BY: JULIE JEVAHIRIAN Yellowstone National Park

What Year did Yellowstone Become an Official National Park and Why? Yellowstone became a National Park on March 1, Yellowstone became a National Park for the enjoyment of people. Yellowstone was the first national park in the world. It was also the first to be dedicated to the practice of setting aside special areas for the enjoyment of people. It’s 2.2 million acre wilderness with unlike any other geothermal features that include hot springs, mud pots, geysers, and fumaroles. Not only does it entertain and fascinate people by those features, Yellowstone also has the largest mountain lake in North America, forests and valleys, beautiful mountains, a Petrified Forest, and wonderful wildlife. These are just some of the amazing features that Yellowstone has. If that is not enough I don’t know what is to be a National Park.

How Was Yellowstone Formed? The main reason that Yellowstone was formed was because of a big volcanic eruption. The reason that it erupted was because Yellowstone is on a big hotspot. A hotspot is weak spot in the Earth’s crust. After a long period of time a lot of gas built up in and under the volcano. Once it couldn’t take anymore it erupted. But there was not only one that erupted, 3 did! These three eruptions were the biggest three compared to other volcanoes. The first and biggest explosion happened over 2.1 million years ago, the second one happened about 1.3 million years ago and the third one happened just about 0.65 million years ago. The third and most recent caldera overlaps the biggest and first caldera. These eruptions formed Yellowstone and maybe even more calderas will explode and make Yellowstone even bigger!

What Type of Rocks can be Found in Yellowstone? There are many different kinds of rocks that can be found in Yellowstone. Two of the major rocks that are forming in Yellowstone called Travertine and Geyserite. Geyserite is the most common of the rocks in Yellowstone. It is formed wherever Alkaline Hot Springs are bubbling out of the ground. Some places you can see this rock being formed are Upper Geyser Basin (where Old Faithful and Castle geysers are located) and the Fountain Paint Pot area in Lower Geyser Basin. Travertine is another rock that is forming right now. It is a relatively rare rock but it forms most of the Mammoth Hot Spring terraces, near the parks north entrance. Travertine is made of calcium carbonate. Scientist have found many other rocks in Yellowstone. There are just way too many to count!

How is Technology used to Improve Yellowstone? There are many different ways that Yellowstone uses technology. One of the ways they use it is to watch the major geyser, Old Faithful. They use this to time when it will erupt and to do studies on it. Another way they use technology is they have raised up walking ways to keep people off of the natural habitat. The walk ways are made up of recycled plastic. To get the plastic to the way it is they use big machines and precise technology to get it just right.

What Environmental Issues are Affecting Yellowstone? There are many issues that are affecting Yellowstone National Park. There are ix major things that have been affecting Yellowstone and have been solved or at least improved, which include transportation, buildings, energy, waste management and recycling, and pollution prevention. Transportation Transportation throughout the park could be one of the biggest issues Yellowstone is facing. The first permit allowing private automobiles to enter the park was issued in In 1917, the park officially opened up to automobile traffic. Today nearly 80% of all visitors tour the park in about 1 million vehicles. This much traffic can cause congestion which can lead to “animal jams”. “Animal jams” occur when many cars stop at once along a two lane highway to view the wildlife. This is a problem in both winter and summer. In winter, most cars are replaced with snowmobiles which produce more air pollution. At certain times nearly 2,000 snowmobiles can enter the park in one day. To improve this Yellowstone staff have been conducting activities like these: The park has partnered with the state of Montana to research bio-based fuels and lubrication oils for vehicles. Surrounding communities, such as West Yellowstone, have voluntarily implemented bio-based lubrication oils in snowmobile rentals.

What Environmental Issues are Affecting Yellowstone? (cont.) Air quality is being tested at various congestion areas to gather baseline snowmobile emissions data. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is drafting guidelines that could be incorporated by 2003, setting noise and emissions standards for snowmobiles. At the Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge in March 200, several universities were challenged to develop a prototype snowmobile “that retains today’s performance while reducing pollution and noise.” The University of Buffalo in New York developed a 4-stroke engine prototype that reduces typical emissions by 99%. In a ride-sharing program now in its third year, employees who live outside the park can be transported on buses obtained through a partnership with DOE’s Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. This program has reduced traffic in the park by about 40 employee vehicles per day.

What Environmental Issues are Affecting Yellowstone? (cont.) The Truck-in-the-Park Program introduced an unmodified ¾ ton 4x4 diesel pickup truck used by the maintenance department that in Phase 1 logged 121,000 miles running on 100% biodiesel fuel made from rapeseed (canola) ethyl ester. Rapeseed is harvested from Idaho and Montana: the oil is then extracted at the University of Idaho and combined with ethanol made of potato waste from the food processing industry. After 100,000 miles, a teardown of the truck’s engine indicated little wear and no carbon buildup. The park has developed a related education program for the public. Phase 2 of this project involves evaluating the truck’s engine after the next 100,00 miles of operation. Buildings Yellowstone has several historic structures, such as the Old Faithful Inn. Many of these structured present opportunities for grater energy efficiency through advanced technologies as they are maintained, remodeled, or replaced. In fact, existing and planned park structured are being considered for sustainability improvements. Several activities have already started and some have been completed.

What Special Landforms and Features are in Yellowstone? There are many different kinds of landforms and features in Yellowstone. They are home of 10,000 thermal features, and 500 in which are geysers. Yellowstone carries most of the world’s geysers. One of the major and most known geysers is called Old Faithfull. Another thing that Yellowstone is known for is their Hot Springs. A Hot Spring is a spring that is produced by an emergence of geothermal heated ground water from the Earth’s crust. These are the two main things that Yellowstone is known for.

How is the Land Currently Changing in Yellowstone? There are many different things that are changing in Yellowstone. One of the major things is the Hotspot that is underneath Yellowstone. The Hotspot is gradually getting bigger over time. About every year the Hotspot increases about 1 inch, when getting bigger it starts to leave a train of volcanic eruptions. Over about 16.5 million years approximately massive eruptions have left immense calderas to “dot” the landscape from the Nevada- Oregon border through Idaho’s Snake River to Yellowstone National Park. Eventually, as time went on that was what brought the Yellowstone area into contact with the shallow body of magma.

Bibliography Works Cited Inc., ENSAR Group. "Greening Project Status Report: Yellowstone National Park." PDF. Aug Web. 23 May Piehl, Janet. Yellowstone National Park. Minneapolis: Lerner, Print. "Radio Guests - June 5, Mammoth Hot Springs & Yellowstone National Park." Peter Greenberg.com Travel News. 3 June Web. 4 June "Yellowstone National Park Geothermal Features." Cool Cosmos! Web. 01 June "Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service)." U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America. Web. 03 June "Yellowstone National Park." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 24 May Web. 04 June "Yellowstone Rocks." Yellowstone Treasures: Information about Yellowstone National Park. Web. 04 June <

Cool Links & Photos! Click on the link below to view the Hotspot Tracker: This is a picture of the Old Faithful Inn, the famous Old Faithful Geyser and the rock called Travertine:

Pictures (cont.) Here are pictures of a diagram of the Hotspot and of the beginning entrance of the park:

Pictures (cont.) Here is a topographic map or Yellowstone: