Images

Outcrop of the Tuff of Lost Creek near Sepulcher Mountain in Yellowstone National Park.  Photo by Natalie Kraugh, Montana State University, on June 8, 2022.

Photograph of the west side of Mount Everts taken from Sepulcher Mountain. The linear features seen on the western face are sedimentary rocks running north to south. (Photo by Jess Condon, June 8, 2022)

The Bandelier Tuff near Los Alamos, New Mexico.  The Jemez Mountains, home to the Valles and Toledo calderas where the tuff originated, rise in the distance.  The tuff was hot and thick when it was deposited by caldera-forming eruptions 1.61 and 1.25 million years ago, and so it is welded in places, forming a dense and resistant rock.  USGS photo by M

Route followed by a band of Nez Perce (or, in their language, Nimiipu or Nee-Me-Poo) in 1877.

Steamboat Geyser erupting on 23 May 2022. Dead and downed trees can be seen in the foreground. Photo by Mara Reed, UC Berkeley, May 23, 2022.

Calcite Springs thermal area in Yellowstone National Park. Calcite Springs is the white altered ground. Dark deposits (not apparent in this photo) are sometimes discharged from fumaroles and are made of either oxidized sulfur or hydrocarbons. USGS photo by Mike Poland, May 15, 2022.

Scientists install a semipermanent GPS station in Yellowstone National Park.  These stations, which are not radio-telemetered, are typically installed in May and recovered in October, when the data are downloaded and processed.  These stations help to supplement the continuous GPS network in the Yellowstone area.

Artist Paintpots in an acid sulfate springs in Yellowstone National Park. 

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park, where Yellowstone Volcano Observatory scientists met in May 2022 to discuss recent scientific results and to revise the Observatory's plan for responding to geological unrest.

Scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory meet in Mammoth Hot Springs in May 2022 to discuss the protocols for responding to a geological event in Yellowstone National Park.

Continuous GPS station P711 near Madison Campground.  Photo by Scott K. Johnson (UNAVCO) on May 11, 2022.

Cathodoluminescence images generated by the interaction of electromagnetic radiation ranging in energy from ultraviolet to near infrared with sectioned and polished zircon mineral grains from an Archean-age rock found in the Yellowstone region.

Annie Carlson, Research Permitting Coordinator for Yellowstone National Park during 2017–2023. National Park Service photo by Jake Frank, May 2022.

Color-shaded bathymetric map of Yellowstone Lake showing locations of sediment cores and major tectonic features (faults, fractures, lineaments, caldera margins) and hydrothermal areas (vents, domes, hydrother­mal explosion craters).

Elk skeleton at the bottom of Doublet Pool on Geyser Hill near Old Faithful, imaged by an underwater camera in 2022.  Photo by Mara Reed, University of California, Berkeley, under research permit YELL-2022-SCI-8058.

Front cover of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory 2021 annual report, which includes a summary of earthquake, deformation, and geyser activity, as well as research investigations and other information. The report is freely available online at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/cir1494.

Cross sections from one-dimensional electrical resistivity (top of each section) and three-dimensional magnetic susceptibility inverted models (bottom of each section) along profiles that span (a) Norris Geyser Basin, and (b) Upper Geyser Basin.  Geologic and geothermal features are from the Yellowstone geologic map. VE=vertical exaggeration.

Map of Yellowstone National Park showing geologic structures, including the caldera, inner ring fault, and resurgent domes, and and thermal areas (colored red).

Map of North American showing the Continental Divide -- an invisible line that separates the major watersheds flowing to different oceans.

Map of Two Ocean Pass and the Parting of the Waters. Pacific Creek flows southwest toward the Snake River, and Atlantic Creek flows northeast toward the Yellowstone River. The green line is the Continental Divide.

Examples of some of the instrumentation commonly found in a geology experimental research lab.