Yellowstone

Yellowstone is located in the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The national park stretches over an area of 8983 km2, and most of the parks area is located in north-western parts of Wyoming. The name of the park comes from a canyon within the park, where there are found some special yellow stones.

When the park was formed in 1872, it was the first national park in the world. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden was one of the people who put in a large contribution to make the park come true. He made a report of the park which he presented to the U.S congress. Hayden’s report was an important part of convincing the politicians to preserve the area of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone national park is famous for its geothermic characteristics. It’s the area in the world with the best and largest preserved collection of these features. Geysers, hot springs and hot mud-pots are dominating the scenery. The reason why these extraordinary features are located here, is because the park lies on top of a supervolcano; The Yellowstone Volcano.

The Yellowstone Volcano is the largest volcano in the world; if it erupts it will destroy most life on the North-American continent, and fill the atmosphere with ash. The supervolcano’s last eruption occurred 640.000 years ago. Scientist has estimated its eruption cycle to be around every 600.000 years, which means it has gone 40.000 years over the calculated period. Yellowstone lies in the middle of a continental plate; this is not a place where volcanos usually occur. The reason why this supervolcano is placed here is because it's located upon a large hotspot in the mantle, hotspots like this are making volcanic activity at localizations it usually wouldn't be.

The Yellowstone national park is not just famous for its geothermic features, the area also holds a rich wildlife containing many different species. Among these is the rare Canada lynx, which is listed as a threatened art under the Endangered Species Act.

Written by Jonas Ødegård.