In Yellowstone, a Subterranean Volcano Exerts Its Influence

The New York Times ^ | October 7, 2003 | JIM ROBBINS

[xJones]

IT'S GONNA BLOW! Which means it's a good thing the National Park Service wouldn't allow Yellowstone to be explored as a KGA (known geothermal area). San Francisco gets a good percentage of their electrical power generated at The Geysers, KGA, but that area doesn't look like it's got problems.

[Support Free Republic]

Hi mom!

[11B3]

"Over last 630,000 years, Yellowstone has experienced 29 eruptions the size of the one on Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. The average interval here has been 20,000 years, and 70,000 have passed since its last eruption."

Another volcanic region long overdue.

You'd think with all of this "catastrophic global warming" things like this would happen. [/sarcasm]

[Heatseeker]

"In the news today, a giant caldera explosion ripped a hole in the Earth's crust thousnads of square miles in extent, and will probably end life on the planet as we know it.

But first to our top story - our exclusive interview with Kobe Bryant's sister-in-law's penpal's friend's gardener"

:)

[KeyWest]

There was a special on this sort of explosive volcano. The last explosion of one of these coincides with a massive loss of life on earth because of cooling. They figured that out because mankind should have had more genetic differences if it went back as far as it should but does not. Forget global warming. This is end times stuff.

[G.Mason]

5 posted on 10/07/2003 5:36 AM EDT by Heatseeker

Boy .......ain't that the truth!

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

Here are some photos I took this past summer in Yellowstone.... thought ya'll might like to see what they are talking about here.....the whole area was quite awsome!

This is Old Faithful. Although there are other more spectacular geysers nearby, this one remains the most famous due to its predictable regularity and frequent eruptions.

 

These two are more colorful and because they do not spew so high, you can get close enough to look into them. The blue water on the left denotes temperatures well above boiling. The orange on the right is algae growth that lives in the warm wetness around the geyser.

All through the many miles of this vast park, active geysers abound. There is a concentration in the area around Old Faithful, but driving throughout the park you can spot steam rising in many spots through the trees.

Above-right, you can see the boardwalks that were erected in some areas to keep visitors on a proper path and out of danger.

 

This is a mud geyser. A huge bubbling mass of boiling gray mud.

 

This one is called The Dragon Cave. If you stand in the right spot, the escaping gasses sound just like the roar of a dragon coming from deep within the cave.

[doodad]

Take a look at a topographic map of the US some time. Notice the large flat looking trail that leads to Yellowstone from the west. That is the path that the hotspot plume has scorched across the continental plate as the plate has moved westward. When that thing blows again, ash will fall in Ga as it did last time.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Thanks for posting your pics. Here's a link for those that want to read more about the Yellowstone Caldera.

[Lokibob]

Here is where you can watch the data for the Yellowstone volcano. It has some great links to the actual data real time:
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/


And here is the link to the Yellowstone seismic data real time:
http://www.seis.utah.edu/helicorder/heli/yellowstone/index.html

[randita]

Thanks for the interesting photos. We're heading out to YS this summer (first time). Any must sees? Must dos? Did you fish while you were there? Hike?

[sergeantdave]

Take your video camera and get shots of airborne tourists who tried to pet a buffalo. Great stuff.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

Yes we sure did camp (backpacked) and did a bit of fly fishing too...... details in your FReep mail.

[doodad]

Do go to Cooke City and stay there a night. MUCH better experience than W. Yellowstone, which is a tourist trap. On the north end of the park, plan a short dayhike up to see the forest of petrified trees. (Look at a map for a guide). Also Sheepeater's cliff for an example of a obsidian flow.

[Slicksadick]

ping

[Johnny Gage]

Thanks for posting those pictures.

We saw all of those back in June.

It's amazing how "constantly changing" Yellowstone park is.

[blam]

Got it, thanks.

[randita]

Thanks for the advice. We have some time planned staying in the park and also some time staying north of the park near Gardiner. Thanks for the advice. We want to do a day hike every day we're there and gotta find those fishing holes for hubby.

[Marie]

Jackson Hole is quite cool.