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North America/United States of America/Wyoming/Old Faithful/Upper Geyser Basin/
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Upper Geyser Basin
- Location & Contact Information
- Address: WY USA
- Telephone Number: +1-307-344-2386
- Official Website: [1]
- Overview
Upper Geyser Basin small> /small>, which has the highest concentration of geothermal features in the park. This complement of features includes the most famous geyser in the park, Old Faithful Geyser, as well as four other predictable large geysers. One of these large geysers in the area is Castle Geyser which is about 1400 ft|m northwest of Old Faithful. Castle Geyser has an interval of approximately 13 hours between major eruptions, but is unpredictable after minor eruptions. The other three predictable geysers are Grand Geyser, Daisy Geyser, and Riverside Geyser. Additionally, Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin are technically qualified as being within the boundaries of Upper Geyser Basin.The hills surrounding Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin are reminders of Quaternary rhyolitic lava flows. These flows, occurring long after the catastrophic eruption of 640,000 years ago, flowed across the landscape like stiff mounds of bread dough due to their high silica content.Blue Star Spring near Old Faithful GeyserEvidence of glacial activity is common, and it is one of the keys that allows geysers to exist. Glacier till deposits underlie the geyser basins providing storage areas for the water used in eruptions. Many landforms, such as Porcupine Hills north of Fountain Flats, are comprised of glacial gravel and are reminders that 70,000 to 14,000 years ago, this area was buried under ice.Yellowstone Resources and Issues, 2006, page 193 Signs of the forces of erosion can be seen everywhere, from runoff channels carved across the sinter in the geyser basins to the drainage created by the Firehole River. Mountain building is evident on the drive south of Old Faithful, toward Craig Pass. Here the Rocky Mountains reach a height of 8,262 feet (2,518 m), dividing the country into two distinct watershed s.Geological Overview of the Old Faithful Areabr clear=all>200px Midway Geyser Basin small> /small> is much smaller than the other basins found alongside the Firehole River. Despite its small size, it contains two large features, the 200 by300 ft|m wide Excelsior Geyser which pours over 4000 USgal|L impgal|lk=on per minute into the Firehole River. The largest hot spring in Yellowstone, the 370 ft|m wide and 121 ft|m deep Grand Prismatic Spring is also found here.Yellowstone Resources and Issues, 2006, page 194Silex Spring at Fountain Paint PotFurther north is the Lower Geyser Basin small>/small>, which has a much less concentrated set of geothermal features, including Fountain Paint Pots. Fountain Paint Pots are mud pots, that is, a hot spring that contains boiling mud instead of water. The mud is produced by a higher acidity in the water which enables the spring to dissolve surrounding minerals to create an opaque, usually grey, mud. Also found in this basin is Great Fountain, whose eruptions reach 100 to(-)200 ft|m in the air, while waves of water cascade down its sinter terraces.[1]
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