| Fountain Paint Pot | |
|---|---|
 Fountain Paint Pot, 1899 | |
| Location | Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park |
| Coordinates | 44°33′02″N110°48′22″W / 44.550578°N 110.8062419°W [1] |
| Elevation | 7,306 feet (2,227 m) [2] |
| Type | Mud pot |
 Fountain Paint Pot | |
The Fountain Paint Pot (often pluralized) is a mud pot located in Lower Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular features. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.
The Fountain Paint Pot is named for the reds, yellows and browns of the mud in this area. The differing colors are derived from oxidation states of the iron in the mud. [3] As with all hot springs, the heat in the caldera forces pressurized water up through the ground, which is expelled here. Also, rising gasses cause the bubbling action. The bubble action in the mud varies with the seasons. In the early summer, the mud is watery from the high water table due to rain and snow melt. By the end of summer, the mud is much thicker as the water table drops. [4]
The oxidation state, sometimes referred to as oxidation number, describes the degree of oxidation of an atom in a chemical compound. Conceptually, the oxidation state, which may be positive, negative or zero, is the hypothetical charge that an atom would have if all bonds to atoms of different elements were 100% ionic, with no covalent component. This is never exactly true for real bonds.
Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal, that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust.
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water.
Several significant geysers erupt near the Paint Pots, notably Fountain Geyser, which usually has several large eruptions a day; Clepsydra Geyser, which is active most of the time except following an eruption of Fountain; and powerful but erratic Morning Geyser, active in the latter part of 2018 following a dormancy of nearly five years. [5] [6] These features and others are reachable by a short boardwalk trail from the parking lot on the main road through Lower Geyser Basin. Off-trail travel in this area is prohibited due to hazardous conditions.
A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Earth. Generally all geyser field sites are located near active volcanic areas, and the geyser effect is due to the proximity of magma. Generally, surface water works its way down to an average depth of around 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where it contacts hot rocks. The resultant boiling of the pressurized water results in the geyser effect of hot water and steam spraying out of the geyser's surface vent.
Fountain Geyser is a geyser in the Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Clepsydra Geyser is a geyser in the Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Closeup of the paintpots
Two large paintpots
Overflow of Silex Spring
