Images

Fishing Cone, a small thermal feature near the shore of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake.

Hikers on Mount Everts near Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

Panoramic of the West Yellowstone rhyolite lava flow taken along Highway 20 (between the West entrance of Yellowstone National Park and Madison Junction). The flow is approximately 111,000 years old and has a volume of about 41 km³ (10 mi³). 

A geologist examples a basaltic lava flow along the Madison River, looking for an area that can yield samples suitable for ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology.  USGS photo by Jorge Vazquez, June 2017.

Geophysicist Elske de Zeeuw-van Dalfsen (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) collects a gravity reading from a station near Gibbon Falls in Yellowstone National Park. Gravity data collection was completed under Yellowstone National Park research permit 7074.

Plowing operations in Yellowstone National Park.  Photo by Jake Frank, March 28, 2017.

Photograph of eddy covariance and Multi-GAS stations that were deployed in a temporary configuration near Norris Geyser Basin in 2016. Research conducted under permit YELL-2016-SCI-7082.

Helicopter with airborne electromagnetics sensors dangling beneath as it flies over a portion of Yellowstone National Park.  Photo by Jeff Hungerford, November 2016.

Kullenberg coring platform from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Continental Scientific Drilling facility used to collect long (up to 12 m, or 40 feet) sediment cores from Yellowstone Lake.  Photo taken in September 2016 by Lisa Morgan.

Cut polycarbonate sections of sediment core collected from core YL16-3A from the Deep Hole, the deepest part of Yellowstone Lake at about 119 m (390 feet) depth, southeast of Stevenson Island. Photo taken in September 2016 by Lisa Morgan.

Photograph of north and eastern rim of the 9400-year-old Turbid Lake explosion crater showing the primary explosion ejecta rim with a secondary explosion ejecta rim inside the lake-occupied explosion crater.  Many, if not most, larger explosion craters have multiple explosion histories and are long-lived hydrothermal systems. 

Beartooth Mountains looking west northwest from near Beartooth Pass, Wyoming. Photo by Jeff Havig, University of Minnesota, July 20, 2016.

A Ptychopariid trilobite from Yellowstone National Park. Scale is in millimeters.  Specimen located at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

A Ehmania walcotti trilobite from Yellowstone National Park. Scale is in millimeters.  Specimen located at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Schematic cartoon of an idealized rhyolite lava flow with structures identified. Figure modified from Sweetkind et al. (2015) [https://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20155022]. 

Top: Thermographic mosaic of Yellowstone acquired by the NASA’s MODIS-ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER), a thermal infrared scanner, in September 2006.  Dark shades indicate cool temperatures and bright are warm; this reflects not only hydrothermal activity, but also types of ground cover.

Yellowstone subsurface cross-section schematic oriented SW-NE, depicts rise of magma beneath mantle plus heating and movement of mantle and crustal material. Credit Univ Utah. Click to enlarge.

Map of the Heart Mountain slide block. From Mitchell et al., 2015 ("Catastrophic emplacement of giant landslides aided by thermal decomposition: Heart Mountain, Wyoming." Earth and Planetary Science Letters 411: 199-207), modified from Anders et al. (2010).

(Left) Sample of the Pitchstone Plateau rhyolite flow, which erupted about 72,000 years ago, making it is the youngest rhyolite at Yellowstone. The blocky white crystals in this sample are the mineral sanidine, whereas the rounded crystals are quartz.

Gas collection from a bubbling source within Pelican Creek, Yellowstone. Inverted funnel placed over gas source, gas travels through tubing into evacuated/vacuum glas flask to be analyzed in lab.

Gas flask sampling at West Astringent Creek, Yellowstone. Open tube with attached gas chamber inserted into ground, gas travels through tube into vacuum flask being held by scientist.