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Hi! Im ranger Liza! I am a ranger at Yellowstone National Park.

Background
Yellowstone National Park is located in eastern Idaho, southern
Montana, and northwestern Wyoming. A few small towns lay close to
the park. These include Gardiner, Montana Pop= 875, West
Yellowstone, Montana Pop= 1,271, and Silver Gate, Montana Pop= 140.
According to Four Season Guide To Travel In The Park On The National
Park Service Website Most of the three million people who visit
Yellowstone each year come during summer. However, more people
are discovering the pleasure of exploring Yellowstone in the "of
seasons"--spring, fall and winter. Yellowstone is a year round park, but
travel should be planned with consideration of the conditions you will
likely encounter. The parks most visited and famous attractions are the
geyser Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs. Yellowstone is also
home to over 200 geysers and about 10,000 hot springs! By the end of
my speech you will have learned about the process forming
Yellowstone, Yellowstones thermal features, some new vocabulary, and
what Yellowstone looks like in the future.

Scientific Understanding
Yellowstone is located in the middle of the North American Plate. This
happened because Yellowstone was made by a hot spot. The occurred
when hot melted mantle rose from the core-mantle boundary in a
mantle plume. Since the hot magma was sitting under the plate for so
long it eventually burned a hole in the slow moving plate. The rock at
Yellowstone is 640,000 years old but the Yellowstone calderas first
eruption was 2.1 million years ago. Another process that contributed to
the formation of Yellowstone is erosion. Something interesting
occurring in Yellowstone is the process of succession. When fires ripe
through Yellowstone everything is destroyed but this process brings the
forests back each time. After the fire there is no soil just rock and ash.
Soon pioneer species such as mosses and lichens. Eventually the
pioneer species grow and die. This creates soil. Once there is soil some
plants will start to grow. More plants come and go. This makes the soil
fertile. More new plants will grow and existing plants will mature in the
healthy soil. This brings me to the hazards and benefits of Yellowstone.

Hazards And Benefits


Yellowstones geysers and other thermal features are always active but

the last caldera eruption was 640,000 years ago creating new rock and
destroying almost all life at Yellowstone. This eruption also caused
pyroclastic flows, a large amount of tephra and ash fall, and this
eruption brought the global temperature down 1 or 2 degrees. Doming
also occurred at the caldera between 150,000 and 70,000 years ago.
When there is Doming happening it means that after a large eruption occurs
and a caldera forms there is magma oozing from the caldera Yellowstone is

home to Bison or Bufalo. It is also home to almost every native animal


that lived there when the first Europeans arrived. They also have
Pronghorns (like an antelope), Elk (more than any other place on
Earth), Moose, Wolves, Black Bears, Grizzly Bears (one of the only
places left in the U.S. that still have Grizzlys roaming free), Ground
Squirrels, Prairie Dogs, Chipmunks, Badgers, Coyotes, Foxes, Hawks,
Owls, Blue-Black Ravens, Snow-White Pelicans, Tiny Wrens, Giant
Trumpeter Swans, Montana Grayling, and the Yellowstone Cutthrought (
a fish found nowhere else on Earth). Yellowstone is one of the most
seismically active areas on Earth. They usually have 1,000 to 3,000
earthquakes a year but only several earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4
are felt by people inside and outside the park. Wildfires are great for
Yellowstone. They do destroy forests but then new life can form and
the ash makes great fertilizer for the soil.

Cause and Efect


Lots of chain reactions are happening at Yellowstone. For example
when surface water makes its way down about 6,600 feet it will
contact hot rocks. This causes the now boiling water to rise up through
the geysers surface vent (This water can also lead to a hypothermal
vent, a fumarole, a hot spring, or a mud pot. A fumarole is an opening in
Earths crust often near volcanoes of other hydrothermal features. This
opening releases steam and gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
A hydrothermal vent is fracture in Earths surface where geothermally heated
water is emitted from the Earth. As I mentioned earlier major fires at

Yellowstone can create new, healthy soil, which leads to new, healthy
life. My final cause and efect is a caldera forming eruption would
produce pyroclastic flows. Because of that Lava Creek Tuf, Mesa Falls
Tuf, and Huckleberry Ridge Tuf came to be. A tuf is a type of rock
made of consolidated volcanic ash. The ash is ejected from vents
during a volcanic eruption. It is sometimes called Tufa.

Connections
Since Mr. Shern is such a great teacher and planner I have been able to
connect Yellowstone to previous things we have learned this year.

Without the Earths mantle convecting because of changes density


then the magma would not be able to heat the water creating geysers
and other hydrothermal features.

Conclusion
I still have two questions about Yellowstone but unfortunately the
answer to the second one either unknown or I have not been able to
find it. But I have found the answer to the first one. Is Yellowstone
overdue for a caldera forming eruption? According to the Future
Activity on USGS Again, the last eruption was 0.64 million years ago,
implying that we are still about 90,000 years away from the time when
we might consider calling Yellowstone overdue for another calderaforming eruption. Nevertheless, we cannot discount the possibility of
another such eruption occurring some time in the future, given
Yellowstone's volcanic history and the continued presence of magma
beneath the Yellowstone caldera. Also, The most likely type of eruption
would not be volcanic but, rather, hydrothermal. This type of small, but
still explosive eruption can occur from shallow reservoirs of steam or
hot water rather than molten rock. These reservoirs are the sources of
Yellowstone's famous geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles. My second
question is Does Yellowstone have so much activity that it is possible
for a HUGE eruption to destroy the park and surrounding area for
good? Since there is no answer I will be pondering that for a while. In
conclusion learning about Yellowstone was awesome! I hope you
enjoyed learning about the parks features! I also, hope that you visit
Yellowstone sometime and experience some of the fun activities you
can enjoy there including hiking, camping, and horseback riding. I have
to get back to the park but I hope you come visit me and the park
soon!

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