Images

Interpretive reconstruction of the Yellowstone Plateau region before initial plateau volcanism (a little before 2 million years ago). The region was entirely an elevated and faulted mountainous terrain with no basin in the present plateau area.

Yellowstone National Park employees Rick Hutchinson (right) and Jim Peaco (left) guide the specially designed Little Dipper boat into the boiling waters of Grand Prismatic Spring to collect measurements of the temperature and structure of the feature. National Park Service photo by Josh Robbins in 1996.

Queen's Laundry bathhouse, in the Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.  Building began under superintendent Philetus Norris in 1881 but was never finished.

Geologic map of the Wind River Range from Blackstone, 1993 (The Wind River Range, Wyoming: An Overview. Wyoming Geological Association. Jubilee Anniversary Field Conference Guidebook: Wyoming Geology, Past, Present, and Future. Pg. 121-140).

Porkchop Geyser erupting in August 1989.

Ice cone at Porkchop Geyser in March 1989.

Apollinaris Spring in 1987.  The spring was modified in 1925 so that water would flow through pipes to be emitted from a rock wall.  Yellowstone National Park photo by Jim Peaco.

Photo of damage to the Mammoth-Norris highway, just south of Mammoth Hot Springs, caused by the June 30, 1975, magnitude-6 earthquake.  Haynes Inc. photo for the Deseret News.

Muddy thermal discharge (foreground) near Congress Pool (middle ground) in Norris Geyser Basin following the June 30, 1975, magnitude-6 Yellowstone National Park earthquake,  NPS photo by Rick Hutchinson.

Gibbon River in Gibbon Meadows immediate following the June 30, 1975, magnitude-6 Yellowstone National Park earthquake.  The muddy color is due to increased sediment load.  NPS photo by Rick Hutchinson.

Map: Index map showing locations of 1967–1968 research drill holes in Yellowstone National Park. Taken from USGS Bulletin 1967.

An example Correlation of Map Units chart from the Surficial Geologic Map of Yellowstone National Park (U.S. Geological Survey, 1972) that demonstrates a typical classification scheme for surficial units.

A section of the Upper Green River Valley in western Wyoming, just south of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, showing different ecosystems (such as forests, wetlands, and aquatic habitats) whose capacities for carbon storage and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will be assessed by the USGS.

Elk congregate on the Camp Creek Feed Ground in northwestern Wyoming.

Elk congregate on the Camp Creek Feed Ground in northwestern Wyoming.

Silicified logs of Queen's Laundry bathhouse

Seismic geyser in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin during an eruption. Based on the study of George Marler and USGS scientist Donald E.

Eruptions from drill rods during research drilling in Yellowstone National Park, 1967–1968. Left panel shows initial explosive eruption of water-steam mixture from open drill pipe in drill hole Y-5 (Rabbit Creek) on August 20, 1967.

Bob Fournier (left) and Don White (right) at the Y3 drilling site in Pocket Basin adjacent to Ojo Caliente, Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, in 1967.  USGS Photo.

This orthophoto of Pocket Basin, a hydrothermal explosion crater in Yellowstone National Park's Lower Geyser Basin, was created from aerial photos taken in 1965 that were corrected to have uniform scale for use in geologic mapping.