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WONDERS OF NATURE
Yellowstone. Nature miracle
The easternmost and longest ridge of the North American Cordillera - the Rocky Mountains - stretches from the thirtieth to the sixtieth degree of northern latitude for more than 4000 kilometers. Its snow-capped peaks rise for more than four kilometers, forming a mighty stone wall that crosses the United States from the northern to the southern border. The Rocky Mountains are the main watershed of North America: from their western slopes, rivers carry water to the Pacific Ocean, and streams flowing to the east are tributaries of the high-water Mississippi, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico of the Atlantic. In the central part of this watershed, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, at the junction of the states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, there is the "pearl of America" - the Yellowstone (Yellowstone) National Park.
The amazing nature of this unique corner of the Cordillera - its geysers and waterfalls, petrified forest and deposits of hot springs frozen in white cascades, fearless herds of bison and formidable gray giants - grizzly bears attract tourists from all over the world. Up to five million tourists visit every year this oldest reserve on the planet, founded almost 130 years ago. The first news about him was brought by members of the famous expedition of Lewis and Clark, who in 1804-1806 paved the way from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast through the mountain steeps and passes of the Cordillera that had never been conquered by a white man. In 1807, the geysers of Yellowstone were seen and described by hunter John Calder. The story seemed so fantastic to contemporaries that everyone unanimously considered it to be another hunting tale. And for a good half century later, the messages of the hunters who visited the fabulous valley were not taken seriously. And no wonder: after all, forest vagabonds told that they saw a forest of stone trees or a waterfall, frozen on the fly and turned into stone. Well, the statements of the St. John's wolves that hundred-meter fountains of boiling water gush out of the ground in the valley, and the river flows so fast that the stones at the bottom heat up, were completely like the stories of Baron Munchausen. Finally, in 1871, it was decided to send a scientific expedition with a photographer to Yellowstone to officially confirm or deny the "hunting stories". What the members of the expeditionary detachment saw struck their imagination. They unanimously decided that such a miracle of nature cannot become private property, but should become the property of the whole nation. The report of the expedition and the photographs taken in Yellowstone convinced the US government, and in 1872 a law was published creating the world's first National Park in Yellowstone. It occupies an area of almost 900 thousand hectares on a high mountain (up to 2500 meters) plateau between the Gallatin and Absarot ranges, reaching 3800 meters in height. Both the plateau and the ranges are composed of volcanic rocks. Solidified lava flows can be seen throughout the park, and a huge cliff rises in the Obsidian River valley, made entirely of volcanic glass. Traces of recent volcanic activity have remained not only in the form of lava flows. Here and there in the valley of the Yellowstone River, cutting through the plateau, there are hot springs, geysers and puddles, and even whole "cauldrons" of hot gurgling mud. Hydrothermal phenomena reach the greatest scale on the banks of the Fiery River. Here, in two areas - the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins - more than 40 geysers and thousands of hot springs are located.
The geyser pools of Yellowstone National Park are by far the most grandiose of all the geyser fields on the globe, although similar gushing hot springs are also found in Kamchatka, Iceland and New Zealand. Some of the Yellowstone geysers spurt over 100 meters, with the tallest fountain over 115 meters. The most powerful geyser ejects almost 4000 tons of water at the time of the eruption tens of meters up! The periodicity of the "work" of these natural fountains is striking. Some of them erupt with an interval of 2-3 years, others salute with an interval of several days, and many small ones, two or three meters high, strike every 3-4 minutes. The most popular among tourists is the geyser "Old Faithful". It erupts with consistent accuracy every 65 minutes. A jet of boiling water with a diameter of half a meter takes off at the same time by 50 meters. The eruption lasts 4-5 minutes, and then there is a break. But exactly an hour and five minutes later, a new outburst occurs, followed by another lull after 5 minutes. Geyser "Giant" is called "water volcano". With an interval of four days, he throws a mighty column of boiling water to a height of 90 meters. The mud geyser "Big Flower Pot" is original: in an oval stone bowl in clubs of steam, the smallest particles of white and pink porcelain clay boil and bubble, and particles of different shades do not mix with each other. Geyser "Minute Man" once a minute throws into the air a bouquet of many bluish jets, vaguely resembling the figure of a man in a hoodie. The Excelsior Geyser, one of the largest in the world, is called the diva of Yellowstone. Its jet beats from a lake with rocky steep banks. Before the eruption, the surface of the lake begins to worry, it is enveloped in clouds of steam, and then a giant column of boiling water 10 meters in diameter and almost 100 meters high bursts out exactly from the center of the reservoir with a menacing roar! Clouds of steam rise even higher - up to 300 meters. The surroundings resound with whistles, roars and roars, explosions are heard underground, stones fly high into the air, and the earth trembles underfoot. But gradually the rumble subsides, the column of water becomes lower and suddenly disappears as suddenly as it appeared. There are many mountain lakes in Yellowstone Park. The color of the water in them, depending on the weather, varies from steel gray to dark blue or greenish. The largest is Yellowstone Lake with an area of 370 square kilometers and a depth of up to 120 meters. Its waters reflect the surrounding ridges with their rocks, snowfields and wooded slopes, and at the foot of the ridges, near the water itself, hot springs gush. Around the springs and geysers, a layer of yellowish-white loose rock - geyserite - is deposited on the surface of the earth. It is formed from silica dissolved in hot water, which precipitates when it cools. Often the mouth of a geyser or source is a rather high geyserite cone with a crater hole at the top, and then it really resembles a volcano, only spewing not lava, but boiling water. The water of many small lakes, due to the influx of hot groundwater, has an elevated (sometimes up to 50-60 degrees) temperature. But these lakes are not lifeless. Heat-loving algae live in them, the color of which - purple, yellow, orange, green or blue - gives the water a wide variety of shades. And some microorganisms manage to survive even at a water temperature of 90 degrees! The hilly relief of the plateau, formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by lava flows and layers of ash, was then smoothed out by glaciers and meltwater. The surface of the plateau was overgrown with forest. But after several thousand years, volcanic activity resumed, and deposits of volcanic ash buried vegetation under them. However, the vital forces of nature took their toll, and again the plateau was covered with lush forests - until the next eruption. Traces of this repeated confrontation are clearly visible on the steep bank of the Lamar River. In its six-hundred-meter steep, 12 tiers of petrified forests buried under layers of ash are clearly visible! Even thin branches and leaves have been preserved on the trees. And in some places on the plateau you can see trunks that have a completely fantastic appearance. Their petrified wood consists of translucent agate, in some places sparkling with crystals of white quartz, amethyst and morion. At the northern border of the reserve there is another unique object - Mammoth Hot Springs. Here, abundantly flowing hot waters cooled and deposited calcium salts dissolved in them, forming picturesque terraces on the slopes, reminiscent of frozen waterfalls. The terraces are given their own names: the terrace of Jupiter, Minerva, Main, etc. The terrace of Jupiter is especially striking in its fabulous beauty. This is a hill over 100 meters high, along the steep slope of which rows of white, blue, green and yellow vases and bowls made of travertine tufa descend in multi-colored cascades. Among them are matte and sparkling like crystal, smooth and ribbed, dry and filled with hot water. Water, flowing down the walls of the cascades, gives them the appearance of icy frozen waterfalls. The sizes of the bowls range from a few centimeters to 30 meters. The deposition of travertine occurs at an astonishing rate. A knife, key or stone lowered into the water in the evening is covered with a shiny crust of crystals by morning, and a week later the travertine layer reaches a centimeter or more. To match the inanimate nature and the diversity of the fauna of Yellowstone. Elk deer, red deer and elk, antelopes, mountain sheep and fallow deer are found here. For almost a century and a half of the reserved regime, they have forgotten how to be afraid of a person and willingly take food from their hands. Beavers can often be found along river banks, as well as foxes, coyotes, hares and chipmunks. Of the large predators, there are a black bear, an American lion - a cougar and a wolf. But the main attraction of the Yellowstone forests is the largest predatory animal in North America, the gray grizzly bear. Grizzlies boldly approach people and cars, begging for handouts from tourists. But they do not tolerate excessive familiarity, and more than once in the park "unpleasant, and even tragic incidents have occurred on this basis. In the northeastern upland-steppe part of the plateau, mighty bison, exterminated in the rest of the United States, found shelter. Their herd numbers several hundred heads. Here you can also see colonies of funny, similar to emaciated marmot animals - prairie dogs. Their burrows are interconnected, forming a huge "underground city" with thousands of residents. The residents themselves usually stand in columns at the entrances to the holes, whistling with each other. The world of birds is very rich in the reserve. Swans and cranes, geese, ducks and numerous songbirds nest here. Attracted by warm water, from time immemorial, pelicans have moved here from the southern edges. In rivers and lakes, especially in Yellowstone, there are a lot of fish, especially trout. But this does not exhaust the natural treasures of the national park. Having wandered around the shores of lakes and the slopes of the ridges, you also need to walk a few kilometers down the Yellowstone River, which flows from the lake of the same name. After winding along the plateau, it then breaks down a hundred-meter waterfall into a gloomy steep-walled canyon and rushes along the gorge at great speed, making two more dizzying jumps on the way, however, of a lower height. In terms of the number of white-foam cascades, Yellowstone Park is second only to another famous nature reserve in the country - Yosemite. There are more than forty of them in total. It is not easy to find a place on our planet where so many amazing wonders of nature would be brought together. And it is no coincidence that every year millions of people strive to see with their own eyes an amazing corner of the Rocky Mountains, which the Indians poetically called "the land of ice, fire, water, tar and swirling smoke." Author: B.Wagner
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