Landscape

Yellowstone national park is an alpine glacial landscape and the glaciers are responsible for shaping the beautiful scenery and landscape we see today. The park has been through at least 3 major glaciations. The last period, the Pinedale glaciation period ended about 14,000 years ago. Even though the ice has long been melted, the land still bears evidence of its existence. Glaciers result in depositional and erosional forms, both of which are abundant in the park. Depositional forms from the ablation zone are the result of the glacier front retreating. Till is a mixture of gravel, boulders, clay and sand left behind by a glacier. Often till is deposited in ridges known as moraines. 

A terminal moraine near Bannock Peak. From this ridge of till we know the maximum extent of the glacier before it receded.

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/geology/glacial/Inside%20Yellowstone%20Park/Page.htm

 Erosional forms result from the glacier sliding along the landscape. One of the most telling forms of a glacial landscape are parabola valleys. As the glacier slides along the land, it carves out the landscape into a u-shape, as opposed to the v-shape that rivers carve out in fluvial landscapes.

Can you see the u-shape of the valley?

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/geology/glacial/Inside%20Yellowstone%20Park/Page-1.htm

Hanging valleys are a formed when a glacier in a u-shaped valley at a higher elevation feeds into a glacier of larger volume at a lower elevation. A perfect example of this is Bridal Veil Falls. 

The waterfall is flowing from the hanging valley into the other deeper valley. 

http://lurbano-6.memphis.edu/Classes/index.php/Alpine_glacial_features

As the glacier moved it picked up large boulders and rocks and when the glacier melted, it deposited them across the landscape. These scattered boulders are known as erratics.

A large erratic along the road to Inspiration Point. This particular boulder was carried here 15 miles by the glacier.

http://travellogs.us/Miscellaneous/Geology/Glacial%20erratics/Glacial%20Erratic.htm

http://lurbano-6.memphis.edu/Classes/index.php/Alpine_glacial_features

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=8be93682-6e8c-4cf7-97b4-af94f5d678d8

http://travellogs.us/Miscellaneous/Geology/Glacial%20erratics/Glacial%20Erratic.htm

http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/insideyellowstone/0043general.htm

Casey Allen class lectures

Climate and Weather

Yellowstone National Park is located primarily in the north east corner of Wyoming but it extends into parts of Idaho and Montana. The mountain ranges and changes in altitude contribute to the climate, which is why the climate encompasses Semiarid (Midlatitude) Steppe climate (BSK) and Highland climate (H).

http://printable-maps.blogspot.com/2008/09/climate-maps-united-states-and-canada.html


Insulation, angle of incidence, global wind patters, air masses and altitude all affect climate, the primary factor in temperature and precipitation of a region. The parks' summer diurnal temperatures are pretty variable and range from highs in the 70s/80s to lows below freezing, especially at higher altitudes. Winters are very cold and the highs/lows stay from below zero to about 20 degrees most of the winter. Precipitation is also variable and ranges from 15 inches annually to 80 inches in the southwestern part of the park.

The climate of Yellowstone is similar to that of Denver, hot and dry summers and wet winters. Yellowstone has colder winters though and more severe temperature swings than Denver. 
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/pcpn/us_precip.gif

One form of precipitation is convection, which is a major cause of weather phenomenon like thunderstorms. Weather has vast impact on humans; floods, lightning and tornadoes are among the leading causes of weather fatalities. Tornadoes in Yellowstone are rare, but on July 21, 1987, the highest altitude tornado ever recorded in the US raged up and down the mountains in the park.

The F4 left a 24-mile long, 1.5-mile wide path of destruction, uprooting up to 1,000,000 trees over 15,000 acres. Wind speeds were estimated at between 207 and 260 miles per hour.
http://www.qwiki.com/q/#!/Tornado_Alley


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park#Climate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teton%E2%80%93Yellowstone_tornado
http://www.yellowstone-natl-park.com/weather.htm

Weathering and Mass Wasting

Yellowstone is not exempt from the forces of weathering that influence change on our landscapes. Joints are important in weathering because they allow for more surface area on which chemical and physical weathering can occur. A prime example of joints is the columnar basalt at Sheepeater Cliff.

These columnar basalt were formed from the contractional cooling of a thick lava flow. The vertical cracks are joints.

 http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/images/gallery2/gallery_volcanic.php

There are several physical weathering processes. One is pressure release, where pressure is released from quick erosion, causing the shell to pop off in slabs.

                                             At Mammoth Hot Springs

                           http://www.jimgmeiner.com/photos.php?id=110&wid=1247&currentpage=1

Another example of pressure release is at the Hot Springs.

On the left side of the rock, it appears as if pieces of the rock has flaked off in shells. This could be due to pressure release. The smooth, round top surface of the rock is also an example of spheroidal weathering, a form of chemical weathering. 

http://www.public-domain-image.com/nature-landscape/hot-spring/slides/yellowstone-hot-springs.html

Cavernous weathering, which is a type of salt weathering, is also a physical weathering process. This weathering forms alveoli and tafoni.

I was so excited when I came across this picture because I was unsuccessful at finding examples of aveoli or tafoni earlier in my search. This is Obsidian glass found at Obsidian Cliff, which has you can see has pores called alveoli.

http://www.johnwise.com/blog/john/potd/photooftheday_01152010.html

Salt weathering is also present at Minerva Spring and Terrace.

All the white on the sides of the rock is salt. As the salt crystals grow and expand they exert pressure on the surrounding rocks that can weaken and break them.

http://mms.nps.gov/yell/features/mammothtour/minerva.htm

Mammoth Hot Springs also provides a good example of another form of weathering called chemical weathering.

Here is Mammoth The green on the side of the rock is lichen and mosses. These organisms will gradually eat away at and weather the rocks surface from the organic acids and chelation. 

http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photos-images/4097-2792

Another form of chemical weathering is oxidation, which we can see at Blood Geyser.

All the red you see here is iron oxide from the reaction of iron bearing minerals in the water with oxygen. When the iron solution drys out, the reddish iron oxide will precipitate, which gives the geyser its name "blood geyser." 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20977524@N02/3767601231

All these examples show the weathering processes that help to change and break down the beautiful landscape of Yellowstone. Yellowstone is also influenced by mass wasting, which has a huge human impact. In July of 2004, a 90 yard debris flow closed the entrance to the park. Sixteen people and three cars had to be rescued.  

Cars trapped by the debris flow that occurred on a steep, impermeable slope. While the area is transport-limited, the section in which the flow occurred is more weather-limited due to a forest fire that stripped the vegetation. Add two inches of rain and you have the massive, 10 feet deep flow. This particular flow has been called a mudslide by the source but the amount of rock and mud in the picture would classify it actually as a debris flow.

http://wapi.isu.edu/envgeo/EG4_mass_wasting/yellowstone_landslide_2004.htm




Sources:
http://wapi.isu.edu/envgeo/EG4_mass_wasting/EG_module_4.htm
http://wapi.isu.edu/envgeo/EG4_mass_wasting/yellowstone_landslide_2004.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/albertocueto/3767601231/in/photostream/
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/images/gallery2/gallery_volcanic.php 

A lil about how its created...

Yellowstone National Park sits atop a hot spot, which is responsible for the creation of many of the geographic features of the park. As the North American plate moved over the hotspot, a series of volcanic eruptions left behind a trail known as the Snake River Plain. 

                                                               Topographic map of the Snake River Plain

 (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/hot_spot_pics/SRP_Thematic_Map.gif&imgrefurl=http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/north_america/yellowstone.html)

One of the violent eruptions caused the overlying land to collapse and resulted in a geographic depression known as a caldera. Yellowstone is known for its geothermal activity such as geysers and hot springs, which is caused in part by the large chamber of magma under the calderas' surface heating the recirculation ground water. 

(http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Thumblinks/yellowstone_page.html)

                                                                               A Yellowstone hot spring

(http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media.away.com/images/ideas/rockies/yellowstone-national-park.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/travel-ta-trekking-backpacking-wyoming-hiking-yellowstone-national-park-gardiner-fishing-sidwcmdev_059157.html)

The magma chamber is inflating, which stretches the crust above the chamber, causing extension faulting like at Mirror Lake. Pressure from the magma below has caused the land at two faults to snap and the area between them is depressed, which is called graben. On the west side of this graben, fault scarp is visible. Mirror Lake is also a sagpond, and fills a depression in the uneven ground at one of the faults. 

                                   Mirror Lake and the graben resulting from the two faults

(http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/images/1992-rbs-aerialmirror_large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/images/1992-rbs-aerialmirror_caption.html)

                              Fault scarp at Mirror Lake

 (http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/images/1992-rbs-aerialmirror_caption.html)

These volcanic systems unfortunately produce 1000-3000 earthquakes a year, which can be devastating to the humans inhabiting the region.

                                            Earthquakes in Yellowstone from 1973-2001

(http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/02/the_structure_of_calderas.php)

http://www.answersincreation.org/curriculum/history/earth_history_c14_yellowstone.htm

http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/smithtranscript.htm

  http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/images/1992-rbs-aerialmirror_caption.html

Introduction

Hi there! I'm Brittany Henkes, and I'm getting my BS at UCD in Psychology. I chose to follow Yellowstone National Park throughout the course of my semester in Physical Geography because as a child it was one of my favorite places that we went on vacation, topped only by Disney Land. The first national park in the world and spanning three states, its diverse and plentiful geographic forms and landscapes have long intrigued and astounded the millions of tourist that have visited the park.

 

One of the many geothermal features 

                     (http://geography.about.com/od/unitedstatesofamerica/a/yellowstonenationalpark.htm)

                                                Lewis River  
  (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/652774/15801/The-Lewis-River-Yellowstone-National-Park-Wyoming-US)


Because this is my first blog ever, this is going to be a learning experience in navigating the site and successfully "becoming a blogger," so please bear with me. I am excited to expand my technological schema as well as my knowledge about the national park that has captivated me since I was a child. 


http://geography.about.com/od/unitedstatesofamerica/a/yellowstonenationalpark.htm