Opal TerraceThis is a portion of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park known as Opal Terr
Opal TerraceThis is a portion of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park known as Opal Terrace.Mammoth Hot Springs is a unique location within Yellowstone. Most of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features travel through the volcanic rocks produced during gigantic volcanic eruptions. However, Mammoth Hot Springs sits to the north of the main magma chamber and is fed by water that travels through the sedimentary rocks that surround the park.These waters are heated by the same magma that supplies the rest of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features, but because they travel along a different path, their chemistry is different. The waters travel through carbonate rocks, limestones and dolostones, dissolving them as they go.When the waters reach the surface, they rapidly cool and the dissolved carbonate minerals precipitate, forming layers of travertine.Because the chemistry of this site is so different from the rest of the park’s hydrothermal features, it behaves differently, growing much faster. Sometimes, water will deposit such a thick mineral deposit in one location that the hot water will divert to another spot; so various terraces become active and die off over time.When the park was first created, it spent decades under the care of the US Army, which built a set of structures in this area still in use today. In fact, some of the roads actually sit on abandoned travertine terraces. Opal Terrace was mostly inactive through the early part of the 20th century, but in 1926 it suddenly sprang to life and began rapidly growing. It grew so rapidly that it even began overrunning constructed features, reclaiming the land that a tennis court and several other features once sat on.-JBBImage credit: NPShttp://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/thermalfeatures/hotspringsterraces/mammoth/Images/05025.jpgRead more:http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/NationalRegister/site.aspx?id=489http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/mammoth.htm -- source link
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