. Add steep slope to form a talus slope of scree. Obsidian occurs naturally as small rocks, making Obsidian Cliff rare as its vast expansion of the volcanic glass. Archeological artifacts show many cultures used Obsidian for tools, such as Native Americans making arrowheads.

Enlarged map of the geological formations of Obsidian Cliff. The (Qpr) amaranth formation is the plateau and the pastel yellowstone (Qs) detrital deposits.

Hydrothermal explosion that consists of Mary Bay the northern part of Yellowstone Lake. A crater produced by pressure of the magma, an earthquake or a tsunami. All requiring a great amount of force and pressure. 

(A) Confined pressure (B) water Table drops, which fragments the overlying rock and propels it upward (C) explosion of mud, steam, and water until a drop in confining pressure and steam lessened (D) a crater remains and fills with water.

A soil profile of Mary Bay crater expresses a calcification process of either andisol or aridisol soil types. The profile clarifies two main explosions took place by the varying volcanic arc deposits. Mary Bay crater has an active vent discharging thermal water rich in clay minerals. 

Soil profile of Mary Bay, Yellowstone Lake (Click to enlarge)

Sources:

• http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngm-bin/ILView.pl?sid=9475_1.sid&vtype=b&sfact=1.5

• http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/upload/Yell250.pdf

• http://www.pbase.com/wwcsig/yslandscape

• http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/geology/publications/bul/1444/intro.htm

Living Yellowstone

To begin to explain the unique characteristics of Yellowstone I chose to create a trailer for this entry. For me, discovering why Yellowstone is what we know today was as exciting as watching a summer “blockbuster” movie. 

Geysers, springs and hotspots are evidence that Yellowstone is an active volcano and will erupt in the future! Yellowstone's largest eruption, Lava Creek eruption, over 640,000 years ago. A 1,000 times the volume of Mount St. Helen's eruption in 1980. The Lava Creek erupted with violent force that blasted volcanic ash across more than 15 states.  After the explosion, the rhyolite dome volcano lacked magma that supported the structure. The volcano collapsed creating Yellowstone’s Caldera. Basalt lava flows uplift the lithosphere Yellowstone's caldera. To see the plateau rhyolite flows click here.

Cliff Geyser with exposed thermophiles at Black Sand Basin.

Underneath the North American Plate lives Yellowstone's hotspot of deeply rooted magma of extraordinary size and volume. The lithosphere moves southwest while the hotspot remains stationary, creating gigantic calderas in its path. This scar of calderas forms the Snake River Plain, a flood basalt. Follow the link to "Explore volcanic fields" and see the process’ in motion!

 Section cut of Yellowstone's hotspot.(Click to here enlarge)

Intrusive volcanic sills near Tower Falls. (Click image to enlarge)

Evidence shows Yellowstone may erupt again. University of Utah monitors the earthquakes and ground movements, they have about twenty seismic monitoring stations within Yellowstone National Park. Click here for up-to-date earthquake reports. The black lines are representing faults, the green is the swarm of earthquakes from 1995-2009 and the red cluster is the newest swarm in 2010. A total of 2,347 earthquakes shook Yellowstone over a span of four months!

University of Utah Seismic Graph of Yellowstone National Park.

This USGS Geologic Map of Yellowstone demonstrates connections between the fault lines, types of rock, and different areas of lava flows. There is a linear characteristic with the earthquakes and the fault lines along, with laccoliths, in both maps. The Sour Creek Dome and the Mallard Lake Dome are another sign of the volcano emerging once again.

Sources:

• http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/08/yellowstone/achenbach-text/4  http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs100-03/
• http://www.seis.utah.edu
• http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/publications/2006/royalsoc.pdf
• BBC's "Yellowstone Battle for Life"

Introductory Page

Hello fellow readers and bloggers, I am Page Carpenter! Throughout the semester I will be analyzing Yellowstone National Park as a physical geographer. Yellowstone National Park covers more than two million acres! With such a vast terrain I will be focusing on Yellowstone's Caldera as my chosen site.

Morning Glory Pool, Hot Spring in Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone

There are two main reasons why I chose Yellowstone: the unique geological and zoological aspect of Yellowstone and it is the first national park in the world. By choosing an icon of treasured landscapes I will research the fine details about Yellowstone's forms and processes to expand the existing knowledge of the park. My family and I explored the wonders of Yellowstone for the first time last summer. With the aid of this blog my next adventure in Yellowstone will be more insightful and enriching!

Yellowstone Caldera is outlined in black dashed lines.
Source: www.nps.gov/yell/

Background image source: http://www.wallcoo.net/nature/2009_Landscape_1680_Desktop_03/wallpapers

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