Friday, October 11, 2019

Mammoth Hot Springs



More photographs of the amazing Mammoth Hot Springs!  These terraces were created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate - over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution.  Algae living in the warm pools have tinted the travertine shades of brown, orange, red, and green.  The thermal flows show much variability with some variations taking place over periods ranging from decades to days.  A tourist I spoke to said that these terraces had water flowing over them as recent as 5 years ago!


This is a detail of some of the terraces, and the amazing formations with narrow strips of deposits frozen, so to speak, in stone.  Be sure to click on these photos to see more detail.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

awesome

Anonymous said...

Incredible photos and history!
Joan

Anonymous said...

These terrace photos are incredible. The bottom photo is stunning. It makes me think of something Egyptian although I'm not sure why...I love the shapes and the color. betsey

Ken Spencer said...

Thank you all. I am so glad you all are not tired of my Yellowstone photographs yet.

John Speroni said...

Impressive. And somewhat confusing for me, because the name of that Yellowstone site is nearly identical to a place I visited in South Dakota. "Mammoth Hot Springs" vs "Mammoth Site in Hot Springs". https://www.mammothsite.org/