Yellowstone National Park

Samantha Scherm
CMPT 109
 Yellowstone National Park
• Established in 1872, Yellowstone National
Park is America's first national park.
• Located in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, it is
home to a large variety of wildlife including
grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk.
• Preserved within Yellowstone National Park a
collection of the world's most extraordinary
geysers and hot springs, and the Grand
Canyon of the Yellowstone .
 Hydrothermal Features
• With half of the earth's geothermal features,
Yellowstone holds the planet's most diverse and
intact collection of geysers, hot springs, mudpots,
and fumaroles.
• Its more than 300 geysers make up two thirds of
all those found on earth.
• In addition, the park contains 10,000 thermal
features comprised of brilliantly colored hot
springs, bubbling mudpots, and steaming
fumaroles.
 Hot Springs
• Hot springs with names like Morning Glory,
Grand Prismatic, Abyss, Emerald, and
Sapphire, glisten like jewels in a host of colors
across the park's harsh volcanic plain.
• They are the most common hydrothermal
features in the park.
 Mudpots

• Another hydrothermal feature, mudpots are

an acidic feature with a limited water supply.
• Mudpots are created because some
microorganisms use hydrogen sulfide, which
rises from deep within the earth, as an energy
source.
• They help convert the gas to sulfuric acid,
which breaks down rock into clay.
• Various gases escape through the wet clay
mud, causing it to bubble.
 Fumaroles
• Fumaroles, or steam vents, are the hottest
hydrothermal features in the park.
• They have so little water that it all flashes into
steam before reaching the surface.
• The result is a load hissing of steam and gases
 Mammoth Hot Springs
• At Mammoth Hot Springs, a rarer kind of
spring is born when the hot water
ascends through the ancient limestone
deposits of the area instead of the silica-
rich lava flows of the hot springs common
elsewhere in the park.
• The results invoke a landscape that
resembles a cave turned inside out, with
its delicate features exposed for all to see.
 Geysers
• Sprinkled amid the hot springs are the rarest fountains of
all, the geysers.
• What makes them rare and distinguishes them from other
hot springs is that somewhere, usually near the surface in
the plumbing system of a geyser, there are one or more
constrictions that prevent water from circulating freely to
the surface where heat would escape.
• The deepest circulating water can exceed 199°F, the
surface boiling point. As the water rises, steam forms.
Tremendous amounts of steam force water out of the vent,
and an eruption begins. Water is expelled faster than it can
enter the geyser's plumbing system, and the heat and
pressure gradually decrease. The eruption stops when the
water reservoir is depleted or when the system cools
 The Grand Canyon
• While the thermal features are unique and
interesting, perhaps the most picturesque area of the
Yellowstone region is the Grand Canyon of
Yellowstone.
• The canyon is approximately 20 miles long, 1000 ft
deep, and 2500 ft wide.
• It’s present formation dates back about 10,000 years,
but the beginning of its formation actually started
about 600,000 years ago.
 Wildlife
• The unique and varied landscape of the park
creates an ecosystem that is home to a variety of
wildlife, including amphibians, reptiles, birds, and
mammals.
• Yellowstone is home to:
– Four species of amphibians
– Six species of reptiles
– 148 species of birds
– 67 different kinds of mammals, the highest
concentration in the lower 48 states.
 The Human History
• The human history of the Yellowstone region goes back
more than 11,000 years.
• From about 11,000 years ago to the very recent past, many
groups of Native Americans used the park as their homes,
hunting grounds, and transportation routes.
• The first people of European descent found their way into
the park about 200 years ago.
• In 1872 a country that had not yet seen its first centennial
established Yellowstone as the first national park in the
world.
• A new concept was born and with it a new way for people
to preserve and protect the best of what they had for the
benefit and enjoyment of future generations.
 Works Cited
"Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park -
AllYellowstonePark.com." Yellowstone National Park
Vacations, Lodging, Old Faithful - AllYellowstonePark.com.
N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/canyon_vill
age/grand_canyon.php>.
"The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Tours." Yellowstone
Online Tours. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2011.
<mms.nps.gov/yell/features/canyontour/index.htm >.
"Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park
Service)." U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your
America. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm>.