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Some Points of Volcanic Interest in Yellowstone National Park

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View of Yellowstone from space.
Figures and pictures used with permission from "Windows into the Earth, The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park", Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel, Oxford University Press, 2000. Larger view.

The superlative hot springs, geysers, and fumarole fields of Yellowstone National Park are vivid reminders of a recent volcanic past. Volcanism on an immense scale largely shaped the unique landscape of central and western Yellowstone Park, and intimately related tectonism and seismicity continue even now.

From the Geology of Yellowstone National Park, by Robert L. Christiansen

Obsidian Cliff Information Sheepeater Cliff Information Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Information Mesa Falls Information

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Photograph of Obsidian Cliff a lava flow erupted about 180,000 years ago.

Obsidian Cliff

Obsidian Cliff exposes the interior of a thick rhyolite lava flow that erupted about 180,000 years ago. The vertical columns are cooling fractures that formed as the thick lava flow cooled and crystallized in a previously eroded valley bottom. The flow consists of obsidian, a dark rhyolitic volcanic glass. Photograph by S.R. Brantley on 23 May 2001.
Photograph of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which consists predominantly of rhyolite tuff and lava.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

This view of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is from below Lower Falls, looking downstream. The splendid yellow-brown walls of the canyon consist predominantly of rhyolite tuff and lava (Sulfur Creek Tuff and Canyon flow, respectively), which erupted nearly 500,000 years ago. Both units have been intensely altered by hydrothermal fluids. Photograph by S.R. Brantley on 20 May 2001.
Photograph of Sheepeater Cliffs, which is composed of basalt columns.

Sheepeater Cliffs

This photo shows columnar basalt at Sheepeater Cliff. The long vertical columns of the cliff are bounded by cooling fractures that formed as the thick lava flow cooled forming a regular set of joints perpendicular to the cooling surfaces at the top, bottom, and sides of the flow. This flow of Swan Lake Flat Basalt erupted sometime between 320,000 and 640,000 years ago. Photograph by S.R. Brantley on 20 May 2001.
Photograph of Mesa Falls, which is an ashflow tuff.

Mesa Falls

Mesa Falls ash-flow tuff and underlying fallout ash exposed in a quarry near Ashton, Idaho. This area was near the depositional margin of the ash flows and consequently the ash-flow tuff is nonwelded and contained abundant large pumice blocks. The tuff was deposited during a large eruption that produced the Henrys Fork caldera southwest of Yellowstone National Park 1.2 million years ago. Photograph by Dan Dzurisin.

Go to the YVO photogallery to see more images that highlight points of volcanic interest in or near Yellowstone National Park.

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Last modification: Thursday, 31-Jul-2003 10:10:48 EDT (GCM)