Images

Route followed by a band of Nez Perce (or, in their language, Nimiipu or Nee-Me-Poo) in 1877.

Steamboat Geyser erupting on 23 May 2022. Dead and downed trees can be seen in the foreground. Photo by Mara Reed, UC Berkeley, May 23, 2022.

Scientists install a semipermanent GPS station in Yellowstone National Park.  These stations, which are not radio-telemetered, are typically installed in May and recovered in October, when the data are downloaded and processed.  These stations help to supplement the continuous GPS network in the Yellowstone area.

Scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory meet in Mammoth Hot Springs in May 2022 to discuss the protocols for responding to a geological event in Yellowstone National Park.

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park, where Yellowstone Volcano Observatory scientists met in May 2022 to discuss recent scientific results and to revise the Observatory's plan for responding to geological unrest.

Continuous GPS station P711 near Madison Campground.  Photo by Scott K. Johnson (UNAVCO) on May 11, 2022.

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory scientist-in-charge Mike Poland replaces batteries in a temperature logger in Norris Geyser Basin.

Annie Carlson, Research Permitting Coordinator for Yellowstone National Park during 2017–2023. National Park Service photo by Jake Frank, May 2022.

Cathodoluminescence images generated by the interaction of electromagnetic radiation ranging in energy from ultraviolet to near infrared with sectioned and polished zircon mineral grains from an Archean-age rock found in the Yellowstone region.

Front cover of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory 2021 annual report, which includes a summary of earthquake, deformation, and geyser activity, as well as research investigations and other information. The report is freely available online at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/cir1494.

Color-shaded bathymetric map of Yellowstone Lake showing locations of sediment cores and major tectonic features (faults, fractures, lineaments, caldera margins) and hydrothermal areas (vents, domes, hydrother­mal explosion craters).

Map of Yellowstone National Park showing geologic structures, including the caldera, inner ring fault, and resurgent domes, and and thermal areas (colored red).

Map of Two Ocean Pass and the Parting of the Waters. Pacific Creek flows southwest toward the Snake River, and Atlantic Creek flows northeast toward the Yellowstone River. The green line is the Continental Divide.

Examples of some of the instrumentation commonly found in a geology experimental research lab.

Map of North American showing the Continental Divide -- an invisible line that separates the major watersheds flowing to different oceans.

Cross sections from one-dimensional electrical resistivity (top of each section) and three-dimensional magnetic susceptibility inverted models (bottom of each section) along profiles that span (a) Norris Geyser Basin, and (b) Upper Geyser Basin.  Geologic and geothermal features are from the Yellowstone geologic map. VE=vertical exaggeration.

Schematic cross section of the magmatic system underneath Yellowstone Caldera and illustrating the processes of rhyolite formation.

Vertical deformation measured at three caldera systems: Yellowstone, Wyoming (red), Long Valley, California (green), and Campi Flegrei, Italy (blue).  Triangles show data collected by leveling, and circles by GPS.  All three calderas have gone up and down over time, but the scale of change at Campi Flegrei dwarfs that at Long Valley and Yellowstone. 

Top image is a view of the Silver Gate landslide complex, near Mammoth Hot Springs, from Bunsen Peak. Bottom shows roughly the same view using lidar data, colored to show elevation highs and lows and shaded by slope. Landslide scarps, roads, trails, and Glen Creek (lower left), all obscured by trees in the photograph, are much more visible in the lidar.

3D renderings of elevation change between August 2007 and October 2020 along the Lamar River in the northeast part of Yellowstone National Park.  Red regions represent >1 m (3 ft) of elevation loss, yellow indicates no change, and blue represents >1 m (3 ft) of elevation gain.

Spectrogram of a possible long-period (LP) earthquake in Yellowstone that occurred on August 26, 2021, near Norris Geyser Basin.  The top panel shows a 30-second seismogram recorded at seismic station YHH.  The bottom panel shows the spectrogram with energy concentrated in the 1–3 Hz range and lasting for ~15 seconds.