Day 10 - Staycation Saga - Educational notes.

The following are educational notes for Day 10 part 2 at Mud Volcano site:

See part 2 for video. The sign says the following:
Dragon's Mouth Spring
An unknown park visitor named this feature around 1912, perhaps due to the water that frequently surged from the cave like the lashing of a dragon's tongue. Until 1994, this dramatic wave-like action often splashed water as far as the boardwalk. The rumbling sounds are caused by steam and other gasses exploding through the water, causing it to crash against the walls of the hidden caverns.


Mud Volcano
Black and white illustration to the left. Caption states:
Explosive Change
In 1870, explorers stood in awe as Mud Volcano spewed mud into the treetops, shaking the ground with each eruption. Two years later it was a pool of bubbling, muddy water. Mud Volcano had blown itself apart.

Bottom left:
In may 1871, Scribner's Monthly published explorer N. P. Langford's astonishing description of Mud Volcano. Artist Thomas Moran, although not present on the 1870 expedition, was commissioned to illustrate the article.

"While returning by a new route to our camp, dull, thundering sounds, which General Washburn likened to frequent discharges of a distant mortar, broke upon our ears. We followed their direction, and found them to proceed from a mud volcano, which occupied the slope of a small hill, embowered in a grove of pines. Dense volumes of steam shot into the air with each report, through a crater thirty feet in diameter. The reports, though irregular, occurred as often as every five seconds, and could be distinctly heard half a mile. Each alternate report shook the ground a distance of two hundred yards or more, and the massive jets of vapor which accompanied them burst forth like the smoke of burning gunpowder." Nathaniel P. Langford 1870

Small picture in bottom right corner:
As you look at Mud Volcano's crater-shaped walls, you are viewing part of the interior of its once tall cone.

White column on the right from top to bottom:
Picture caption:
For many decades, visitors have been intrigued by Mud Volcano's powerful odor and the yellow sulphur that is most common in late summer.

Sulphur is the source

• The Smell - Hydrogen sulfide gas rising from Yellowstone's magma chamber causes the rotten-egg smell.
• The Mud - Microorganisms, or thermophiles, use this gas as a source of energy, and then help turn the gas into sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid breaks down the rock and soil into mud.
• The Colors - Many of the colors you see are vast communities of thermophiles, but some of the yellow is pure sulphur.

When iron mixes with sulphur to form iron sulfide, gray and black swirls sometimes appear in the mud.



Grizzly Fumarole
Changing with the Seasons
All hydrothermal features change, but Grizzly Fumarole changes from day to day, and season to season, reflecting recent weather conditions.

White box:
What is Hydrothermal? Hydro = water Thermal = heat

Yellow box:
Mudpot or Fumarole?
A fumarole or steam vent's underground system is nearly dry. Heated deep below the surface, the water turns to steam, then rises with other gasses.
Mudpots are muddy springs. Microorganisms live in mudpots and convert hydrogen sulfide gas from Yellowstone's magma chamber into sulfuric acid. The acid breaks rock and soil into mud.

Left picture:
During dry weather, steam rises from Grizzly Fumarole's mostly dry vents.

Center picture:
Rain or snow transforms the fumarole into mudpots. A single, large mudpot often appears in spring.

Large picture on right:
Yellowstone's Hydrothermal Features
Rain and snow seep into the ground (red layers). Heated by Yellowstone's magma chamber (bottom of diagram), the water rises to the surface as a geyser, hot spring, mudpot, or fumarole (blue lines in diagram).



Black Dragon's Caldron
This mudpot roared into existence in 1948, blowing trees out by roots and forever changing this once quiet forested hillside. A park interpreter named the new feature for its resemblance to a darkly colored "demon of the backwoods". For several decades, it erupted in explosive 10-20 foot bursts of black mud. Over the years, it has moved 200' to the southeast and become relatively quiet. However as change is constant in Yellowstone, the black dragon may one day roar back to life.



Mud Geyser
Imagine walking on a densely forested trail to arrive at Mud Geyser - a trail once shaded by trees now criss-crossing the ground around you. Before 1978, Mud Geyser was hidden by forest except from a platform beyond this point.

White bar at bottom:
A Once and Future Geyser?
In the late 1800s, Mud Geyser erupted every few hours, spewing muddy water 50 feet or 17 meters into the air! By 1927, eruptions no longer occurred.

Half a century later, a swarm of earthquakes shook the area. Soil temperatures skyrocketed, killing many of the trees that surrounded the pool.

Around the turn of the 21st Century, violent steam vents hissed forth, their large craters gaping open wide enough to swallow the logs that fell in.

Will Mud Geyser erupt again? Nobody knows, but this changeable area will likely look different on your next visit.




Sulphur Caldron
Ten times more acidic than lemon juice, Sulphur Caldron sits on the edge of one of the most active areas of Yellowstone's buried volcano. Sulphur-rich gasses rise furiously here, filling Sulphur Caldron with sulfuric acid. increadibly, this muddy pool is teeming with life!

Yellow Box on left:
Home Sweet Home
Billions of thermoacidophiles thrive in Sulphur Caldron. They convert the pool's hydrogen sulfide gas into sulfuric acid.
The sulfuric acid breaks soil and rock onto mud, making this spring a very muddy home.

White box on left:
What is a Thermoacidophile?
Thermo = Heat
Acid = Acidic
Phile = Love
Microorganisms that "love" to live in an extremely hot, acidic environment are called "thermoacidophiles".

Center box:
pH scale basics
If you have ever had "heart burn" from eating acidic foods and used an antacid to relieve the pain, you can easily understand pH basics.
"pH" means "power of hydrogen". Acids release hydrogen ions, and alkaline solutions remove them. Acids and bases neutralize each other.
Thermoacidophiles thrive in an acidic environment that would be deadly to humans. Sulphur Caldron's microbes live in a pool that is almost as acidic as battery acid!

pH scale is on the right
pH 0 = Battery Acid
pH 1 = Sulphur Caldron
pH 2 = Lemon Juice
pH 3 = Vinegar
pH 4 = Orange Juice
pH 5 = Black Coffee
pH 6
pH 7 = Milk or Pure water
pH 8 = Baking Soda
pH 9 and pH 10 = Antacids
Between pH 11 and 12 = Household Ammonia
pH 13 = Bleach
Between pH 13 and 14 = Lye

pH of 7 in neutral. Going from 7 to 1 is more acidic and from 7 to 14 is more alkaline.



Volcanic Landscape
You are inside the caldera of one of the largest volcanoes in the world! The volcano has erupted at least three times, and Yellowstone is full of signs that volcanic activity is still very much alive below ground.

Left side:
On the Rise
Magma is moving and pushing underground, forcing the hill in front of you to rise! Two of these bulges or "resurgent domes" have been found in the caldera. From here, you can see part of the Sour Creek dome - an oval-shaped hill about ten miles long and six miles wide.
A Big Cooking Pot
Bubbling, steaming, and churning within Yellowstone's caldera - a Spanish word for a large cooking pot - are thousands of mudpots, fumaroles, hot springs, and geysers.

Caption for picture:
By comparing new surveys with benchmark elevations, geologists have determined that the Yellowstone caldera is rising and falling as magma and hydrothermal fluids move below.

right side:
Where's the Rim?
Yellowstone's caldera - 30 miles wide and 45 miles long - is so huge, it is difficult to imagine the massive eruption that created it! After the volcano exploded, lava continued to flow, filling in much of the caldera and making the crater and its rim hard to see.

(The blue areas withing the green map of Yellowstone National Park, show the three explosion of this volcano. The light blue happened 2.1 million years ago. The dark blue happened 1.3 million years ago, and the medium blue in the center of the park happened 640,000 years ago.)




See day 10 part 3 for the events connected with the following educational notes:

Map of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

Brink of Lower Falls (see video of falls from part 3)

Sculpting Lower Falls
Reaching the Brink of Lower Falls overlook requires hiking a steep trail that winds down the canyon wall . . . a wall of hardened rhyolite lava . . . a wall exposed by the Yellowstone River while excavating the canyon.

Below Lower Falls, volcanic heat and gases soften the rhyolite rock. The river carves more quickly there than upstream - sculpting a ledge and creating a waterfall.

Center Box:
"At the edge there is a flash of diamond and emerald, then the whole descending surface breaks into a tissue of frosted silver, and with a tremendous roar, re-echoed from the huge cliffs of the Canyon, becomes mixed with the iridescent cloud of spray which fills the hollow." Thomas Henery Thomas, 1884

Black box on right:
Welcome to Brink of Lower Falls
The steep winding path to the Brink of Lower Falls overlook descends very rapidly - about 600 feet (180 m) in 3/8 mile (0.6 km). You will encounter very steep grades, slippery gravel, and rough surfaces. Wear sturdy walking shoes with good tread. Take plenty of water with you.
At the brink, you will have a "bird's eye" view of the Yellowstone River thundering over the edge.
The return trip is a steep, difficult, uphill climb. Allow plenty of time to rest as you enjoy your surroundings.

(From Inspiration point near the end of the day - part 3)

Shifting Ground
Before the earthquake on June 30, 1975, the observation platform extended one hundred feet farther into the canyon. The main tremor and numerous aftershocks measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale shattered a portion of this cliff, tumbling it into the gorge.
Up and down the canyon you can see evidence of other rockfalls. This section of the Yellowstone River overlies a major fracture zone, and the park records thousands of minor tremors annually. Do not assume the scenery will be the same when you return.

small print above large photo on sign:
Pre-earthquake photo of the canyon from Inspiration Point. Note that the Lower Falls was visible from the former observation platform.

Small yellow photo on right:
Yellow mineral patches on the canyon walls indicate hot springs and fissures. Even a minor tremor can trigger a landslide from thermally weakened cliffs.



Inspiration Point
Left side:
A Youthful Glow
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River was born thousands of years ago, but is still young in geologic time.
After Yellowstone's most recent icecap melted about 14,000 years ago, the Yellowstone River began excavating old rhyolitic lava flows.
The canyon's color and texture are also changing. Heat and gases from Yellowstone's volcano flow through the rock, transforming it from buff, pink, and grey to golden and ruddy hues, and softening the rock, making it more carvable.

Caption of small photo on left:
Rhyolite is lightly colored. Volcanic heat and gases soften the rock and transform its color into radiant hues.

Center Box:
"The place where I obtained the best . . . view of the canyon was a narrow projecting point [Inspiration Point] situated two or three miles below the lower fall. Standing there, or rather lying there for greater safety, I thought how utterly impossible it would be to describe to another the sensations inspired by such a presence. As I took this scene, I realized my own littleness, my helplessness, my dread exposure to destruction, my inabliilty to compe or even comprehend the might architecture of nature. Nathanial P. Langford, 1870 The Discovery of Yellowstone Park.

Black Box on right:
Welcome to Inspiration Point
Trail to Inspiration Point
Step just below the canyon rim by following the path to the Inspiration Point overlook. Be prepared from more than 50 steps to the viewpoint, and an uphill return.
Alternate Viewpoint
If you prefer, you can view the canyon's radiant colors and glimpse Lower Falls from teh walkway beside the parking area.