YELLOWSTONE NATURE NOTES

PREFACE

The geologic history of an area is inevitably assembled by the labors of a number of geologists dedicated to the search for the truth as they walk plateaus, climb mountains and descend into canyons to decipher the fascinating story of earth history.

The complexities of Yellowstone geology are staggering to the professional and bewildering to the layman. In the pages that follow I have attempted to condense pertinent highlights of the past 70 million years as they relate to an understanding of earthquakes as a normal geologic process in Yellowstone National Park.

For those interested primarily in the earthquake changes there is included a map keyed to the text and with it one can reconstruct the sequence of events that began on the night of August 17, 1959.

"I have no doubt that if this part of the country should ever be settled and careful observations made, it will be found that earthquake shocks are of very common occurrence"¹

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¹F. V. Hayden, 1872. Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Montana and Portions of Adjacent Areas, Part 1, p. 82.

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PLATE 1. Earthquake Camp, near Steamboat Point, east side of Yellowstone Lake, so named from several earthquake shocks experienced at this place on the night of the 19th of August 1871. Photo by W. H. Jackson, Courtesy of the U. S. Geological Survey film library.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am under many obligations, notably to my associates Park Naturalists M. D. Beal, G. D. Marler, and A. T. Hewitt who have read portions of the manuscript and kindly offered words of criticism and encouragement.

The drafting and illustrations were very capably executed by the talented hand of Bill Chapman; Mrs. Helen G. Minish typed the manuscript.

Dr. Stephen W. Nile, Collaborator in Seismology for the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Butte, Montana, has been most cooperative in supplying seismic data from his personal files and has faithfully answered the many questions with which I have besieged him in recent months.

For information on the Yellowstone rhyolite plateau I am deeply indebted to Dr. F. R. Boyd of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute, Washington, D. C., who has graciously permitted the inclusion of some of his unpublished research.

Correspondence and conversations with Dr. Irving J. Witkind of the U. S. Geological Survey and Dr. Kenneth L. Cook of the University of Utah are gratefully acknowledged.

Credit is given in the text to the various organizations and individuals who have permitted reproduction of photographic material.

A large portion of the chapter devoted to changes in geysers and hot springs is based upon the observations of Park Naturalist George D. Marler.

Park Naturalists A. Mebane, B. Watson, K. Higgins, R. Frisbee, W. Germeraad and Park Ranger R. McClelland worked through the winter months obtaining data on post-earthquake changes in geysers and hot springs. The detailed results of their observations will provide the basis of a future more technical report.

The entire earthquake research project, of which this is only a brief summary, was made possible by the National Park Service through the efforts of Superintendent Lemuel A. Garrison and Chief Park Naturalist Robert N. McIntyre. Colorado College granted me a leave of absence from my regular teaching duties to participate in the study.

To Robert McIntyre I am most grateful for a critical review of the completed manuscript. We have labored together in an attempt to bring into proper focus this most interesting of Yellowstone's newest attractions.

William A. Fischer
8 April 1960
Yellowstone Park, Wyoming