Friday, August 13, 2010

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

7/25/2010


Just south of Mammoth Hot Spring, the Mammoth Hot Spring Terraces are located.
The cone in this picture is called Liberty Cap. It is a dormant hot spring cone. The terraces are located just behind Liberty Cap.
Palette Springs.

Palette Springs has formed these terraces. When you look at the terraces, you see the different colors, of white, grey, orange, and dark grey.
Where it is grey and dark grey, the springs have become clogged, and dry up.
This gray terrace is an old terrace and no spring flows down it anymore.
Where it is white and orange, the spring is running down it presently creating new terraces. A spring can become dormant any day, but if it does, a new one will developed somewhere else.
This is a picture of the bridge below that takes you to the northeast corner of Yellowstone.
Canary Springs
There are boardwalks all over the place. But the most impressive spring to me is Canary Springs.
It is located at the very top of many steps on the boardwalk. Or you can drive to the top also.
Close up of the terraces being made.
You are looking at a world of heat loving microorganisms, called thermophiles. Billions of them live, die, and are buried at Mammoth Hot Springs.
Water is heated below the ground, and then rises through buried limestone. The water deposits the mineral calcite above ground. The calcite hardens, and becoming travertine. As hot spring water flows, trees, grasses, thermophiles, and even boardwalks are entombed!
Thermophiles thrive in this hot spring, creating a tapestry of color.
Some microorganisms live on sunlight, and others live on gases, such as hydrogen sulfide.

You can see the blue hole where the spring is coming through the ground.Here you see how the spring flows down and deposits calcite.
Which hardens to make travertine.

A travertine terrace starts.
Yellowstone's hot springs are among the Earth's most extreme environments, yet life survives here where it is lethal to humans. This is the top of Palette Springs. The first springs I showed you in the blog.This is the hole where Palette Springs use to come out of.
We had a great view of Mammoth Hot Springs at the top of the boardwalk.
As we walked back to our car, you can see the boardwalk below.
Boardwalk along old terraces.
Old travertine terraces.

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