Posted on March 1, 2021
This is an update of my post published on March 1, 2010:
Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world. Established on this date in 1872, it features a beautiful lake, forests, a “Grand” canyon, waterfalls, exciting wildlife such as bison and bears, elk and moose...
...But Yellowstone is most famous for having lots and lots of fascinating thermal activity. There are rainbow-colored hot springs, steaming rivers and lakes, mud volcanoes, several thousand steam vents, and from 300 to 500 geysers— more than half of all the geysers in the world!
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| Yellowstone has a LOT of geysers. |
Yellowstone is mostly in the state of Wyoming, but parts spill over into Idaho and Montana. It is well worth even a long trek to see it!
Yellowstone Caldera is the largest "supervolcano" in North America and one of the largest in the world. (A caldera is a large crater formed by a volcanic explosion or by the collapse of a volcanic cone.)
Most people think of a volcano as a mountain that sometimes blows its top; Mount Saint Helens in Washington with its 2-square-mile crater is a good example of that “typical” volcano.
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| Mount Saint Helens, before and after blowing her top in 1980. |
Yellowstone Caldera, which hasn't had a major eruption for hundreds of thousands of years, is a giant depression, not a mountain—but it, too, can be defined as a volcano! All 1,500 square miles of it!
According to the U.S. National Park Service, fully half of the world's geothermal features (such as hot springs, mud pots, and geysers) are in Yellowstone. With 10,000 different features, no website can possibly show them all, but Terra Galleria has a lot of beautiful images. (After enjoying the thumbnails, and perhaps clicking your favorites to see a larger version, you might want to check out the “large format photos” and “panoramic photos” pages!)
There are several "virtual tours" of Yellowstone on the internet. This website has links to GoogleEarth's flyover of Norris Basin plus and to various webcams.
The National Park's website has a photo gallery, videos, and some virtual tours.
Watch geysers erupt on Yellowstone's webcams.
Make a “geyser” at home! This YouTube video has an activity with soda and Mentos. Be sure to point out to your kids that what is going on in this activity is in no way related to actual geysers, which are created by hot water under pressure! (Also, notice that diet soda works better than sugary soda and is FAR less messy/sticky than “regular”!)
Watch an animation that explains how geysers erupt.
More than just geysers! Other features at Yellowstone include (as mentioned above) hot springs and mudpots. And there are terraces. And fumaroles. And and and...!
A fumarole is a hole from which steam and other (sometimes stinky) gases escape. Here are experiments to find out more about hot springs and fumaroles. BE SURE to read the entire instructions and follow those instructions carefully WITH AN ADULT! (Scroll down around halfway down the page to see the instructions.)
Also on this date:
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(First Monday of March)
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