Yellowstone National Park is famous for itsgeysers andhot springs. About half the world's geysers are in the park[5] including the world's most famous geyser, theOld Faithful Geyser. Large animals such asgrizzly bears,wolves,bison andelk live in Yellowstone. Many tourists visit the park each year to see the geysers and animals.
People have lived in the Yellowstone area for at least 11,000 years.[6] SomeNative Americans still lived there when the first people came from Europe in 1807/1808.John Colter, atrapper, came with theLewis and Clark Expedition. They visited a big area which was unknown to the world at that time. Colter came back toSt. Louis and told the people there that he had found a beautiful place ofhot springs andgeysers. This area was Yellowstone, but nobody believed him. Yellowstone was not famous at that time.[7]
For the next sixty years, only a few other trappers traveled through the area, and the same thing happened to them. When they reported that Colter had been right, nobody listened to their stories. Then three trips between 1868 and 1871 visited Yellowstone, and they told the news of its beauty to the people in the East. One year later, on March 1, 1872, United StatesPresidentUlysses S. Grant signed a law to make the firstNational Park in the world.[8][9]
For the first sixteen years, theInterior Department managed the park. But Congress did not give them any money. So from 1886 to 1917, theUS Army managed it.[10] Then the newNational Park Service took over, and they have managed Yellowstone since then.
Yellowstone was proposed as aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site in 1978.[5] The UNESCO committee chose Yellowstone because of its special geology, natural beauty, and natural environment with rare and endangered species.[5]
Columnar basalt near Tower Falls: Large floods ofbasalt and otherlava types spread before very large eruptions of superheated ash andpumice.
About 96 percent of the park is inWyoming.[12] Three percent is inMontana and only one percent is inIdaho. The area of the park is about3,500 square miles (9,100km2). It is bigger thanRhode Island orDelaware.
The park is on the Yellowstone Plateau, at an averageelevation of8,000 feet (2,400m) abovesea level. There are mountain ranges on most sides of theplateau. These aremountain ranges of the MiddleRocky Mountains, which range from9,000 feet (2,700m) to11,000 feet (3,400m) in elevation.[12]
Three deepcanyons are in the park. They were cut through the volcanictuff of the YellowstonePlateau by rivers over the last 640,000 years (since the last eruption). The most famous is called theGrand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Thecontinental divide ofNorth America goes diagonally through the southwestern part of the park. This separates the Pacific from Atlantic water drainage areas. The start of theYellowstone andSnake Rivers are near each other but on opposite sides of the divide. So, the waters of the Snake River flow to thePacific Ocean, and the Yellowstone goes to theAtlantic Ocean through theGulf of Mexico.[13] The following diagram shows the movement of the caldera over time.
Wooden paths near the Grand Prismatic Spring allow visitors to get very close
Yellowstone is the place of a huge ancientvolcano. Its remains are called theYellowstone Caldera. Thecaldera is the biggest volcanic system in North America.
The cause of the volcano was a "hotspot" in the Earth'smantle, over which the Americancontinental plate moved. 640,000 years ago a huge volcanic explosion blew240 cubic miles (1,000km3) of rock and lava into the air. It was 1000 times bigger than theMount St. Helens eruption in 1980.[14]
Number of earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park region (1973–2014)[15]Map of recent Yellowstone eruption fields, in comparison with a recentLong Valley Caldera eruption andMount St. Helens.
Yellowstone is adormant volcano at present. Anothereruption may happen in the future. TheU.S. Geological Survey watches the volcano activity. There is ground movement, geysers, and smallearthquakes. The caldera floor has been rising, but experts say there is no immediate danger of eruption.[16]
For three months in 1985, 3,000 minor earthquakes happened in the northwest part of the park. Beginning on April 30, 2007, sixteen small earthquakes withmagnitudes up to 2.7 happened in the Yellowstone Caldera for several days.[source?]
These groups of earthquakes are common. There have been 70 groups of earthquakes in the park between 1983 and 2008. In January 2010, there were more than 250 earthquakes in two days.Seismic activity in Yellowstone National Park still happens. It is reported hourly by the Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.[17]
A study that was completed in 2011 found that at least 1283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone. Of these, an average of 465 are active in a given year.[18][19]
Yellowstone contains at least 10,000 thermal features altogether, includinggeysers,hot springs,mudpots, andfumaroles.[20] Over half of the world's geysers and hydrothermal features are concentrated in Yellowstone.[21]
There were between 30 and 60 million bison in North America. They almost becameextinct. Yellowstone is one of their last homes. In 1902, there were less than 50 bison. By 2003, there were more than 4,000.
The highest number of bison in the park was 4,900, in 2005. However, there were only 3,000 in 2008. That was after a very cold winter. Hundreds were also killed so that they did not spreadbrucellosis.[22] Brucellosis is a very infectious bacterial disease. Cattleranchers worry that brucellosis will spread to theircattle. Every year, park workers and members of Native American tribes kill some bison. This stops the herd from getting too big and spreading the disease.[23] The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said thatvaccinations and other work could remove all brucellosis from the bison and elk in Yellowstone.[24]
Starting in 1914, the U.S. Congress gave money to people for"destroying wolves, prairie dogs, and other animals" that harmed agriculture orlivestock on public lands. After the wolves were gone from Yellowstone, thecoyote became the park's topcaninepredator. However, the coyote cannot easily kill large animals. The result was a big increase in hurt and sickmegafauna (mainly meaning bison).
By the 1990s, the Federal government had changed its mind about wolves. In a controversial decision by theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wolves were brought into the park from Canada. Scientists studied the wolves in 2005. They found 118 wolves in 13 wolf packs in Yellowstone Park and 326 wolves in the whole ecosystem.
The increase in the number of wolves in the states of Wyoming,Montana andIdaho has been so successful that they are no longer on the endangered species list.[25]
There are over 30,000 elk; this is the largest number of any big mammal species in Yellowstone. The northern herd has become much smaller since the mid-1990s. Wolves may cause this. Also, elk use more forested areas to hide from the wolves. This makes it harder for researchers to count them. The northern herdmigrates west into southwestern Montana in the winter. The southern herd migrates south, and most of these elk stay on theNational Elk Refuge during winter, southeast ofGrand Teton National Park.[27] The southern herd migration is the biggest migration of mammals in the U.S. outside of Alaska.
In 2003, the footprints of one femalelynx and her child were found and followed for over2 miles (3.2 kilometres).Feces and other material was tested and confirmed to belong to a lynx (no one actually saw a lynx). Lynx have not been seen in Yellowstone since 1998, thoughDNA taken from hair samples showed that lynx were going through the park.[28] Other mammals that are seen less often are themountain lion and very fewwolverines.[29] There are about 25 mountain lions in the park.[30]
Eighteen species of fish live in Yellowstone, including theYellowstone cutthroat trout. Manyanglers want this fish, and most of the fish live in Yellowstone.[12][33] The Yellowstone cutthroat trout has faced several threats since the 1980s. Someone may have illegally addedlake trout, aninvasive species, to Yellowstone Lake. They eat the smaller cutthroat trout.[34][35] An ongoingdrought has caused problems for the cutthroat. A parasite calledwhirling disease kills younger fish. Since 2001, a "catch and release" law applies to all native sport fish species caught in Yellowstone waters.[33]
311 species of birds have been found. Almost half of themnest in Yellowstone.[12] As of 1999, twenty-six pairs of nestingbald eagles have been counted. Very rarely,whooping cranes have been seen; only three are known to live in the Rocky Mountains, out of 385 known worldwide.[36] Other birds, which are at risk because they are rare in Yellowstone, include thecommon loon,harlequin duck,osprey,peregrine falcon and thetrumpeter swan.[37]
One reason for the strange climate in Yellowstone is its position in theRocky Mountains. The temperature at the Mammoth Hot Springs is between8.6°F (−13.0°C) in January and81°F (27°C) in July.[38] Sudden temperature increases or decreases in the middle of a year are not rare.
However, the main reason (as explained above) is that the caldera is the biggest volcanic system in North America. It sits on top of ahotspot in theEarth's crust. In summer, there are temperatures of about77°F (25°C) in the lower areas, but they can go up to86°F (30°C) sometimes. There are manythunderstorms during the afternoons. There are relatively low temperatures during the night; they can get below zero in the mountains. Normal temperatures in winter are between−4 to 23°F (−20 to −5°C).
The highest temperature recorded was99°F (37°C) in 1936, while the lowest temperature was−65°F (−54°C) in 1933 in Mason.[39]
Yellowstone has many things to see, such asgeysers,hot springs, a deepcanyon, a river with many falls, forests, seas, mountains, wilderness, and wildlife. Many visitors say these attractions are beautiful.[source?]
More than 2.8 million tourists have been to Yellowstone since 1990. In 2010, 3.64 million people went to it.[41] About 140,000 people come in the winter to see snow attractions, for example drivingsnowmobiles. More than 4,500 people work in the hotels, parks and shops.
Even before the creation of Yellowstone, thenaturalistHenry David Thoreau and other supporters asked the government to protect nature and animals in that place. However, when the park was finally made, there was no suchlaw. A law to stop most of the animals from being shot was not made until 1883, nearly 10 years after making the park.Hunting "protected" animals were not allowed because of that law. Even so,poachers could still operate. So in 1894, a new law called theNational Park Protection Act was made.[43] TheUS Congress protected nature, wildlife and other natural resources. The new law did not allow the killing or destroying of them, and only fishing was allowed. Nature, such as trees, mineral resources, and other things, were not allowed to be hurt.
Because Yellowstone has many forests, some fires happen. The last big fires were the "Yellowstone fires of 1988". They damaged more than560 square miles (1,500km2) of forest area and burned out more than890 square miles (2,300km2) of trees and forest. Also,97 square miles (250km2) of bush and grass were damaged. The effect of the fire can still be seen in some places, even after more than 30 years.
After 1988, new fire management plans were started: people are now not allowed to fight the fire, but let them burn and observe them. This was to keep the fire controlled. According to the 2004 plan, natural wildfires are allowed to burn so long as fire size, weather, and potential danger are within limits.[44]
↑Lahren, Larry 2006. Homeland: An archaeologist's view of Yellowstone Country's past. Cayuse Press, p161.ISBN 978-0-9789251-0-9
↑Haines, Aubrey L. (2000)."The Lewis and Clark Era (1805–1814)".Yellowstone National Park: its exploration and establishment. U.S. Department of the Interior. Archived fromthe original on October 15, 2006. RetrievedNovember 14, 2006.
↑Cross, Jeff (October 8–10, 2012).How many geysers are found in Yellowstone?. The 11th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
↑"Yellowstone National Park".World Heritage Sites. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. April 23, 2007.Archived from the original on February 24, 2017. RetrievedApril 23, 2007.
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