Overly Chatty Penguins
The Ready Room => Off Topic => Topic started by: Uranium - 235 on July 30, 2004, 06:55:02 PM
-
1,204.6 miles later, I am back - Took a long-ass drive up through Wyoming (Contrary to what even I thought - if you go on the second road (There's only like 3) THROUGH the state instead of around the edges it's got some damn nice scenery) and into Yellowstone Nat'l Park.
For those nubcaeks that don't know, Yellowstone is pretty much the only Nat'l park where you can camp inside a non-dormant volcanic caldera (A caldera is a crater that is larger then 1km across). The mantle is only like 2 miles down, the result being one of the rarest of all features on earth - Hydrothermal springs: Water leaking down through cracks into rock that exceeds the boiling point (199 degrees F at that altitude).
Yellowstone has more geothermal features then anywhere on earth and makes up about 25% of all of them in the world - Basically, it's a hugely popular international tourist site.
To prove I actually went:
(http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Grand.jpg)
This is Grand Geyser - The worlds tallest PREDICATBLE geyser (The tallest in the park erupts anywhere from 4 days to 50 years... this one does it about every 8-12 hours). We walked in (In fact, all we saw erupt did so within about 10 minutes of our arrival) sat down, and it blew up. The actual vent it's coming out of has four different little 'tributaries' that come out of 4 places on the geyser crustal itself - There's the big main one, to the far left is a mainly steam jet that blasts out for a while, and between them (hard to see) there's a smaller churning one. The fourth is off to the right and while it normally churns and bubbles it shoots a few feet in the air when this goes. This geyser erupts for about 5 minutes. In our case, it went down and seemed to stop, then about 20 seconds later, you could feel a massive 'kerWHUMP' and it blew again. Fun stuff.
(http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Blue.jpg)
Grand Prismatic Spring - A very large, very deep, very blue hot spring. Hot springs are like geysers, but they have relatively unhindered plumbing - pressure doesn't build up and allow water to go above the boiling point and explode like it does in a geyser. The colors are caused be thermophiles - heat-loving bacteria. Generally from coldest to hottest (cold in this case being like 150 degrees or something) the colors go red - orange - green - yellow - white - blue. White has, obviously, no effect on the color of the pool. Blue means it's really really hot. This is very blue. Hence - hot.
The orange smears are caused by a bacterial mat of red thermophiles, and/or iron oxide (rust) being pulled up from the spring and being deposited. In this case it's a bacterial mat and not rust.
(http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Morning.jpg)
The hugely popular Morning Glory pool. This pool is shaped like a Morning Glory flower - It used to be blue through and through and was really damn cool - Except assholes decided to throw trash and crap into it and the vent has become clogged - the clog reduced hot water flow, and the pool cooled. The edges of it are now yellow as the temperature is lower. The blue thermophiles can't live and yellow can.
(http://uranium235.thezazi.net/Me.jpg)
Me on top of a wooden platform above flow from a hot spring. Said flow is usually acidic (3.3 pH or lower) and can eventually dissolve neat shapes into rock. Generic hot spring steams up behind me. Also notice the trees are mostly short and young - In 1988 there was a massive fire that annihilated 36% of the park. The result is that most thermal areas are easier to see. Also, the areas around the thermal features are usually 'dead' and look strip-mined. This is because no plant matter can live in those areas - the thermal feature sprung up and the trees got a taste of toxic and burning water - they tend to die.
Earthquakes still plague the area and small shifts can drastically change a thermal feature's eruption time, length, or even if it erupts at all - it'll change temperatures, sometimes even cause it to drain. It's also suspected that someday the Yellowstone Volcano could erupt again and more or less annihilate a lot of... living things... and stuff...
-
Yay! Uranium is back! And look! He brought useless factoids with him ^_^
Interesting stuff, reminds me of my biology days :)
-
hurray for uranium! and he already locked a thread! talk about efficient!
neat pics, i've always wanted to go there meself! have to say i'm jealous :-(
-
ooooo....pretty.. I just wanna jump in! :p
-
Must jump in morning glory pool with the blue and yellow thermophiles and stuff.
-
... and get burned to death in 200 degree water and sulfuric acid, but those are just minor obstacles.
BTW: The second picture is 'Grand Prismatic Spring'. Sign is a little hard to read.
-
... and get burned to death in 200 degree water and sulfuric acid, but those are just minor obstacles.
A minor setback but SO refreshing :)
-
Anarki Agrees ^_^
-
He's Back! To the Hills!!
-
Oh great, now I've walked the same ground as Uranium :p
I loved Yellowstone when I went there about five years ago now. The only thing was, that we stayed at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel, and man... does that place ever scream "THE SHINING"
Seriously creepy :blink:
Oh, did you see Mammoth Hot Springs?
-
He's Back! To the Hills!!
my thoughts on the matter exactly
well, actually my first thought when seeing the thread title was "nooooooooooooo":
^______^
<3
-
My geography teacher has nothing on you.
Simply pwn.
-
Oh great, now I've walked the same ground as Uranium :p
I loved Yellowstone when I went there about five years ago now. The only thing was, that we stayed at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel, and man... does that place ever scream "THE SHINING"
Seriously creepy :blink:
Oh, did you see Mammoth Hot Springs?
Yeah Mammoth was the first stop - went in the South Entrance (since the East entrance is buried under a mudslide, among other things), camped at Madison for 2 nights, headed north and did Mammoth and Norris, then the last days did the Upper, Middle, and Lower Geyser Basins.
Most of the springs in Mammoth were inactive though.
-
I'd still visit Iceland. Closer. And they're VIKINGS up there! Holy Crap!
-
Wow.. that place looks awesome.
Won't get any of that secenry in England, another reason why to move west !
-
Wow.. that place looks awesome.
Won't get any of that secenry in England, another reason why to move west !
You've got to be the only Europeon I know that doesn't vhemently despise the US for silly reasons :D
-
Wow.. that place looks awesome.
Won't get any of that secenry in England, another reason why to move west !
BOOM, you all die in eruption!
Nice to see you back Uranium :p Now you can finish your ship map.
-
Wow.. that place looks awesome.
Won't get any of that secenry in England, another reason why to move west !
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?! The graffitti covered walls and burnt out cars ARE scenery!!!!
-
nice pictars and information U235
glad to see you enjoyed your trip B)
-
I'd still visit Iceland. Closer. And they're VIKINGS up there! Holy Crap!
they're all odd. extremely odd.
-
Anarki Agrees ^_^
you son of a . . .
-
Welcome back, there. ;)
-
they're all odd. extremely odd.
You don't need to tell me. We had three of 'em in højskole. And, strangely, only two of them were blonde. The third one had the blackest hair I've yet seen. And their horses! Icelandic horses are completely and utterly crazy.
-
i wanna be a viking when i grow up