Thermal Activity

Yellowstone is full of geysers, fumeroles, hot springs, and mudpots. All of them involve something called “thermal activity”.

For thermal activity to happen on earth, there must be three things:

• Heat source
• Ground water
• Cracks or “fissures” in the earth

The water for Yellowstone’s geysers comes from ground water – snow and rain. The water seeps down into the ground until it comes in contact with heat.

The heat in Yellowstone comes from a “hot spot” deep under the ground. For some reason that nobody understands, in that particular spot the magma (molten rock) is able to rise up through a channel until it’s almost at the surface of the earth.

The magma heats the water, which then comes to the surface through a series of cracks called fissures in the earth’s crust.

MudpotsMudpots – the hot sulfuric water comes to the surface where there happens to be a stone called feldspar. The sulfuric acid dissolves the feldspar to make mud, and the water bubbles up through it.

Fumeroles(steam vents) – hot water turns to steam deep down in the earth. As the steam rises to the surface, it creates a hissing spot in the ground sounding like an angry teapot!

Hotspringssprings – hot water bubbles up through the fissures and collects in steaming pools on the surface of the earth.