Images

Animated GIF of high-resolution satellite images of the Porcelain Basin area of Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, showing the development of a new thermal pool in the circled area.  There is no indication of the pool in images from October 19 and December 19, 2024.  A small depression is visible in the January 6, 2025, image.  In the Feb

Landsat 8 and 9 images of southwest Yellowstone National Park from 9-May (left), 25-May (center), and 18-June (right), 2025. The red labels are for the Madison (MP) and Pitchstone Plateaus (PP). The Yellow labels are for Shoshone (SL), Lewis (LL), Heart Lake, and Yellowstone (YL) Lakes. The Blue labels are for Lower (LGB) and Upper (UGB) Geyser Basins.

Talus slopes of the basalt of Soda Peaks (foreground), the oldest known eruption in the West Crater area, overlooking the andesite of West Crater (middle background), the youngest known eruption. This area is heavily vegetated and steeply sloped, which provide a challenge for rock sampling. Photo by James Genero, CVO summer intern, June 2025.

Crew of the Office of Naval Research’s Research Vessel (R/V) Atlantis and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) deploying the U.S. Navy’s three-person human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin submarine. Photograph by Art Howard, June 2025.

USGS geologist Mark Stelten and San Jose State University student and USGS student contractor Darrian Ellis-Hardin collect a sample of an approximately 50,000 year old lava flow from the Springerville volcanic field. USGS photo by Dawnika Blatter, June 2025.

Lidar shaded relief map of the Porcelain Basin and Back Basin areas of Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park.  Orange star indicates the location of a new thermal pool that formed sometime during late December 2024 to early February 2025.

The top of Bare Mountain (foreground) looking towards the southwest. Bare Mountain has two components: a pre-glacial (older than about 20,000 years) andesite lava flow that travelled to the north, after which the top of the eruptive vent was destroyed in an explosive eruption that formed a 475 meter (1550 feet) wide and 145 meter (475 feet) deep crater.

A basalt of Sister Rocks dike (a subsurface magmatic structure) cutting across a scoria deposit from a previous eruption of Sister Rocks. Being in a scoria deposit can indicate that you are near a volcanic vent, as scoria is not ejected very far from its source. This feature can be accessed just off the trail to the summit of Sister Rocks.

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.

This frame capture of a video from a webcam shows a small eruption emanating from Black Diamond Pool in Biscuit Basin, a subbasin of Upper Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, on May 31, 2025.  This was the site of a hydrothermal explosion on July 23, 2024.

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.

Photo of the flume in an outflow channel that was used for measuring the volume of water erupted from Old Faithful Geyser. Sandbags were placed to channel the water into the flume and prevent flow under and around it. The study was conducted under research permit YELL-SCI- 08342.

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.

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.

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.

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).