The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. The number of thermal features in Yellowstone is estimated at 10,000. A study that was completed in 2011 found that a total of 1,283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone, 465 of which are active during an average year. These are distributed among nine geyser basins, with a few geysers found in smaller thermal areas throughout the Park. The number of geysers in each geyser basin are as follows: Upper Geyser Basin (410), Midway Geyser Basin (59), Lower Geyser Basin (283), Norris Geyser Basin (193), West Thumb Geyser Basin (84), Gibbon Geyser Basin (24), Lone Star Geyser Basin (21), Shoshone Geyser Basin (107), Heart Lake Geyser Basin (69), other areas (33). Although famous large geysers like Old Faithful are part of the total, most of Yellowstone's geysers are small, erupting to only a foot or two. The hydrothermal system that supplies the geysers with hot water sits within an ancient active caldera. Many of the thermal features in Yellowstone build up sinter, geyserite, or travertine deposits around and within them.
The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world, after Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand and Boiling Lake in Dominica. It is located in the Midway Geyser Basin.
Artemisia Geyser is a geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Excelsior Geyser Crater, formerly known as Excelsior Geyser, is a dormant fountain-type geyser in the Midway Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Excelsior was named by the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.
Beauty Pool is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Beryl Spring is a hot spring in the Gibbon Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. It is a large superheated pool, and boils up to a height of 4 feet.
Black Pool is a hot spring in the West Thumb Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Yellowstone National Park has over 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of blazed and mapped hiking trails, including some that have been in use for hundreds of years. Several of these trails were the sites of historical events. Yellowstone's trails are noted for various geysers, hot springs, and other geothermal features, and for viewing of bald eagles, ospreys, grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, bighorn sheep, pronghorns, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk.
Mystic Falls is a 70-foot (21 m) cascade type waterfall on the Little Firehole River, a tributary of the Firehole River. Originally named Little Firehole Falls by members of the 1872 Hayden Geologic Survey, the name was changed to Mystic Falls by members of the Arnold Hague Geological Survey in 1885 for unknown reasons. Mystic Falls is reached via the 1.2 miles (1.9 km) Mystic Falls Trail which starts at Biscuit Basin in the Upper Geyser Basin.
The following articles relate to the history, geography, geology, flora, fauna, structures and recreation in Yellowstone National Park.
The Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 explored the region of northwestern Wyoming that later became Yellowstone National Park in 1872. It was led by geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. The 1871 survey was not Hayden's first, but it was the first federally funded geological survey to explore and further document features in the region soon to become Yellowstone National Park, and played a prominent role in convincing the U.S. Congress to pass the legislation creating the park. In 1894, Nathaniel P. Langford, the first park superintendent and a member of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition which explored the park in 1870, wrote this about the Hayden expedition:
We trace the creation of the park from the Folsom-Cook expedition of 1869 to the Washburn expedition of 1870, and thence to the Hayden expedition of 1871, Not to one of these expeditions more than to another do we owe the legislation which set apart this "pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people"
Doublet Pool is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Lone Star Geyser is a cone type geyser located in the Lone Star Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. The basin is a backcountry geyser basin located 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Old Faithful Geyser and the Upper Geyser Basin. The geyser is reached via an old service road open to hikers and biking with the trailhead near Kepler Cascades on the Grand Loop Road.
Bunsen Peak el. 8,564 feet (2,610 m) is a prominent peak due south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The peak lies on the east flank of Kingman Pass on the Mammoth to Norris section of the Grand Loop Road. The peak was first ascended by Ferdinand V. Hayden and Captain John W. Barlow in 1871, Bunsen Peak was not named until 1872 during the second Hayden Geologic Survey. E. S. Topping named the peak Observation Mountain in 1872 as well, but that name did not stick. The Bunsen Peak Trail with its trailhead just south of Mammoth is a steep 2.1 miles (3.4 km) to the summit. Bunsen Peak was named for the German chemist Robert Bunsen, the inventor of the Bunsen Burner and responsible for early work on volcanic geyser theories.
Shoshone Lake is a U.S. backcountry lake with an area of 8,050 acres with an elevation of 7,795 feet (2,376 m) in the southwest section of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It lies at the headwaters of the Lewis River, a tributary of the Snake River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes that Shoshone Lake is the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states that cannot be reached by a road. The Yellowstone Caldera is located within the lake.
Heart Lake el. 7,461 feet (2,274 m) is a large backcountry lake, nestled at the base of Mount Sheridan in Yellowstone National Park. Heart Lake is in the Snake River drainage and is drained by the Heart River.
Jewel Geyser is a fountain geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. It is in the Biscuit Basin complex that includes Black Diamond Pool, Black Opal Spring, Wall Pool, Sapphire Pool, Shell Spring, Silver Globe Spring, Avoca Spring, West Geyser, the Mustard Springs, Coral Geyser, and Black Pearl Geyser.
Factory Hill el. 9,527 feet (2,904 m) is a mountain peak in the Red Mountains of Yellowstone National Park. It is directly north of Mount Sheridan and west of the Heart Lake Geyser Basin. Early in the history of Yellowstone, this peak was called Red Mountain by the Hayden surveys, a name later transferred to the range in which it resides. In 1885, the Hague Geological Survey gave the peak its present name based on the following passage by Nathaniel P. Langford in his 1871 Scribner's account of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition. Langford's party was camped near the south arm of Yellowstone Lake at the time.
Turquoise Pool is a hot spring in the Midway Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Turquoise Pool has a temperature between 142 and 160 °F and was named by members of the Hayden Expedition of 1878.
Belgian Pool is a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Originally named Oyster Spring, it was renamed after a visitor from Belgium fell into it in 1929 with fatal results. The spring is less hot than other features in the area, at about 180 °F (82 °C), but still sufficiently hot for severe thermal burns. References to a "Belgian Geyser" in the 1930s may refer to this feature.
William Henry Jackson photo, 1872. Castle Geyser is in the background.
Early postcard of Crested Pool, Frank Jay Haynes
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