YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — With more than 10,000 thermal features clustered into 120 distinct thermal areas, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) touts an impressive array of geology. This week’s Caldera Chronicles describes one of the largest thermal regions in the park: Lower Geyser Basin.
Lower Geyser Basin is 15.6 square kilometers in size and generates an enormous amount of geothermal power: between 200 and 500 megawatts. “To put this into context, one megawatt could power several hundred homes in the U.S.,” geophysicist and Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Michael Poland writes in the article.
The thermal area is home to many well-known Yellowstone thermals, like the Fountain Paint Pots and Firehole Lake. Lower Geyser Basin is also home to a wide variety of water chemistry. Hot springs vary in acidity even when in close proximity, some are acidic and their immediate neighbors may be neutral-alkaline.
Discoveries like that of the bacteria Thermus aquaticus in 1966 also took place in Lower Geyser Basin in the Mushroom Pool. Due to the discovery of that bacteria, scientists were able to replicate millions of copies of DNA in a technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction. The technique is used in medical research, genome mapping projects and crime scene investigations.
The most predictable geyser also lives in Lower Geyser Basin. Great Fountain Geyser erupts approximately every 12 hours, and has been used as an analog to study geysers on other planets.
“Bubbling mudpots, colorful hot springs, spectacular geysers, massive explosion craters, important scientific discoveries, incredible geological stories and even the oldest historic building in Yellowstone National Park,” Poland writes. “Lower Geyser Basin has it all!”
