October 19, 2012

Geology Word of the Week: Y is for Yellowstone National Park

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Yellowstone #1. Fall 2005.

def. Yellowstone National Park:
A United States national park that is located in the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Established in 1872, Yellowstone was the first national park to be founded and set an example for other national parks which were subsequently established all over the world. The park is the current location of the Yellowstone hotspot, which is responsible for large-scale volcanism in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming. As a result of the hotspot, the park is full of geothermal features such as hotsprings and geysers… and thus is a treasured location for geologists to visit!

For this week’s geology word, I thought I would share some pictures from when I visited Yellowstone National Park as part of my undergraduate geology field camp back in 2005. I haven’t been back to Yellowstone since then, but my husband and I are hoping to visit sometime in 2013 as part of a Western USA roadtrip that we’re plotting.

Does anyone else have some Yellowstone pictures to share? Perhaps we can start a geomeme!

Yellowstone #2. Fall 2005.

Yellowstone #3. Fall 2005.

Yellowstone #4. Fall 2005.

Yellowstone #5. Fall 2005.

Yellowstone #6. Fall 2005.

Yellowstone #7. Fall 2005.