Caldera Chronicles

Geologically speaking, things are always changing at Yellowstone—especially in the hydrothermal areas. It’s simply the nature of the complex...

To time how fast a sprinter runs, you just need a stopwatch. To time how fast magma moves, you need to know a little bit about chemistry.

Not all mountains in the Yellowstone region are volcanic in origin. The Wind River Range, southeast of Yellowstone National Park, is an excellent...

The US hosts two of the world’s most famous volcanic systems: Yellowstone and Hawaiʻi. These systems a well known for producing large volumes of magma...

The Yellowstone Seismic Network is designed to record ground shaking due to earthquakes. But earthquakes aren’t the only things that rattle the ground...

Want to know the geologic history of a specific area of Yellowstone?  Then pay attention to the vegetation!

Yellowstone National Park is a popular destination for geology field trips. It’s easy to see why—the dynamic landscape contains a variety of...

A number of studies have given us fascinating images showing Yellowstone’s magma reservoirs. But how are those images created?

Ranger naturalist George D. Marler meticulously documented changes in hydrothermal activity in the geyser basins of Yellowstone National Park for more...

How can lightning and solar storms be used to map magma beneath Yellowstone?  Through magnetotelluric imaging, which provides information about the...

The year 2024 will rightly be remembered for the well-documented explosion at Biscuit Basin. But that wasn’t the only geological activity of note that...

Long before the 2024 explosion of Black Diamond Pool brought renewed attention to hydrothermal hazards in Yellowstone National Park, there was...

Yellowstone has been a site of persistent volcanic activity for over 2 million years. But what did the region look like before the volcanoes started...

Yellowstone National Park is famous for its wildlife and geothermal activity. When we explore the intersection of these two natural grandeurs, we find...

What happened to the cinders that used to float atop Cinder Pool in the One Hundred Spring Plain area of Norris Geyser Basin?

The Stanley earthquake rattled Idaho in 2020.  Geologists have spent the past four years learning more about the fault that caused the quake—including...

Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest on-land geyser basin within Yellowstone National Park, with a wide diversity of thermal feature chemistry and...

To mark the demise of the webcam that provided views of Yellowstone Lake since 2017, let’s take a look back the history of YVO webcams in Yellowstone...

At the tops of many mountains and along numerous roads across the USA are small brass disks called benchmarks.  These survey points are critical for...

Geologists from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory are often asked to estimate how likely future eruptions are at Yellowstone, but it’s no walk in...