Geological History of Yellowstone National Park
- 300,000 to 14,000 years ago
- The Ice Ages: Three glacial ages sweep through Yellowstone
- When the last one subsides, it leaves behind the changed landscape that we see today
Other Parks
- Big Bend National Park
- Similarities:
- Also has hot springs like Yellowstone
- Both have volcanoes that erupted millions of years ago
- Hawai'i National Park
- Similarities:
- Hawai'i and Yellowstone were both created by hot spots
- Differences:
- Hawai'i Volcanic National Park's volcano has been erupting since August 3rd, 2011 and is still going
- The Hawai'i Islands are a chain of volcanoes while Yellowstone has a particularly explosive hotspot that has been much more destructive than constructive. In it's wake instead of a chain of volcanoes, you will see the wide valley that extends from the southeastern corner of Oregon through southern Idaho to Yellowstone National Park
- 2 million to 640,000 years ago
- Yellowstone Caldera Formed: Three tremendous volcanic blasts occurred
- The Yellowstone Caldera was formed around 630,000-70,000 years ago. It was caused by felsic magma & created concentric ring fractures, which allowed gas-rich magma to reach the surface
- The caldera formed during the last of three supereruptions over the past 2 million years: the Huckleberry Ridge eruption 2 million years ago , the Mesa Falls eruption 1.3 million years ago, and the Lava Creek eruption approximately 630,000 years ago
- 40 million to 2 million years ago
- Climatic Changes: Yellowstone's climate grows hot and dry
- Camels, elephants and primitive horses roam the land
- Eventually, mountain building begins again in the region
Yellowstone Timeline (cont.)
- 55 million to 40 million years ago:
- Volcanic Period: During the Tertiary period, the Absaroka and Washburn ranges are formed by molten magma that covers most of the area that is now Yellowstone
- 75 million to 55 million years ago
- Formation of the Rocky Mountains: The Rocky Mountains form, creating intense stresses within the earth, followed by a period of violent volcanic activity
Timeline (cont.)
- 600 million to 75 million years ago:
- Floods alter the Landscape: The region is periodically flooded by shallow seas and lush jungles slowly evolve
- The area that is now Grand Teton National Park looks like the Everglades in Florida
- Brought the earliest signs of life to the area. Many of the fossils that are found from this sedimentary rock contained "trilobites", which were hard shelled, primitive forms of today's crabs.
- The end of the Mesozoic was a time of "folding and faulting", or a "crustal disturbance." The landscape moved and created many faults. This can be seen in Yellowstone near the Snake River.
- Yellowstone National Park was established on March 1, 1872
- Yellowstone is the world’s first national park
- 3,472 square miles
- Is home to one of the world’s largest calderas at 45 x 30 miles
- Called Yellowstone because the sandstone in the banks of the Yellowstone River, which runs through it, is yellow
Yellowstone Timeline
- 2.7 billion to 570 million years ago:
- The most ancient rocks in North America form during the Precambrian era
- Huge mountain ranges form and erode away, until Yellowstone is a relatively flat plain