Volcanic Landscape
You are inside a caldera of one of the largest volcanoes in the world! The volcano has erupted at least three times, and Yellowstone is full of signs that volcanic activity is still very much alive below ground.On the Rise
Magma is moving and pushing underground forcing the hill in front of you to rise! two of these bulges or "resurgent domes" have been found in the caldera. From here, you can see part of the Sour Creek dome - an oval-shaped hill about ten miles long and six miles wide.A Big Cooking Pot
Bubbling, steaming, and churning within Yellowstone's caldera - a Spanish word for a large cooking pot - are thousands of mudpots, fumaroles, hot springs, and geysers.Where's the Rim?
Yellowstone's caldera - 30 miles wide and 45 miles long - is so huge, it is difficult to imagine the massive eruption that created it! After the volcano exploded, lava continued to flow, filling in much of the caldera and making the crater and its rim hard to see.Photo
By comparing new surveys with benchmark elevations, geologists have determined that the Yellowstone caldera is rising and falling as magma and hydrothermal fluids move below.
Marker is on Grand Loop Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
