Images

Sabrina Brown collecting samples from Yellowstone Lake core YL16-2C at the National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore) at the University of Minnesota.

State-of-art, cavity-enhanced analyzer to help solve this long-standing technical problem in volcano science, adapted from an industrial instrument. The Off-Axis Integrated Cavity Output Spectroscopy (OA-ICOS) yields a several kilometer path length for absorption. Contains two near-IR tunable diode lasers and is field portable, fast, and precise.

Mineral stability diagram showing minerals that are stable under changing temperature and dissolved silica concentrations that are found at and just beneath the floor of Yellowstone Lake.  Two important points illustrated by this diagram are: (1) the minerals that are stable when reacted with vapor-dominated fluids (kaolinite, boehmite) differ substantially fro

The Yellowstone River is divided into five reaches (labeled and color-coded): Yellowstone Lake, Hayden Valley, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Tower–Gardner, and Mammoth.  Monitoring stations (yellow dots on map) between each reach of the river reaches allow geochemists to measure river composition and then determine the sources of chloride (Cl) and other solu

A digital elevation map of Yellowstone National Park (left) with the location of Yellowstone Lake indicated by the white box. Satellite image (right) of the study site with collection location of core YL16-2C shown by the red circle. Map was originally published in Sabrina Brown’s dissertation (2019).

An unnamed small acidic (pH ~3) hot spring (with a temperature of about 55°C at the source) in the Gibbon Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. The yellow region is due to the precipitation of sulfur by sulfide-oxidizing chemotrophic microorganisms.

Several adult wetsalts tiger beetles hunting and basking on and around an alkaline hot spring near Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Robert K. D. Peterson, 2019.

A wide array of phototrophic microbial community textures exhibited in an alkaline (pH ~8.5) hot spring outflow channel in the Biscuit Basin, including thick mats, toadstools, ropes, and pinnacles. The differences in color are due to pigments (chlorophylls, bacteriochlorophylls, and carotenoids) produced by phototrophic microorganisms.

Sapphire Pool, an alkaline (pH ~7.5) spring in the Biscuit Basin area of the Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.

Alpine meadow near Two Ocean Pass on the Continental Divide just south of Yellowstone National Park.

Image of the north part of Yellowstone Lake with the smoke plume from the Brimstone Fire in the distance, acquired by the YVO webcam on September 2, 2019, at 2:05 PM MDT.

The Parting of the Waters, looking southeast. North Two Ocean Creek splits into Atlantic Creek, flowing to the left in the photo, and Pacific Creek, flowing to the right. The wooden sign indicates that it is 3,488 miles to the Atlantic Ocean and 1,353 miles to the Pacific Ocean.

Photograph of permanent eddy covariance station installed since 2014 in area of volcanic CO₂ emissions on Mammoth Mountain, California. USGS photo by Jennifer Lewicki, August 2019.

View of the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range, with Pingora Peak in the center. The Bull Lake and Pinedale glaciations carved this valley by steepening and smoothing its granite walls. Image captured while descending from Texas Pass. Image view is toward the southwest. USGS photo by Stanley Mordensky, August 2019.

A closeup of the head and mouthparts of the wetsalts tiger beetle, a voracious predator in Yellowstone. Photo by Robert K. D. Peterson, 2019.

Dead lodgepole pine trees near the parking lot of Fountain Paint Pots in the Lower Geyser Basin. The trees look as if they are wearing white socks; hence, the name, “bobby socks trees.” The dead trees soak up the silica-rich water, turning the lower portion of the trees white.

Images of snow algae and snow cyanobacteria on snow fields in the Beartooth Mountains near the Beartooth Pass Summit (elevation 10,947 ft/3,368 m) on Highway 212. Top left shows a typical pink snow algae bloom on a patch of snow, and top right shows the snow algae bloom scraped off the snow surface with a rock hammer.

Coring platform assembled on the shore of Goose Lake, in Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, in 2018. Today, the nearest thermal features are 400 meters (about 1300 feet) away from Goose Lake, but thousands of years ago Goose Lake itself showed indications of being thermally active!. Steam from Midway Geyser Basin can be seen in the distance.

Hydrothermal sediment deposits from the Goose Lake sediment core, Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. The orange sediment (left, scale in cm) consists mostly of fluorite, a common mineral in some hydrothermal deposits, but not usually found in lake sediments.

Geologic time scale showing the geologic eons, eras, periods, epochs, and associated ages in millions of years ago (MYA). The time scale also shows major evolutionary and tectonic events in North America.

The four subbasins of Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, as seen on a Google Earth base map.  The curving line to the east of Norris Geyser Basin is the Grand Loop Road (Norris Junction is in the center-right of the image). Figure developed by Bill Keller, Yellowstone National Park.