Norris Junction, Yellowstone National Park
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Yellowstone Nat’l Park
Wyoming 82190
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Porcelain Basin Boardwalk

 

Photo by Alfredo De Simone

Norris is more than a junction of roads. It is an intersection of faults. Hebgen Lake Fault, Norris-Mammoth Corridor and Yellowstone Caldera all meet at Norris Junction. So what's there to see? Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest and most dynamic thermal area in Yellowstone. Artists Paint Pots is the best place to hear mud pots gurgle and plop. Gibbon Falls plunges 84 feet (26 m) over the caldera rim. Roaring Mountain emits a continuous hiss; fumaroles are responsible for that. And while the human history of Norris is nowhere near as significant as its geological record, the log building at Norris Campground merits mention all the same. Built in 1908, the Museum of the National Park Ranger once served as a soldier station.
Yellowstone Caldera
Silex Spring, Yellowstone

Silex Spring, Yellowstone

Alfredo De Simone

 
The hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles and geysers found at Yellowstone National Park bubble, pop and hiss for a really good reason. Yellowstone sits atop one of the largest volcanoes in the world! Yellowstone Caldera measures 55 km (34 miles) wide by 72 km (45 miles) long and caps a massive chamber of molten rock called magma. And while Yellowstone Volcano hasn't erupted for thousands of years, three eruptions have been supervolcano in size. An eruption 640,000 years ago produced 6,000 times the ash as Mt. St. Helens. The three supervolcanic explosions blew enough ash and lava to fill the Grand Canyon in Arizona! Will Yellowstone Caldera erupt in the future? Scientists think so. But they don't know when. And they don't know if the next eruption will be a supervolcano blast.
 
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