Images

Water temperature in a runoff channel of Black Diamond Pool in Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park, measured on May 31, 2025.  The spike and subsequent drop over the span of about four minutes, followed by the low temperature recorded over about the following hour, is due to a small eruption that occurred from the pool at 8:39 p.m. that day.

Image from the webcam installed at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park.  The view is of Black Diamond Pool, where a hydrothermal explosion occurred on July 23, 2024 (many of the rocks behind and to the right of the pool were deposited during that event).  The background cliff is the Summit Lake rhyolite lava flow, which is about 111,000 years old.&n

Temporary webcam deployed on the boardwalk in Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park.  The pan/tilt/zoom camera provides a static view every 15 minutes and records video on site for later download as needed.  Black Diamond Pool, site of a hydrothermal explosion on July 23, 2024, is in the background.  This work was completed under Yellowstone Nation

View looking northwest at a new thermal pool in the Porcelain Basin area of Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, that probably formed in a series of mildly explosive events between late December 2024 and early February 2025.  The rocks and white material (silica mud) surrounding the pool were probably ejected as the feature formed.  The pool is

Map of Yellowstone’s thermal areas. Inset commercial satellite images highlight thermal areas that are mentioned below: Sulphur Hills (©2022, Maxar, USG), Turbid Lake (©2022, Maxar, USG), and Lower Geyser Basin (©2015, Maxar, USG).  This work utilized data made available through the NASA Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program.  We acknowledge th

Yellowstone National Park Geology Program team members Samantha Hilburn (left) and Margery Price (right), both Physical Science Technicians, pose with a snow pit dug near Lewis Canyon for installation of a semi-permanent GPS site, installed in collaboration with USGS scientists. USGS photo by Dan Dzurisin, May 2025.

Seismic reflection data showing the top of the magma reservoir beneath Yellowstone Caldera along a cross section that runs from Canyon Village in the northwest (X) to near Lake Butte in the southeast (X`).  The top panel shows seismic P-wave (compressional wave) reflectivity, with evidence for the sharp reservoir top labeled.

Map showing the Roadside Springs thermal area, located just north of Nymph Lake along the Norris-Mammoth highway.  Hydrothermal ground is shaded purple.  New hydrothermal features formed in 2003 on the north side of Nymph Lake, and also in 2024 a bit further north from the lake.  Figure by Jefferson Hungerford, Yellowstone National Park.

Range of speeds for several animals, athletes, and magmas from various volcanic eruptions. Eruptions shown include the 25,400-year-old Oruanui eruption of Taupo (New Zealand), the 2.08-million-year-old Huckleberry Ridge Tuff of Yellowstone (USA), and the 767,000-year-old Bishop Tuff of Long Valley (USA). Magma ascent rates determined by Myers et al. (2018).

Aerial view looking to the west at the Roadside Springs hydrothermal area and Nymph Lake showing the locations of thermal features that formed in 2003 and 2024.  Yellow line marks the Mammoth-Norris highway.   Figure by Jefferson Hungerford, Yellowstone National Park.

Quartz crystals (A) often contain melt embayments (tubular melt-filled pockets burrowed into the side of volcanic crystals) (B), which preserve volatiles (water, carbon dioxide, and sulfur) that have different concentrations in different parts of the embayment (C).

Simplified schematic of a volcanic plume ejecting ash, crystals and fragments of rock from a vent. This rising plume will eventually hit a zone of neutral buoyancy in the atmosphere, where it is then carried by the wind. Material is ejected from both the upward moving jet and falls from the umbrellaing plume.

Map of the Northwestern United States showing major volcanic features associated with the mantle plume currently underneath Yellowstone caldera.  Colors indicate general basaltic (blues) versus rhyolitic (reds) compositions, with shades indicating age (darker shades are older).  Rough outlines of calderas that formed due to the Yellowstone hotspot are give

Map of the geologic domains of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Boundaries are approximate.

This presentation was prepared for the AGU 2024-2025 Distinguished Lecture Series. This, and other lectures, provide a high-level synthesis of different topics for general science audiences.

This presentation discusses the challenge of volcano monitoring, eruption forecasting, and protecting vulnerable populations. 

Organization chart giving the structure of a response by the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory to a significant episode of unrest or eruption at the Yellowstone volcanic system. The strategy is scalable (elements are activated as they are needed and deactivated when they are no longer needed) and can be adapted to meet the needs of the event response.

Comparison of steep subduction (like that occurring today beneath the Pacific Northwest of the United States) and flat-slab subduction (which led to the formation of the Rocky Mountains a few tens of millions of years ago). Black arrows indicate the relative direction of movement of the oceanic plate.

This example shows areas where seismic waves travel more quickly in blue, and slower areas in red, beneath the western United States. Faults are black lines, and blue line is the San Andreas Fault.

Map of seismicity (red circles) in the Yellowstone region during 2024. Gray lines are roads, black dashed line shows the caldera boundary, Yellowstone National Park is outlined by black dot-dashed line, and gray dashed lines denote state boundaries.

Schematic showing magma storage beneath Yellowstone caldera. Nested calderas resulting from the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff, Mesa Falls Tuff, and Lava Creek Tuff caldera forming eruptions are shown as solid black, green, and orange lines, respectively.

Photo and cartoon of 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake deposit in sediment core from Henrys Lake, Idaho, with references to Cesium-137 activity (or concentration). Changes in Cesium-137 are related to atmospheric nuclear tests and provide a means of dating the deposit; those measurements are plotted on the right with depth (in cm) of the core.