Images

Google Maps photo taken at the intersection of U.S. Route 20 and Old Hwy 47 in Idaho, looking west. The tops of Moonshine Mountain and Silver Lake dome, rhyolite lava flows located inside the caldera, are indicated with a dashed black line.

USGS employees deploys a water conductivity/temperature/depth probe (AquaTroll) for a temporary study along the Madison River, Yellowstone.

Seismicity is shown for January 17, 2010 through the Feb 8, 2010. Borehole seismometer B207 is located about 7 miles (12 km) northeast of the 2010 swarm. Seismic data are provided by the National Science Foundation funded Plate Boundary Observatory operated by UNAVCO.

YVO's mobile webcam system as deployed in September 2010 near Lake Butte.

National Park Service employee inspects a Plate Boundary Observatory strainmeter/seismometer station.

Image of elk captured by the YVO mobile webcam on June 25, 2010, when it was positioned atop Lake Butte with a view of the north side of Yellowstone Lake.

Cross section through the trunk of a lodgepole pine tree from Cooking Hillside near Mud Volcano, Yellowstone National Park.  The earliest date for this tree is 1916 and it died in 1990. Spongy white-gray areas are foam insulation that was injected into the sample to reinforce the structure of the wood.

Data are collected every two minutes and sent by radio once per day to a server where values are plotted and released to the public internet.

The Grey’s Landing Ignimbrite in Idaho (Dr. Thomas Knott, of the University of Leicester, England, gives the scale of the cliff). The entire cliff (and more not seen!) would have been deposited in a matter of moments as it welded to the land surface during a super eruption about 8.7 million years ago.

This two-image mosaic is one of the highest resolution views acquired by the Cassini spacecraft during its imaging survey of the geyser basin capping the southern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Enceladus. 

Photo of the Madison Museum, built in 1930 and designed by Herbert Maier. This structure exemplifies the National Park Rustic style, using natural materials and artisan craftmanship that are intended to blend buildings into the surrounding environment, “suggesting the smallness of man in relation to nature” (Herbert Maier).

Overview of central West Thumb Geyser Basin.  USGS photo by Pat Shanks, 2009. 

Ken Pierce in the field with a large glacial erratic in the Clarks Fork moraines taking detailed notes and annotating a map in progress.

Bob Fournier measuring the gas-to-water ratio (gas/steam) at drill site Y2, near Hot Lake on Firehole Lake Drive in Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, in the late 1960s.  USGS Photo.

Yellowstone caldera viewed from Mount Washburn.  The caldera is the low-lying area extending from the foothills of Mount Washburn in the foreground to the rugged mountains on the horizon.  The incised valley of the Yellowstone River stretches from left to right in the middle distance.  Steep valley walls are illuminated by sunlight in the center.&nbsp

Hydrothermal explosion at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park. These types of events are the most likely explosive hazard from the Yellowstone Volcano.

Schematic illustration of waterfall formation in which a hard rock that is more resistant to erosion is atop a softer rock that is less resistant to erosion. Source: Wikimedia (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WaterfallCreationDiagram.svg).

UNAVCO engineers drilling a borehole for instrument installation (left). Aerial view of borehole casing used to protect instruments from the elements found below the surface (right).

Gas flux measurement being taken over altered ground at Brimstone Basin, Yellowstone.

Gas flows up, appearing to boil, through the water of Alluvium Creek, Brimstone Basin, Yellowstone. Large funnel is used to trap gas, which is then sent to a collection bottle through the tubing.

The water at Terrace Springs, northeast of Madison Junction in Yellowstone National Park, is relatively cold (about 60 °C or 140 °F), but the water is still saturated with CO₂-rich bubbles. Photo by Shaul Hurwitz in September 2008.