Yellowstone National Park Mammoth Hot Springs Fine Art Print

A Museum Quality print of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park in WY for sale by Brandywine General Store. Several ingredients combine to make the beautiful Mammoth Hot Springs. First is heat which comes from the geothermal activity related to past volcanism. A partially molten magma chamber, remnants of a cataclysmic volcanic explosion a half million years ago in central Yellowstone, supplies the heat. Hot water is the creative force of the terraces, the source of the water flowing out of Yellowstone's geothermal features is rain and snow, which falls high on the slopes in and around Yellowstone and the moisture seeps into the earth. The cold ground water is warmed by heat radiating from the magma chamber before rising back to the surface. The hot water reaches the surface from the many conduits that remain from the collapse of the giant caldera, frequent earthquakes keep this underground plumbing system open, allowing the waters to continue to flow. The last ingredient is the mineral calcium carbonate. Thick layers of sedimentary limestone, deposited millions of years ago by vast seas, lies beneath the Mammoth area. Once these minerals mix with the water and get exposed to the open air, some of the carbon dioxide escapes from the water solution, as this happens, limestone can no longer remain in the solution. From this, a solid mineral reforms and is deposited as the travertine that forms the terraces. For hundreds of years the Shoshone and Bannock peoples collected the minerals from Mammoth Hot Springs to make white paints. Picture #30 a scenic art print made from a photograph in the Highsmith collection