Yellowstone News and Information

By  Yellowstone Volcano Observatory   May 20, 2024 Is Yellowstone Overrated? As a Disaster Movie Subject, Maybe . . .  Many people regard Yellowstone as an exceptional place that merits only positive superlatives. But in much of the broadcast, streaming, and popular media it has an outsized reputation as a global catastrophe waiting to happen. Let’s do some fact checking to see which view is more realistic.  Yellowstone  Caldera  Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Dan Dzurisin, emeritus geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Few would argue against Yellowstone being “super”—both a splendid natural wonder worthy of careful stewardship, and a super-sized volcanic system capable of correspondingly large eruptions with potentially far-reaching impacts. As the latter, it has inspired any number of disaster shows and movies, not unlike menacing asteroid...

By  Yellowstone Volcano Observatory   April 15, 2024 Monument Geyser Basin: A Unique Vapor-Dominated Thermal Area in Yellowstone National Park  Just south of Norris Geyser Basin is a little-visited thermal area called Monument Geyser Basin. The “monuments” there are unique in Yellowstone’s above-water hydrothermal areas and resemble the “black smoker” deposits found at the bottom of the ocean. Yellowstone  Caldera  Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Pat Shanks and Lisa Morgan, research geologist emeriti with the U.S. Geological Survey.        Sources/Usage: Public Domain.  View Media Details View of Monument Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, with one of the  silica  spire "monuments" (from which the basin gets its name) in the foreground. USGS photo by Mike Poland, May 15, 2021. Monument Geyser Basin occurs west ...

Yellowstone Emits As Much Carbon Dioxide as an Erupting Volcano

Ferdinand Hayden And The Founding Of Yellowstone National Park By  Yellowstone Volcano Observatory   October 30, 2023 Geologist Ferdinand Hayden directed the first scientific exploration of Yellowstone in 1871, leading directly to the founding of the world’s first national park in the following year. Hayden’s noteworthy achievements in science and conservation, however, are clouded by his views of indigenous people.     Yellowstone  Caldera  Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Cole Messa, Ph.D. student, and Ken Sims, Professor of Geology and Geophysics, both at the University of Wyoming. Yellowstone—the " land of the burning ground "—has been known to indigenous people for at least 11,000 years. In fact, in 1805 the  governor of Louisiana Territory described a map drawn on a bison hide by an indigenous American showing a “volcano” on the Yell...

Acknowledging Annie: How research and monitoring get done in Yellowstone Yellowstone  Caldera  Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Michael Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Better knowledge of Yellowstone’s past volcanism and current behavior is key for understanding the potential for  future hazardous activity, like volcanic eruptions, strong earthquakes and hydrothermal explosions .  Data collection, however, must be balanced against the impact on Yellowstone National Park,  much of which is managed as a wilderness . Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Annie Carlson, Research Permitting Coordinator for Yellowstone National Park during 2017–2023. National Park Service photo by Jake Frank, May 2022. Scientists can’t simply install a seismometer or collect a rock sample wherever the...

A Christmas (misinformation) story:  Yellowstone edition Misinformation and misconceptions about Yellowstone are nothing new.  This past Christmas saw a particularly challenging episode of misinformation that caused widespread and needless concern—especially because there are many places on-line to find scientific information about Yellowstone’s current activity. Yellowstone  Caldera  Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Michael Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles directed and narrated a live radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel  The War of the Worlds .  The incident is famous for supposedly having incited a panic that the events being described were really happening.  Some people apparently thought that Martians were invading Eart...