RHH's photos with the keyword: thermal

Canary Spring is one of the few areas that are active at present at Mammoth Hot Springs In Yellowstone National park. The photo shows where the spring originates. From there is runs down the south side of the terraces.

This is another old shot from 1979, scanned from a slide showing the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs when the whole front of the terraces was active. Now, with the exception of Canary Spring on the far southern end of the terraces, there is very little activity. The photo was taken from one of the boardwalks at the bottom of the terraces.

This photo was taken by my wife in the Mammoth Hot Spring area of Yellowstone National Park and in the area of the terraces, terraced mounds built up by the hot springs in the area. This photo shows an area that is not active where the sinter, the calcium carbonate deposits from the hot water that seeps up through the ground, is a grayish white, its normal color. The browns and greens and yellows one sees in active areas are not the color of the sinter, but of algae that live in the hot water. The dead trees are characteristic of areas that are or have been active since the hot water and sulfuric acid produced by the thermal activity very quickly kill the surrounding vegetation. Thermal activity can start nearly anywhere in the park and just as quickly vanish from an area leaving the gray-white sinter behind.

This has been for years one of the more regular and spectacular geysers in Yellowstone and is in the area of Old Faithful. The dead trees in these areas of thermal activity are killed by the steam and the chemicals, especially sulfur, with which the water is laden.

This is a steam vent where the steam and hot water have made these biscuit-like formations.

These pools are very hot and dangerous, but it is the heat that determines the color. Different kinds of algae grow in the pools at different temperatures, as can be seen in this picture. The green, yellow and brown colors are all caused by different algae. This pool used to be brilliant blue, thus the name, but so many coins and so much other trash has been thrown in the pool over the years that the vent has been partially blocked and the temperature has changed and with it the color of the pool.

This area of thermal activity covers the side of a mountain, thus the name. The description from the National Park website describes it thus: "Roaring Mountain, located 4.5 miles north of Norris Geyser Basin, is a barren, furrowed, white ridge, rising 400 feet from the base. The mountain side is spotted with steam vents or fumaroles, and the fumaroles' vents are rimed with bright yellow, crystalline sulfur deposits. The leaching of sulfuric acid has produced the stark, barren environment."

This picture was taken in 1979 when this area was very active. Since that time these terraces have become largely dormant, except at the very southern end, a good example of the ever-changing scenery at Yellowstone.