YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — On Sunday, Dec. 8, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) posted an explainer of Bunsen Peak on Facebook, a prominent peak south of Mammoth Hot Springs that visitors can spot this winter.
According to YNP, geologists believe Bunsen Peak is potentially one of two things. One option is that it’s what’s left of a volcanic neck, the solidified magma that filled the conduit of a volcano. The other is that it’s a stock, or a mass of igneous rock that cooled underground millions of years ago.
The volcanic period responsible for both of these hypotheses is “long gone,” YNP writes, and happened before the Yellowstone hot spot activity that is ongoing.
Regardless, Bunsen Peak was originally buried by other, softer, volcanic deposits that were eventually eroded away to reveal the Bunsen Peak seen today.
“So it’s actually erosion that is responsible for making Bunsen stand out, even though it may have never erupted itself,” YNP writes.
According to the National Park Service, Bunsen Peak was named after the German chemist Robert Bunsen who studied geysers. This is the same Bunsen who invented the Bunsen Burner.
