WELCOME

Glad to have you visit Mountain Meadows Photographs. I hope you enjoy my view of nature. I am not one for a lot of words, so it is mostly photographs.

Unless noted all of the photographs are my original work.


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ENJOY





Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Yellowstone National Park - Geothermal

Just got back from a short trip to Yellowstone.  Here are some photographs of the hot water.

The first ones are from the Mammoth Hot Springs area at the North Entrance. As a kid this was one of my favorite areas in the park, other than the bears. It was colorful and not as stinky. Since the earthquake disrupted the plumbing it has lost much of the color.

8x10 Mammoth Yellowstone IMG_1962

8x10 Mammoth Yellowstone IMG_1959

8x10 Mammoth Yellowstone IMG_1957

The next pools, geysers and hot srpings are from the Norris Geyser Basin.  I overheard a tour guide tell her group that this basin shows you everthing the Park has to offer (in hot water) and is usually their first stop.

8x10  Norris Geyser Basin Yellowstone 25
Echinus Geyser is the largest acid-water geyser known. Its waters are almost as acidic as vinegar with a pH ranging from 3.3 to 3.6 . Acid geysers are extremely rare with the majority of the planet's total being found here at Norris Geyser Basin.

8x10 Emerald Pool Norris Geyser Basin Yellowstone IMG_2069
Enerald Spring a hot spring's color often indicates the presence of minerals. In a clear blue pool, the water is absorbing all colors of sunlight except one, blue, which is reflected back to our eyes. Here in Emerald Spring's pool, another factor joins with light refraction to give this spring its color. The 27-foot (8 meter) deep pool is lined with yellow sulfur deposits. The yellow color from the sulfur combines with the reflected blue light, making the hot spring appear a magnificent emerald green.

8x10  Norris Geyser Basin Yellowstone 32
Porcelain Basin the overflow channels of geysers and hot springs are often brightly colored with minerals and microscopic life forms. Hardy, microscopic, lime-green Cyanidium algae thrives in these warm acid waters. Orange cyanobacteria may be found in the runoff streams in Porcelain Basin. From a distance these bacteria look like rusty, iron-rich mineral deposits.

8x10  Norris Geyser Basin Yellowstone 23
Steamboat Geyser the world's tallest active geyser, Steamboat can erupt to more than 300 feet (90m), showering viewers with its mineral-rich waters.

The next photo is Old Faithful.  Not really my favorite area of the park, but you have to have a photograph of it, right?  The one after that is a pool on the Firehole Geyser Basin Loop.

8x10 Old Faithful Yellowstone

8x10 Firehole Geyser Basin Yellowstone(2)