Photo of the Day #719: Yellowstone River

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The Yellowstone River, photographed near Tower Falls in Yellowstone National Park.


More like this

I've now uploaded nearly all of the Yellowstone pictures. There are two additional photo albums on Picasa: one for the Mammoth Hot Springs area, and one for the Yellowstone canyon. Here are the links:
Yellowstone Lake eruption, April 1, 2009
You have already heard that there has been increased seismic activity at Yellowstone National Park over the last few days. Since December 26th, there have been several earthquakes a day, some jut over 3.0 magnitude, in the vicinity of the north side of Yellowstone's lake.
Just as unexpectedly as when the last swarm started, and just as unexpectedly as when the last swarm stopped, there is a new swarm. Verifying my initial statement: At least at some levels, the experts don't have much of a clue about these things. Not their fault.

Years ago, I was standing on a steep trail somewhere near where this photo was taken, craning my neck upwards to try to figure out why the tree next to me was shaking so. It dawned on me, belatedly, that the culprit was not a large bird, but rather an earthquake. A lot of the loose gravelly sedimentary and volcanic deposits like that can be seen on the riverbank in this photo slid downward into the river canyon. Somewhat scary, but, of course, not as serious as events the caldera that is Yellowstone might be capable of producing someday.