Skip to main content

Search

Main navigation

Home
Guidebook
Pictures
Field Trips
Extracurricular
Students
Alumni

Home
Fieldtrips
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone: Day 4

Yellowstone: Day 4

Artist Paint Pots, Mammoth Hot Springs and Life, and Midway Geyser Basin

Yellowstone Top Page | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |Wildlife

Photo Gallery

Our first stop was at the Artist Paint Pots area, on the way to Mammoth Hot Springs. Paint pots and mud pots are hot springs without an effluent discharge. The hot, acidic water bubbles up from below and dissolved the surrounding rock, but doesn't readily drain out of the area; the result is a muddy, bubbling "spring."

A fumarole is a crack or fissure where only hot steam is escaping. This one gave off a distinct hissing sound.

Our first sight of an erupting geyser, where superheated water and steam escape forcefully from a narrow crack in the ground.

Dave DeMarais (NASA/Ames) joined us on Saturday to guide us around the Mammoth Hot Springs area. Dave works on microbiology and origins of life stuff.

Minerva Terrace is the currently active terrace at the Lower Mammoth area.

The white areas are old travertine deposits, and the orange part is where water currently flows.

The flowing hot water creates an environment where orange, filamentous bacteria live.

We had lunch at Upper Mammoth, a non-active terrace. Here, we met up with a film crew from the Discovery show, New Explorers.

This is a very old terrace, where weathering has cut away one side to show the cross-section.

The upside-down U-shaped layering occurs as the outer layers come off and expose the inner, older layers (much like an onion).

The total height of this terrace is about 10 meters!

The total height of this terrace is about 10 meters!

Here's the texture in hand sample.

Extremely close up. Here, the bacteria served only as nucleation sites for the calcium carbonate. Contrast this mode to today's oceans, where microorganisms secrete calcium carbonate directly.

Filamentous bacteria in pool.

Filamentous bacteria in pool.

We took a short walk over a hill and found a small pool of water, with a well-developed bacterial mat community growing in it.

The top layers are photosynthetic, and the oxygen they give off bubbles up through the water.

Closeups of the mat surface.

Narrow Gauge Spring, a hot spring whose effluent runs down a narrow line.

A similar setup as Narrow Gauge, we were able to walk right into the center of this inactive spring and see the inner sides like a road cut.

Further along the back trail, we came across tree casts. A tree cast starts when a spring deposits material around a log or a tree. Here, a log is being covered by layers of travertine.

The tree's organic material eventually rots away, and creates a hole in the mineral deposit.

Atop an active terrace at Upper Mammoth, we checked out steaming pools close-up.

Atop an active terrace at Upper Mammoth, we checked out steaming pools close-up.

On the way back from Mammoth, we stopped at Midway Geyser Basin, home to the Grand Prismatic Spring. Grand Prismatic is known for its jewel-bright rings of colors around the pool. The colors are caused by different bright bacterial inhabiting temperature zones from the hot interior to the cool edges.

Barb checks out the pH of the algal mat.

Jay inspects the mat himself.

Here at Grand Prismatic Spring, Chris gave his talk about various aspects of the origin of life, including, the helical structure of DNA.

As the sun began to set and the air turned colder, steam rose up over the spring and the sun's rays shone through it--thus turning Chris' talk.

A spiritual-looking experience.

Sunset over Grand Prismatic Spring.

Footer - Main

Emergency Information
Title IX / Non-Discrimination
Campus Safety
UAlert
Information Security & Privacy
Copyright
Campus Accessibility
Diversity

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

Information For

Future Students
Current Students
Faculty & Research Staff
Postdoctoral Researchers
Alumni
Donors

Topics

LPL Intranet
Academic Office
Business Office
IT Services
Contact Info & Maps
Department Life
Laboratories
Library
Space Imagery Center
Space Grant
Teaching Teams
University of Arizona

Resources

A-Z Index
Calendars
Campus Map
News
Phonebook
Weather

Connect

Facebook
Twitter (X)
Instagram
YouTube

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

University Information Security and Privacy

© 2024 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona.