Yellowstone News and Information

Mushroom Pool: The subtle spring with the spectacular story By  Yellowstone Volcano Observatory   March 9, 2026 Mushroom Pool is nondescript in appearance, but its impacts on microbiology and on how research is done in Yellowstone National Park have been profound. 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. Mushroom Pool is a small hot spring in Yellowstone’s Lower Geyser Basin that looms large in science. The spring’s fun(gi) name might have been given in the 1890s due to its appearance or the presence of algae and bacteria. Media Sources/Usage: Public Domain.  View Media Details Mushroom Pool, Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. Old roads were routed very near this feature as early as 1895, when the poo...

World’s largest acidic geyser actively erupts in Yellowstone for the first time in 6 years

  No, Yellowstone isn’t ‘waking up.’ But parts of it are still blowing up:  Video captured one 30-foot high eruption at the site of a former massive blowout

A mission to repair one of the most interesting GPS monitoring stations in Yellowstone   By  Yellowstone Volcano Observatory   November 17, 2025 Many of the monitoring sites in Yellowstone National Park are located in remote areas.  When they go offline, a lot of preparation and effort is necessary to bring them back to functionality. 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. The continuous GPS station at White Like, designated WLWY (GPS stations are always given 4-character codes), is one of the most interesting in all of Yellowstone National Park.  The station was installed in 1999 on the Sour Creek  resurgent  dome —one of two uplifted areas of Yellowstone caldera that formed due to  magma ...

No, animals are not leaving Yellowstone National Park Online sources are saying that animals are fleeing Yellowstone National Park.  This isn’t the first time such claims have been made. And just like before, they aren’t true. 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. Here we go again. The Internet is abuzz with claims that animals are fleeing Yellowstone National Park and suggesting that the bears, elk, and other creatures know something about Yellowstone’s volcanic system that humans don’t.  Hogwash. Media Sources/Usage: Public Domain.  View Media Details These bison seem pretty relaxed. The nonsense seems to have started on July 10, 2025, when a social media post suggested that “hundreds” of mountain lions were...

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 ...