Yellowstone National Park
By: Jacob Branham
Geology
Yellowstone has between 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes annually. However, in 1985, 3,000 earthquakes were recorded in just three months! Even with that many earthquakes, most are not felt. In 1959 and 1983, there were two very large earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.3 and 6.9, but the largest earthquake in Yellowstone since the 1980s was only a magnitude of 4.8. Some of this data comes from a geological monitoring system that scientists use to monitor Yellowstone.
From 542 to 66 million years ago the Yellowstone area was covered by inland seas. Between 50 and 40 million years ago, there were volcanics in the Yellowstone area. Then, 16 millions years ago, there were volcanics in the area again. Yellowstone's first major eruption was 2.1 million years ago, its second major eruption was 1.3 million years ago, and its third major eruption was 640,000 years ago. There have been several smaller eruptions in Yellowstone, including one 174,000 years ago. Though Yellowstone has only had three major eruptions in the last 2 million years, magma has been close to Yellowstone's surface for more than 2 million years. Even though much of Yellowstone's geology has been discovered, a lot has yet to be unearthed.
History
Yellowstone National Park is named for Yellowstone River, the major river that runs through it. In the 1800s, French-Canadian trappers asked the Minnetaree tribe the name of the river, and they answered "Mi tse a-da-zi". "Mi tse a-da-zi" translates to "Rock Yellow River". The name was later formalized to "Yellowstone". Historians and scientists have discovered much of Yellowstone's history, but they have not yet discovered all of it.
Size, Location, and Visitation
These are just some of Yellowstone's interesting characteristics and categories.
Yellowstone has about 355 workers who work year round and 780 during the peak summer season.How the geysers came to be
There once were 300 immortal men who all could spit great streams of water. They were all 6'6" tall and all wore the same thing: a grass skirt and a cape. Their leader was 6'7" and had a special leader cape. They were peaceful and kind with each other. That all changed on one fateful day. The 300 men had a leader, Bob, that ruled them peacefully for centuries. That fateful day started with him. He had been robbed of his leader cape that had been made for him when he became leader. He went berserk when he found out that he had been robbed! In his rage, he blamed the first man that he saw. That man was his brother, Fred. Fred said to Bob: "It was not I who did it, but our other brother, Harold.". Then they traveled from where Bob lived at the edge of Yellowstone to where their Harold lived in Yellowstone. Harold said that it was not him and sent them to another man. That man sent Bob to another man and so on until every man was blamed.
That sent all 300 men into a fit of rage. That then started a war with all 300 men with Yellowstone as the battleground. They fought each other by spitting streams of water at each other. Then, they swallowed magma to make the water that they spat scalding hot. The scalding hot water that they spat at each other burned Yellowstone's ground viciously. The ground was very hurt and full of rage. It was so mad that it swallowed all the immortal men and kept them trapped under its surface. The men ate the magma under the ground and shot streams of hot water into the sky. The men's water streams can still be seen today, though many people call them geysers.
The moral is to be aware of your surroundings and consequences. If the men had been aware of their surroundings then they would not have burned the ground and therefore been trapped underground. If the men had been aware of the possible consequences then they would have not blamed each other and would not have had a war.