Caldera Chronicles

For a couple nights in May an extreme solar storm created a beautiful night sky for many people in areas that normally are too far away to see auroras...

The Yellowstone volcanic system is known for its ash-flow tuffs—thick, compressed ash deposits from caldera-forming eruptions. But thinner ash beds...

Rhyolite is the most abundant rock in Yellowstone, and it contains about 75% silica. When it reacts with hot groundwater, much of the silica ends up...

What does a beachball have to do with an earthquake?  Turns out, beachballs are key to understanding the characteristics of the fault that slipped to...

Want to know the number and pattern of earthquakes that occurred in the Yellowstone region in 2023?  Or what interesting new geyser activity took...

Argon dating is a powerful tool for determining when volcanoes erupted in the past. This technique works on a multitude of volcanic materials—from...

Yellowstone caldera is the most recent in a series of volcanic structures that stretches across the Snake River Plain of Idaho and into northern...

You may have heard of radium in connection to French scientists Marie and Pierre Curie, or because it is in an environmental hazard. But what is it...

Many people regard Yellowstone as an exceptional place that merits only positive superlatives. But in much of the broadcast, streaming, and popular...

A team of scientists visited the new thermal area near Tern Lake to sample gases and measure temperatures.  The results of their work provide a...

The record of water chemistry data in Yellowstone predates the development of the pH (acidity) scale!  These data are a testament to numerous...

Is Yellowstone heating up, or cooling down?  How much heat is radiating away from the surface in Yellowstone’s thermal areas, and how does it change...

Have you ever wondered if Yellowstone’s hydrothermal system is affected by the amount of precipitation or the annual temperature? It turns out that...

Just south of Norris Geyser Basin is a little-visited thermal area called Monument Geyser Basin. The “monuments” there are unique in Yellowstone’s...

Geologists study the rock record to understand how our world came to be and to try to determine what geologic events might occur in the future. The...

Mitigating the effects of the 1959 Madison Slide required a complex response of federal, local, and private organizations. The joint efforts...

As the ground started shaking due to the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake, a mountain in Madison Canyon collapsed, devastating the area and causing...

Yellowstone’s waters have been a subject of intense study for well over a century. A new database is now available summarizing water chemistry results...

Scientists often strive for a big-picture approach to understanding a given problem. Sometimes, this big-picture thinking requires first zooming into...

Road construction is a challenge in Yellowstone for a variety of reasons, including the abundant hydrothermal activity. This challenge is especially...