Although Yellowstone is famous for its geysers, the beautiful colors associated with the geysers and hot springs are often a surprise. One sees hot water flowing over patches of brilliant yellow, orange, red, and green; hot pools lined with color; of even steam which appears to be colored.
The early trappers and explorers noted the colors, as did the geologists who mapped the thermal basins in the 1870s. In fact, it was a geologist, Walter H. Weed, who in 1889 first recognized that the colorful deposits of Yellowstone hot springs were microbial.
The presence of living creatures in water too hot to touch is really amazing. But even more impressive is the fact that the organisms of hot springs are not only living, but thriving. In fact, they are so perfectly adapted to these hot environments that they can live no where else.
Such organisms, called thermophiles, are found in hot environments all over the world - not only in hot springs but also in volcanoes, deserts, and artificial thermal environments such as power plants and hot water heaters But nowhere else in the world are they so obvious, and in such brilliant profusion, as in Yellowstone.
Although Yellowstone is famous for its geysers, the beautiful colors associated with the geysers and hot springs are often a surprise. One sees hot water flowing over patches of brilliant yellow, orange, red, and green; hot pools lined with color; of even steam which appears to be colored.
The early trappers and explorers noted the colors, as did the geologists who mapped the thermal basins in the 1870s. In fact, it was a geologist, Walter H. Weed, who in 1889 first recognized that the colorful deposits of Yellowstone hot springs were microbial.
The presence of living creatures in water too hot to touch is really amazing. But even more impressive is the fact that the organisms of hot springs are not only living, but thriving. In fact, they are so perfectly adapted to these hot environments that they can live no where else.
Such organisms, called thermophiles, are found in hot environments all over the world - not only in hot springs but also in volcanoes, deserts, and artificial thermal environments such as power plants and hot water heaters But nowhere else in the world are they so obvious, and in such brilliant profusion, as in Yellowstone.
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