Mammoth Springs - Yellowstone Park

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http://www.heygo.com 22nd January

Yellowstone Park - Mammoth Hot Springs

Wow what a wonderful place to visit, from the onset the scenery was amazing and along with our guide Ashea we took the boardwalk together.



Ashea had many anologies, one I particularly remembered was how fragile Earth was demonstrated by an egg.



For hundreds of years, Shoshone and Bannock people collected minerals from Mammoth Hot Springs for white paint. These minerals contribute to the beautiful terrace structures, along with heat, water, and limestone.



At Yellowstone each year, the rain and melted snow seeps into the earth. Cold to begin with, the water is quickly warmed by heat radiating from a partially molten magma chamber deep underground, the remnant of a cataclysmic volcanic explosion that occurred 600,000 years ago.



After moving throughout this underwater “plumbing” system, the now hot water rises up through a system of small fissures. Here it also interacts with hot gases charged with carbon dioxide rising up from the magma chamber. As some of the carbon dioxide is dissolved in the hot water, a weak, carbonic acid solution is formed.



Above ground and exposed to the air, some of the carbon dioxide escapes from the solution. Without it, the dissolved limestone can’t remain in the solution, so it reforms into a solid mineral. This white, chalky mineral is deposited as the travertine that forms the terraces.



I can only imagine how beautiful this place is during the months without snow on the ground.

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