Address: USA, states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
Foundation date: 1872 year
Area: 8983 km²
Coordinates: 44 ° 25'42.0 "N 110 ° 35'24.8" W
Content:
List of U.S. national parks
Short description
In 1807, a hunter in search of a fur-bearing animal wandered into the Yellowstone Plateau, surrounded by the ridges of the Rocky Mountains. On the way he met lava-flooded canyons, sparkling obsidian rocks and petrified forests.
Great Prismatic Spring
Foamy streams of steam rose in pillars from the crevices, and water boiled and bubbled in the volcanic craters. A specific hydrogen sulfide smell hovered over the hot springs. This mysterious and ghostly landscape struck fear into the soul of the hunter.
“All the time it seems as if the ground between the fountains of mud will open up, and you will fall somewhere in the underworld,” - this is how the hunter described his frequent trips to the Rocky Mountains region in northwestern Wyoming. Contemporaries considered the story of the hunter implausible.
Lower yellowstone falls
Statements that “the trees are stone, the grass is stone,” “fountains of boiling water are pouring out of the ground,” “I caught a fish, put it in boiling water - dinner is ready” and descriptions of other miracles resembled captain Vrungel's fables. Only in the 1870s, when several scientific expeditions sent to the Yellowstone region confirmed the authenticity of "hunting tales", the Valley of Geysers was declared a national treasure... In 1872, US President Ulysses Grahn signed a decree establishing the world's first national park.
Lake of Morning Glory
Yellowstone National Park - boiling mud broth from the bowels of the earth
Today Yellowstone is both a national park and an international biosphere reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It covers an area of 8983 km². Yellowstone is located at the bottom of a giant bowl, bounded on all sides by snow-capped mountain peaks ranging from 2,700 to 3,400 meters above sea level. The Yellowstone River ("Yellow Stone") originates in these mountains, in the upper reaches it forms waterfalls and deep canyons framed by yellow rocks. The river gave the name to the reserve - Yellowstone.
Old Faithful Geyser (Old Faithfull)
In addition to mystical landscapes, this place is a real "powder keg" of the planet. The fact is that Yellowstone owes its phenomenon to an overabundance of molten magma that lies under the earth's crust, very close to the surface of the earth. 642 thousand years ago, when molten rock overflowed the magnetic chamber, a catastrophic volcanic eruption occurred. Lava, ash and rock chunks soared into the sky with such force that even today, layers of volcanic rock can be found in the western and central states.
Black Pool
The "plug" that plugged the magma exploded, and in its place was formed a giant depression with steep walls - the Yellowstone Caldera.
Hot springs gush inside the crater, and next to it, volcanic gases dissolved in magma come to the surface through the crust of cooled lava flows. Like broth in a boiling pot, clay soil boils in the steam-breathing bowels.
Porcelain Basin
Yellowstone geysers and lakes
Geothermal phenomena in Yellowstone are certainly the most spectacular in the world - 3000 geysers and about 10 thousand geothermal springs are concentrated here., such as mud volcanoes, hydrogen sulfide springs, etc. Besides Yellowstone, geyser fields are found only in four places on the planet - in Iceland, Chile, New Zealand and the Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka. The most powerful geyser in Yellowstone at the time of eruption throws up to 4 thousand tons of water to a height of 100 meters! Yellowstone geothermal pools are similar to puddles, but differ from each other in color, size, shape and chemical composition.
Norris Valley of Geysers
The color of the reservoirs is given by the brightly colored bacteria and algae that live in hot water. The most famous bodies of water in the park are Ipomoea, or the Lake of Morning Glory and the Black Pool. Lake of Morning Glory, similar in shape to a blossoming morning glory flower, periodically changes its shades and explodes like a geyser. You can not only drown in it (depth up to 7 meters), but also boil - the water temperature in Ipomoea reaches 90 ° C. The Black Pool is a gaping black chasm filled with pearlescent blue water.
Geyser Castle
And the Great Prismatic Spring - the third largest in the world - shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow. At the northern border of the national park, there are Mamontovy hot springs. For tens of thousands of years, hot waters gradually dissolved the calcite contained in the rock, forming picturesque terraces that cascade down a steep slope. The deposition of limestone salts occurs with astonishing rapidity: a stone, immersed in water in the evening, becomes covered by sparkling particles of crystals in the morning.
Mammoth hot springs
Fauna of yellowstone
The fauna of Yellowstone is no less rich. Wolves, lynxes, cougars, deer, moose roam freely in the forest. The buffalo strada numbers several hundred heads. There are 600 grizzly bears in the park and beyond. Hares, foxes, coyotes, otters, chipmunks settled in the river valley. Playful prairie dogs similar to ground squirrels are also found here. For a century and a half of the protected regime, animals have forgotten how to be afraid of humans and willingly accept treats from the hands of tourists. Swans and cranes nest in the park. Eagles soar in the sky, and pelicans splash in freshwater lakes.
Geyser Steamer
The rivers are home to 18 species of fish, including salmon. There are few places on Earth where so many natural beauties would be simultaneously collected, as in Yellowstone.... It is no coincidence that the local Indians called this wonderful land “the kingdom of ice, fire and sulfur”. However, Yellowstone is not at all a wilderness with a minimum of civilization benefits. Roads have been laid here, hotels and museums have been built.
