Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is very famous to many people Yellowstone means Yogi Bear. The more enlightened might think of grizzly bears, bison and the wolves that have been reintroduced to the park in recent years. Yellowstone is famous for its wildlife and has much importance as the core of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

Yellowstone is also well known for its geysers, hot springs and other impressive hydrothermal features. Few people are aware that these are caused by a gigantic magma chamber. Which in some places is only 3 km beneath the surface [remember that continental crust is on average 30 km thick]. Even fewer would think of Yellowstone as a massive volcanic system, with much of the park located inside an enormous caldera. Yellowstone is, in fact, a super volcano that has produced some of the biggest and most powerful eruptions ever to affect the planet. A future eruption could cause devastation on a scale far beyond that of any volcanic disaster in recorded history.

Yellowstone National Park covers 8,987 km², mostly in the northwest corner of the state of Wyoming, but also extending into Montana to the north and west and Idaho to the southwest. Most of the park is a plateau with altitudes ranging around 2,000 m above sea level. Outside the central area, the park is bounded by taller mountain ranges that are part of the Rocky Mountain chain. The Absaroka Range, with peaks over 3,000 m, lines the eastern side of the park, and the Gallatin Range is to the north-west.

Founded in 1872, Yellowstone was the world's first national park. In the early nineteenth century, several fur trappers visited the Yellowstone area, returning back east with bizarre tales of a land of 'fire and brimstone' where 'waterfalls spout upwards'. After the American Civil War, expeditions were sent into the area to find out whether there was any truth to these tales. One of the most important of these was the Hayden expedition of 1871 mounted by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). This expedition mapped and studied many of the hydrothermal phenomena in the area, establishing Yellowstone's geological importance.

Some of Yellowstone's fantastic scenery became widely recognised because of the landscapes painted by Thomas Moran who accompanied the Hayden expedition. All of this generated much public interest, and there was a real danger of the area becoming damaged by development and souvenir hunting. Realising that few of the geysers and hot springs would survive in their natural state without protection, in 1872 the US government took what was then a radical step, authorising the establishment of a national park for 'the benefit and enjoyment of the people'. It became the inspiration other national parks all over the world.