Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

Investigations into the water chemistry of Yellowstone's geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and streams and rivers have been conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey dating back to 1888.

The arrival of volcanoes in that area is geologically recent, however—volcanism associated with Yellowstone has migrated over 400 miles across southern Idaho in the past 16 million years!

Looking back at early accounts of Yellowstone allows us to appreciate how our understanding has changed over time.

On a typical June day in Yellowstone National Park, it’s not unusual to see hundreds of bison grazing in the Lamar Valley. The herds appear to aimlessly move back and forth through meadows threaded by a winding river, just passive figures in an idyllic scene. But as it turns out, that’s far from the full picture.

Last week, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory 2017 Annual Report was published online.

The carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted from the Yellowstone magmatic-hydrothermal system has a number of characteristics that make it an important gas to monitor, including its great abundance, partial magmatic origin, and that it can provide information on the depth of the magma beneath the surface.

Yellowstone, like many regions with hydrothermal activity, often exhibits earthquake swarms. But how do we define an earthquake swarm and distinguish it from other seismic activity? And what is the cause of such swarms

Yellowstone is one of the best instrumented volcanoes in the world. There are several dozen GPS stations, seismometers, temperature sensors, river-monitoring sensors, tiltmeters, and strainmeters in the Park alone—and that number doesn't include the many sensors outside the Park!

Three YVO scientist communicators joined up with a university social scientist and earthquake-science communicator to offer a short course on Communicating Geohazards. 

Multiple hydrothermal breccia pipes are exposed along the northern and western shores of Yellowstone Lake and provide clues into the shallow roots of the active vent systems. 

The backbone of Yellowstone's ground-based monitoring network consists of seismic stations, which detect earthquakes, and GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers, which track ground motion.