Yellowstone National Park

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Yellowstone National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Yellowstone is the first and oldest national park in the world and covers 3,470 square miles (8,980 km²), mostly in the northwest corner of Wyoming. The park is famous for its various geysers, hot springs, and other geothermal features and is home to grizzly bears and wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk. It is the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the largest intact temperate zone ecosystems remaining on the planet.

Related Topics:
U.S. National Park - States - Idaho - Montana - Wyoming - National park - 8,980 km² - Geyser - Hot spring - Other geothermal features - Grizzly bears - Wolves - Bison - Elk - Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem - Temperate zone - Ecosystems

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Long before any recorded human history in Yellowstone, a massive volcanic eruption spewed an immense volume of ash that covered all of the western U.S., much of the Midwest, northern Mexico and some areas of the eastern Pacific Coast. The eruption dwarfed that of Mount St. Helens in 1980 and left a huge caldera 43 miles long and 18 miles wide (70 km by 30 km) sitting over a huge magma chamber (see Geology section and Yellowstone Caldera). Yellowstone has registered three major eruption events in the last 2.2 million years with the last event occurring 640,000 years ago. Its eruptions are the largest known to have occurred on Earth within that timeframe, producing drastic climate change in the aftermath.

Related Topics:
Human - Volcanic eruption - Ash - Mexico - Mount St. Helens - Caldera - Yellowstone Caldera

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The park was named for the yellow rocks seen in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone—a deep gash in the Yellowstone Plateau that was formed by floods during previous ice ages and by river erosion from the Yellowstone River.

Related Topics:
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - Ice age - River - Yellowstone River

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