Category Archives: geysers

Iceland Geology – Snorkeling the Silfra Fissure, Thingvellir National Park

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I did a snorkel tour of the Silfra fissure with Dive.is while I was in Iceland a couple weeks ago. That is a very impressive way to view part of the mid-Atlantic ridge system! Here’s what Dive.is says about Silfra that makes it so unique:

Snorkeling the Silfra Fissure in Iceland.

“Silfra is a fissure between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in Thingvellir National Park. The rift was formed in 1789 by the earthquakes accompanying the divergent movement of the two tectonic plates . The diving and snorkeling site at Silfra is right where the two continents meet and drift apart about 2 cm per year. Silfra is the only place in the world where you can dive or snorkel directly in a crack between two tectonic plates. The earthquakes of 1789 opened up several fissures in the Thingvellir area, but the Silfra fissure cut into the underground spring filled with glacial meltwater from the nearby Langjökull glacier.”

My Silfra snorkel group starting out in the fissure with our guide Jake from Dive.is.

There are 6 people to a group for the snorkel tour, with each group accompanied by a guide from Dive.is. Jake was our guide and he was great! The tour is simply snorkeling through basalt and more basalt, but with the water clarity, the colors are beautiful. There is also one place where you can stretch across the fissure and basically touch both plates.

The start of the snorkel tour where the entrance platform can be seen in the background.
The stretch between plates…
This is where basalt really looks grand!
Near the end of the snorkel tour, the fissure opens into a shallow lagoonal area.
The colors in the sandy lagoon are just as spectacular as elsewhere in the fissure. The exit platform can be seen in the distance.
The end of the snorkel tour – ours was a great weather day, so even though the fissure water is cold (we all wear dry suits with long underwear and two pairs of wool socks), I could have snorkeled around the lagoon for a long time.

I also took video while I was snorkeling, so am inserting a clip from the first part of the snorkel tour at the end of this blog. The video clip includes the time when we all get geared up, have our gear checked, and then flipper-walk down the entrance ramp, into the water. We all have to do a flip over to our back once we’re in the water, just to make sure we can maneuver once we’re in the water. The clip continues on as we snorkel through the first several minutes of exploring the fissure. At the end of the snorkel tour, we hike back to where the Dive.is vans/equipment are. After taking off our gear – which getting off the dry suit is somewhat of a challenge – we have hot chocolate and cookies. Because the weather was so nice, it was a pleasurable experience to stand around and feast. But – we were told that in the wintertime the guides take the hot water that is suppose to be used for the hot chocolate and it pour down the snorkelers’ necks so the dry suits can be pulled off. Glad I opted for late May to do this!

Yellowstone To Southwest Montana Autumn Field Photo Snaps

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Montana’s autumn is my favorite time of the year to do field work. Daytime temperatures are usually cool enough to encourage one to keep moving and the lighting is simply gorgeous. It is also one of the best times to visit areas in and around Yellowstone National Park (YNP) because most of the tourists have gone home. So no huge bear traffic jams or jostling for parking spots at the better known thermal spots in YNP and surrounding environs – it’s just a wonderfully introspective time for field forays. What follows are several photos that chronicle some of my fall wanderings in the greater Yellowstone area, both in terms of wildlife and geology.

Some of my favorite sightings in YNP are bison at any time of the year. But the autumn snows bring on the bison’s technique of using its head to clear snow away from any vegetative food source. The result of their snow-clearing activity is a snow-masked face.

Snow-caked face of a bison in YNP portends the winter food retrieval.

Snow-masked bison near Soda Butte Creek, YNP.

And where the snow hasn’t stacked up much, the YNP bison calmly graze and occasionally congregate on a ridge line to watch what remains of the YNP visitor traffic.

YNP bison contemplating passing vehicles.

Geological features in YNP take on new dimensions with the golden low and slanting light of autumn. I’ve spent much time re-photographing geologic features at all scales that seem to glow in this season’s light.

Tertiary sediments and Quaternary sediments/basalts of “The Narrows” cliff face adjacent to the Yellowstone River, northern YNP. Columnar basalt capped by auto-brecciated basalt makes a morel-like image for these geological units.

An early morning at -7 F on the Lamar River with steam fog resulting from the fall’s chilled air moving over water still warmed from summer.

A rodent trackway disappears into microterracettes of Palette Springs, Mammoth Hot Springs, YNP.

Microbial growth near the proximal part of Mound Springs, Mammoth Hot Springs, YNP.

The proximal end of Mound Springs abounds in various colored microbial life. It’s hard to stop photographing these features because they are so intriguing!

The lipped margin of Mound Spring’s pond facies, Mammoth Hot Springs, YNP.

The fall staging areas of sandhill cranes in southwestern Montana are mesmerizing. Staging areas are those locations where cranes annually congregate during late September into October, spend several days foraging through fields for food, and eventually continue on their migration southward from Montana to Colorado and the southwestern U.S.. The staging area that I usually go to is near Dillon, Montana, where hundreds of cranes can be viewed.

Sandhill crane interaction during their fall staging near Dillon, Montana.

Sandhill cranes doing a dance routine in the Dillon, Montana staging area.

As I said initially, it’s hard to surpass a Montana/YNP autumn!

Winter Trekking Through Yellowstone’s Thermal and Glacial Features

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Cross country skiing in one of the glacial melt-water channels on the Blacktail Plateau.

Some winter days in Yellowstone National Park are so amazing with clear blue skies and sparkling snow that they just take your breathe away. Luckily enough, I just experienced several of these kinds of days which I packed full of cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and animal watching.

One of the groomed trails that held a good snow base until about early afternoon is the Blacktail Plateau Loop. The trail follows melt-water channels that are associated with “Retreat Lake”, which was formed by the Beartooth glacial ice mass blocking the lower end of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone during the Pleistocene.

Rounded cobbles and boulders left behind from melt-water flow sit on the volcanic bedrock in many areas along the trail. Ski tip in the lower right for scale.

Looking back to the northwest on the Blacktail Plateau ski trail. Notice the scoop-shape of the landscape which is the result of this area being part of a glacial melt-water channel.

Calcite Springs overlook is accessible during the winter via the Tower ski trail.

The Tower ski trail provides access to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone area. A favorite stop of mine is the Calcite Springs overlook where the thermal springs lie south of the overlook, on the west side of the Yellowstone River and Pliocene/Pleistocene sediment and basalt are on the Yellowstone River’s east side.

 

A groomed ski trail also accesses the Upper Terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs. However, after a few days of spring-like temperatures, the snow was so melted back that I just used my snowshoes to trek through the icy slush.  Some thermal features were still covered by snow and slush, but others appeared much more vibrant against the white snow/slush blanket.

One of the fissure ridges along the upper Terraces trail is called White Elephant Back Springs and Terrace.

Aphrodite Terraces lie a short way north of the White Elephant Back Springs:

My favorite thermal feature of the Upper Terraces is Orange Spring Mound. The spring is supported by a fissure ridge and is intermittently active. Because of its low water discharge and subsequent slow growth, it has built up a characteristic cone shape.

Orange Spring Mound of the Upper Terraces in Mammoth Hot Springs.

All in all, it was perfect wintertime fun trekking around in Yellowstone. Can’t wait to get back there when the bears come back out from hibernation!

 

Yellowstone’s Firehole Lake Drive Reopens

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Last Thursday (July 10),Yellowstone National Park (YNP) temporarily closed the 3.3 mile-long Firehole Lake Drive, a paved road that traverses some of Lower Geyser Basin. Melting asphalt on a part of the road near the start of the loop drive became a “soupy mess”, according to Dan Hottle, YNP spokesman. Hottle told Live Science that Firehole Lake Drive’s surface reached 160° Fahrenheit (70° Celsius) on Thursday, roughly 30° to 40° F (17° to 22° C) hotter than usual. Hot gases from area thermal activity that were trapped by the asphalt road surface and warm weather combined to cause the road damage.

YNP said that the road would reopen soon and sure enough, by the time I was there on Monday (July 14), the road was driveable. One of the YNP information rangers at Canyon Village told me that the road repairs included road crews removing damaged pavement and applying a mixture of sand and lime to soak up some of the thick bubbly road oil.  The road section was then graveled so that the hot gases could better escape a more permeable road surface.

I drove over a part of the Fire Hole Lake Drive that was repaired due to melted asphalt last Sunday, soon after the road was reopened. The damaged road section is now graveled. Note the absence of steam rising from the road surface - even though it was cool and rainy that day.

I drove Firehole Lake Drive loop last Monday, shortly after it was reopened, and stopped to photograph some of the damaged road. The section of the road that contained the melting asphalt is now graveled, and judging by the absence of steam rising off the road (the day was cool and rainy, so I expected to see some steam billowing above the road surface), it looks like the YNP road fix is working.

Thermal activity affecting YNP roads and parking areas is not uncommon. During my Monday travels in Yellowstone, another Canyon area YNP ranger told me that about 10 years ago, a new thermal feature melted a small part of the Mud Volcano parking lot. This area is now fenced off, but the rest of the parking lot is still used. YNP spokesman Hottle also informed Live Science that YNP has closed Firehole Lake Drive in the past for repairs due to heat damage, but that these closures are not frequent.

A small part of the parking lot at Mud Volcano fell victim to thermal activity several years ago.

A small part of the parking lot at Mud Volcano fell victim to thermal activity several years ago.

And – just for some perspective on this latest road meltdown: the YNP website home page says “Yellowstone contains approximately one-half of the world’s hydrothermal features. There are over 10,000 hydrothermal features, including over 300 geysers, in the park”. Given the profusion of thermal activity, I’m not surprised that a small section of asphalt melts once in a while. I guess I’m amazed that the YNP can keep park infrastructure maintained such that millions of people can visit the park every year.