By: Julie Jevahirian

1
Yellowstone National Park

• By Julie Jevahirian

2
What Year did Yellowstone Become an Official
National Park and Why?

• Yellowstone became a National Park on March 1,
  1872. Yellowstone became a National Park for the
  enjoyment of people. Yellowstone was the first
  national park in the world. It was also the
  first to be dedicated to the practice of setting
  aside special areas for the enjoyment of people.
  Its 2.2 million acre wilderness with unlike any
  other geothermal features that include hot
  springs, mud pots, geysers, and fumaroles. Not
  only does it entertain and fascinate people by
  those features, Yellowstone also has the largest
  mountain lake in North America, forests and
  valleys, beautiful mountains, a Petrified Forest,
  and wonderful wildlife. These are just some of
  the amazing features that Yellowstone has. If
  that is not enough I dont know what is to be a
  National Park.

3
How Was Yellowstone Formed?

• The main reason that Yellowstone was formed was
  because of a big volcanic eruption. The reason
  that it erupted was because Yellowstone is on a
  big hotspot. A hotspot is weak spot in the
  Earths crust. After a long period of time a lot
  of gas built up in and under the volcano. Once
  it couldnt take anymore it erupted. But there
  was not only one that erupted, 3 did! These
  three eruptions were the biggest three compared
  to other volcanoes. The first and biggest
  explosion happened over 2.1 million years ago,
  the second one happened about 1.3 million years
  ago and the third one happened just about 0.65
  million years ago. The third and most recent
  caldera overlaps the biggest and first caldera.
  These eruptions formed Yellowstone and maybe even
  more calderas will explode and make Yellowstone
  even bigger!
•  

4
What Type of Rocks can be Found in
Yellowstone?

• There are many different kinds of rocks that
  can be found in Yellowstone. Two of the major
  rocks that are forming in Yellowstone called
  Travertine and Geyserite. Geyserite is the most
  common of the rocks in Yellowstone. It is formed
  wherever Alkaline Hot Springs are bubbling out of
  the ground. Some places you can see this rock
  being formed are Upper Geyser Basin (where Old
  Faithful and Castle geysers are located) and the
  Fountain Paint Pot area in Lower Geyser Basin.
  Travertine is another rock that is forming right
  now. It is a relatively rare rock but it forms
  most of the Mammoth Hot Spring terraces, near the
  parks north entrance. Travertine is made of
  calcium carbonate. Scientist have found many
  other rocks in Yellowstone. There are just way
  too many to count!

5
How is Technology used to Improve Yellowstone?

• There are many different ways that Yellowstone
  uses technology. One of the ways they use it is
  to watch the major geyser, Old Faithful. They
  use this to time when it will erupt and to do
  studies on it. Another way they use technology
  is they have raised up walking ways to keep
  people off of the natural habitat. The walk
  ways are made up of recycled plastic. To get the
  plastic to the way it is they use big machines
  and precise technology to get it just right.

6
What Environmental Issues are Affecting
Yellowstone?

• There are many issues that are affecting
  Yellowstone National Park. There are ix major
  things that have been affecting Yellowstone and
  have been solved or at least improved, which
  include transportation, buildings, energy, waste
  management and recycling, and pollution
  prevention.
•  
• Transportation
•  
• Transportation throughout the park could
  be one of the biggest issues Yellowstone is
  facing. The first permit allowing private
  automobiles to enter the park was issued in 1915.
  In 1917, the park officially opened up to
  automobile traffic. Today nearly 80 of all
  visitors tour the park in about 1 million
  vehicles. This much traffic can cause congestion
  which can lead to animal jams. Animal jams
  occur when many cars stop at once along a two
  lane highway to view the wildlife. This is a
  problem in both winter and summer. In winter,
  most cars are replaced with snowmobiles which
  produce more air pollution. At certain times
  nearly 2,000 snowmobiles can enter the park in
  one day. To improve this Yellowstone staff have
  been conducting activities like these
• The park has partnered with the state of Montana
  to research bio-based fuels and lubrication oils
  for vehicles. Surrounding communities, such as
  West Yellowstone, have voluntarily implemented
  bio-based lubrication oils in snowmobile rentals.

7
What Environmental Issues are Affecting
Yellowstone? (cont.)

• Air quality is being tested at various congestion
  areas to gather baseline snowmobile emissions
  data.
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is
  drafting guidelines that could be incorporated by
  2003, setting noise and emissions standards for
  snowmobiles.
•  
• At the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
  Clean Snowmobile Challenge in March 200, several
  universities were challenged to develop a
  prototype snowmobile that retains todays
  performance while reducing pollution and noise.
  The University of Buffalo in New York developed a
  4-stroke engine prototype that reduces typical
  emissions by 99.
• In a ride-sharing program now in its third year,
  employees who live outside the park can be
  transported on buses obtained through a
  partnership with DOEs Idaho Engineering and
  Environmental Laboratory. This program has
  reduced traffic in the park by about 40 employee
  vehicles per day.

8
What Environmental Issues are Affecting
Yellowstone? (cont.)

• The Truck-in-the-Park Program introduced an
  unmodified ¾ ton 4x4 diesel pickup truck used by
  the maintenance department that in Phase 1 logged
  121,000 miles running on 100 biodiesel fuel made
  from rapeseed (canola) ethyl ester. Rapeseed is
  harvested from Idaho and Montana the oil is then
  extracted at the University of Idaho and combined
  with ethanol made of potato waste from the food
  processing industry. After 100,000 miles, a
  teardown of the trucks engine indicated little
  wear and no carbon buildup. The park has
  developed a related education program for the
  public. Phase 2 of this project involves
  evaluating the trucks engine after the next
  100,00 miles of operation.
• Buildings
• Yellowstone has several historic
  structures, such as the Old Faithful Inn. Many
  of these structured present opportunities for
  grater energy efficiency through advanced
  technologies as they are maintained, remodeled,
  or replaced. In fact, existing and planned park
  structured are being considered for
  sustainability improvements. Several activities
  have already started and some have been
  completed.

9
What Special Landforms and Features are in
Yellowstone?

• There are many different kinds of landforms
  and features in Yellowstone. They are home of
  10,000 thermal features, and 500 in which are
  geysers. Yellowstone carries most of the worlds
  geysers. One of the major and most known geysers
  is called Old Faithfull. Another thing that
  Yellowstone is known for is their Hot Springs. A
  Hot Spring is a spring that is produced by an
  emergence of geothermal heated ground water from
  the Earths crust. These are the two main things
  that Yellowstone is known for.

10
How is the Land Currently Changing in Yellowstone?

• There are many different things that are
  changing in Yellowstone. One of the major things
  is the Hotspot that is underneath Yellowstone.
  The Hotspot is gradually getting bigger over
  time. About every year the Hotspot increases
  about 1 inch, when getting bigger it starts to
  leave a train of volcanic eruptions. Over about
  16.5 million years approximately 15-20 massive
  eruptions have left immense calderas to dot the
  landscape from the Nevada- Oregon border through
  Idahos Snake River to Yellowstone National Park.
  Eventually, as time went on that was what
  brought the Yellowstone area into contact with
  the shallow body of magma.

11
Bibliography

• Works Cited
• Inc., ENSAR Group. "Greening Project Status
  Report Yellowstone National Park." PDF. Aug.
  2000. Web. 23 May 2010. ltgreening_yellowstone.pdfgt
  .
• Piehl, Janet. Yellowstone National Park.
  Minneapolis Lerner, 2010. Print.
• "Radio Guests - June 5, 2010 - Mammoth Hot
  Springs Yellowstone National Park." Peter
  Greenberg.com Travel News. 3 June 2010. Web. 4
  June 2010. lthttp//www.petergreenberg.com/2010/06/
  03/radio-guests-june-5-2010-mammoth-hot-springs-ye
  llowstone-national-park/gt.
• "Yellowstone National Park Geothermal Features."
  Cool Cosmos! Web. 01 June 2010.
  lthttp//coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_gallerie
  s/ir_yellowstone/lessons/geothermal.htmlgt.
• "Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park
  Service)." U.S. National Park Service -
  Experience Your America. Web. 03 June 2010.
  lthttp//www.nps.gov/yell/index.htmgt.
• "Yellowstone National Park." Wikipedia, the Free
  Encyclopedia. 24 May 2010. Web. 04 June 2010.
  lthttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National
  _Parkgt.
• "Yellowstone Rocks." Yellowstone Treasures
  Information about Yellowstone National Park. Web.
  04 June 2010. lthttp//www.yellowstonetreasures.com
  /yellowstone_rocks.htm

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Cool Links Photos!

• Click on the link below to view the Hotspot
  Tracker
• http//www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/tracking_hot
  spot.htm
• This is a picture of the Old Faithful Inn, the
  famous Old Faithful Geyser and the rock called
  Travertine

13
Pictures (cont.)

• Here are pictures of a diagram of the Hotspot and
  of the beginning entrance of the park

14
Pictures (cont.)

• Here is a topographic map or Yellowstone