Unified Interior Regions

Visitors to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park might have noticed an odd geological feature near the top of Mount Everts—an unconformity! This juxtaposition of different rocks serves as a marker of missing history in the Yellowstone region.

Yellowstone National Park is truly a wonder of nature, globally appreciated for its untamed beauty. Visited by millions each year, tourists travel from all over the world to witness its unique environment. However, while enjoying Wonderland, visitors should also keep safety in mind.

Standing on the boardwalk next to any of Yellowstone’s hot, steamy, vigorously bubbling hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles, or geysers, you may be struck by the sheer amount of energy that powers this system, night and day. But how long have these features been active?  To address this question, geologists can turn to the “clock” that is frozen within hydrothermal travertine deposits.

For half the year, Yellowstone is largely inaccessible to geologists, buried under snow and ice and subject to fierce storms.  By May, however, improved weather and melting snow opens the park to field work.  The 2021 field season promises to be a productive one for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory scientists investigate many aspects of the Yellowstone volcanic system, including the incredible geysers that are a highlight of any visit to the park. After witnessing a geyser eruption, many visitors begin to wonder about some aspects of these incredible phenomena.  One question --“how tall was that?” -- can be answered by anybody with a few simple tools.

A small side road on the highway between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Junction leads to Sheepeater Cliffs, a spectacular example of columnar jointing in a lava flow.

Salinity levels in the Upper Colorado River Basin, which covers portions of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, have steadily decreased since 1929, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study analyzing decades of water-quality measurements.

Yellowstone is dotted with historic places.  But did you know that the oldest building that is still standing, built 140 years ago, was constructed because of a thermal spring? 

While geysers and hot springs are relatively easy to find in Yellowstone, what about the caldera, and the lava flows and the two massive resurgent domes that formed after the caldera erupted?  They’re there.  You just need to know where to look.

Steamboat Geyser has been wowing visitors to Yellowstone National Park since March 2018.  Seismic studies of the geyser and nearby Cistern Spring are now revealing details of the hydrothermal plumbing system that would not otherwise be known, possibly explaining why the geyser eruptions are the tallest in the world!

Fort Collins, CO – Considered one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world and home to mule deer, pronghorn, sage-grouse, pygmy rabbits and more than 350 other species of conservation concern, the sagebrush ecosystem continues to shrink rapidly due to a host of growing threats, according to a new scientific report.