BLACK
SAND BASIN (UPPER
GEYSER BASIN, YELLOWSTONE
HOTSPOT) HYDROTHERMAL FEATURES
Cliff Geyser (above & below), Black Sand Basin,
southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA
in Aguust 2011 (looking ~NW).
A small cliff of geyserite (siliceous
sinter), separates this feature from adjacent Iron Spring Creek. Cliff Geyser erupts frequently with water
reaching up to 40 feet high. This feature
alternates between having an empty geyserite basin (above & below) to having
a water-filled basin (third photo below) to having eruptions (fourth and fifth
photos below).
Below: iron-oxide stained, tuberculose
geyserite lining crater of Cliff Geyser.
Cliff Geyser (looking ~NE) having an empty crater.
Cliff Geyser (looking ~NW) having a water-filled
crater.
Cliff Geyser (above & below) having eruptions
(looking ~NNW).
Jagged Spring (left) & Ragged Spring
(right), Black Sand Basin, southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone
Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA in August 2011 (looking ~SW).
Both hot springs have frequent to
~continual splashing and also have short to moderately high eruptions.
Jagged Spring (above & below), Black Sand Basin,
southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA
in August 2011 (looking ~W).
Jagged Spring first appeared in the 1930s
and has splashing to moderately high eruptions.
The crater has an irregular to scalloped margin consisting of somewhat
overhanging, layered to nodular geyserite.
Ragged Spring (above & below), Black Sand Basin,
southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA
in August 2011 (looking ~SW).
Ragged Spring - partially iron oxide-stained,
tuberculose geyserite masses on the southwestern side of Ragged Spring’s
crater.
Spouter Geyser (above & below), Black Sand Basin,
southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA
in August 2011 (looking ~WNW).
Formerly a perpetual spouter, Spouter
Geyser has fairly frequent splashing eruptions up to 8 feet high. The vent is surrounded by nice whitish-gray
geyserite (siliceous sinter).
Opalescent Pool, Black Sand Basin, southwestern Upper
Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA in August 2011
(looking ~NNW). This feature has
variously been a boiling hot spring, a dry pool, and an overflowing pool. Significant capture of runoff water from
Spouter Geyser (see above) started in the early 1950s. The conifer tree skeletons surrounding Opalescent
Pool have been partially permineralized with geyserite (siliceous sinter) - see
the whitish-colored bases of the trees.
Green Spring, Black Sand Basin, southwestern Upper
Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA in August 2011
(looking ~S). This feature is usually an
ordinary hot spring, but heavy overflow episodes and rare eruptions have been
reported.
Iron Spring Creek (a.k.a. Iron Creek), Black Sand
Basin, southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern
Wyoming, USA in August 2011 (looking ~S).
Iron Spring Creek runs through the heart
of Black Sand Basin. In many places, it
is surrounded by geyserite and hot spring/geyser runoff channels, many of which
have orangish-brown extremophile bacterial mats.
Cinnamon Spouter, Black Sand Basin, southwestern Upper
Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA in August
2011. This relatively young feature is
essentially a perpetual spouter. It
first appeared as a geyser in the late 1980s, but first manifested as a hot,
leaky fracture in the 1930s.
Above: looking ~W. Below: looking ~NW.
Cinnamon Spouter - runoff channel with yellowish &
orangish-brown extremophile bacterial mats along the margins.
Rainbow Pool, Black Sand Basin, southwestern Upper
Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA in August 2011
(looking ~ESE). This large, colorful,
slightly overflowing hot spring rarely has eruptions. Some geyser eruptions here reached over 100
feet high.
Sunset Lake, Black Sand Basin, southwestern Upper
Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA in August 2011
(looking ~N). Steam frequently obscures
much of this beautiful, large, overflowing hot spring. Geyser eruptions do occur, sometimes up to 35
feet high.
White Sand Spring (above & below), Black Sand Basin,
southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA
in August 2011 (looking ~SE). This
feature has occasional small geyser eruptions.
Emerald Pool (above & below), Black Sand Basin,
southwestern Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Hotspot, northwestern Wyoming, USA
in August 2011.
This moderately large hot spring does not
have geyser eruptions. The deep green
coloration is the result of a deep blue-colored center combined with the color
of yellowish bacterial mats on the floor of the crater.
Mindless twits have tossed objects into
Emerald Pool for many decades (just like Morning Glory Pool), resulting in
partial blocking of the vent and slight cooling of the hot spring. This has altered the colors of the pool.
Info. mostly synthesized from:
Bryan, T.S. 2008. The Geysers of Yellowstone, Fourth Edition. Boulder, Colorado. University Press of Colorado. 462 pp.
Schreier, C. 1987. A Field Guide to Yellowstone’s Geysers, Hot
Springs and Fumaroles. Moose,
Wyoming. Homestead Publishing. 96 pp.