Yellowstone News and Information

  ‘It’s a miracle.’ Woman who fell into Yellowstone hot spring released from hospital after 4 months

  Arsenic in Yellowstone’s thermal waters Release Date: December 6, 2021 Yellowstone’s thermal waters are more than just hot—they also contain a variety of elements, some of which are potentially toxic!  Arsenic is an example, but the concentrations of this element depend on the style of the thermal feature.  Perhaps paradoxically, acidic thermal features contain much less arsenic than neutral ones! Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Blaine McCleskey, research chemist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Photograph of the Old Faithful Geyser erupting in Yellowstone National Park. Waters from Old Faithful contain arsenic concentrations of about 1,500 µg/L. Arsenic is a geogenic, or naturally occurring, chemical element in surface- and groundwaters that is of great public-health concern. Thermal

  Scientists can now “sniff” Yellowstone gases in real time Release Date: September 13, 2021 Much is known about how the chemical compositions of gases vary across the Yellowstone volcanic system, but how they vary in time has remained largely a mystery.  Our understanding should greatly improve with a recent installation of a station that continuously monitors gases and communicates those data in real time. Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Jennifer Lewicki, research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA. USGS scientist Laura Clor performing maintenance on the SNIF multi-GAS station on Mount St. Helens, Washington. (Credit: Peter Kelly, USGS. Public domain.) Over the past several decades, scientists have sampled gases from all of the major thermal areas of Yellowstone i

  An outlier of Yellowstone's thermal areas: the travertine of Mammoth Hot Springs Release Date: July 12, 2021 Early explorers during the separate Washburn, Hayden, and Hague expeditions of the 1870s were astonished by the massive terraces and pools of hot-spring limestone, better known as travertine, at Mammoth Hot Springs—a chemical oddity that is quite different from other Yellowstone thermal areas. 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, research geologist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey. Map of Yellowstone National Park showing locations of thermal basins that host hot springs, geysers, and mudpots.  Dark green areas host alkaline-chloride fluids.  Yellowstone Caldera margin shown as bold dashed line. (Public domain.) Three main varieties of hot spring fluids are r

  COVID-19 tests rely on bacteria discovered in a natural pool in the 1960s     Image: Brock, Thomas. Public domain  

  Yellowstone’s gravest threat to visitors (it’s not what you might think) Release Date: May 31, 2021 Yellowstone National Park is truly a wonder of nature, globally appreciated for its untamed beauty. Visited by millions each year, tourists travel from all over the world to witness its unique environment. However, while enjoying Wonderland, visitors should also keep safety in mind. Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Erin Krieger, student in Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, and Mairin Sims, Laramie High School student. With the arrival of the Memorial Day weekend, summer is upon us!  And for many, that means holiday time.  What better place to take a holiday than Yellowstone?  But while enjoying the spectacle of America’s first National Park, please keep safety in min

  Yellowstone’s Cool Thermal Areas Release Date: April 5, 2021 Yes, some of Yellowstone’s thermal areas are cool—as in, no longer hot.  Cooling is part of the “life cycle” of a thermal area.  And just as it’s important to keep track of where thermal areas warm up, it’s also important to keep track of where they are cooling down. Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from R. Greg Vaughan, research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. We do not define the habitat of wolves just by observing where a wolf pack may be standing at any given moment; they move around.  Similarly, you can think of a thermal area as the “habitat” of individual thermal features, like geysers and hot springs.  Hot fluids also move around (underground), so just because a patch of ground in Yellowstone is either warm or cool d