Caldera Chronicles

New satellite communication technology is being tested at Yellowstone monitoring stations and could have a big impact on how real-time data are...

The Yellowstone volcanic system has hosted some very large eruptions. But there have been much larger volcanic explosions in geologic history...

Yellowstone gets rattled by plenty of small earthquakes—between 1,500 and 2,500 located events in a typical year—but large damaging earthquakes have...

Locating an earthquake in an absolute sense can come with considerable uncertainty, but locating earthquakes relative to one another is far more...

Geyser Hill, near Old Faithful, has experienced some recent changes, with a general increase in thermal and geyser activity. The changes are...

Monitoring data from Yellowstone are not just useful for assessing the potential for volcanic eruptions there.  We can also use what we learn from...

Although Yellowstone Caldera might be better known, the slightly older Valles Caldera, in New Mexico, was where some of the fundamental...

Yellowstone hydrothermal features can be acidic or basic depending not only on the source of the feeding fluids, but also bacteria that might resemble...

Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin hosts the legendary Old Faithful, but it's also home to an isolated thermal group famous for its biscuits.  Though...

Interested in knowing more about Yellowstone’s activity, as well as research results, from the past year?  We’ve got you covered—the Yellowstone...

The Timber Hill basalt tells a story of bygone days, when southwestern Montana looked very different and was a site of vigorous volcanic eruptions.

Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, like the famous “black smokers,” and those on the floor of Yellowstone Lake have some general similarities, but...

Much of the geological attention at Yellowstone National Park is on the young volcanic rocks. But the geologic history of the region and the ages of...

Thermal infrared images not only make nice pictures, they also give us quantitative information about thermal energy being radiated from Earth’s...

When one thinks of life in extreme environments, Yellowstone hot springs may be one of the first places to come to mind. Another extreme?  The...

Robert Fournier, who passed away in January 2023, was a pioneer in studying the hydrothermal system of Yellowstone National Park, laying the...

A 30-minute drive along U.S. Route 20 in Idaho between Ashton and Island Park will take you through the history of the first two caldera systems that...

Geologists are very much like detectives—they use a variety of investigative tools to understand how a landscape develops. Geochemistry is one such...

While most attention is given to the hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and mud pots in Yellowstone’s hydrothermal areas, there are lessons just beneath...

GIS (Geographic Information System) tools provide an important way to catalog, visualize, and analyze data collected by Yellowstone Volcano...