A tour of Norris Geyser Basin’s backcountry thermal areas
Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s contribution is from Lauren Harrison, assistant professor in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. 100 Spring Plain in Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. The area is frequently flooded and impassable. Photo taken by Lauren Harrison in August 2018. Cinder Pool. Elk Pool. Hydrophane Springs. The Reservoir. These are all thermal features in the backcountry of the dynamic and ever-changing Norris Geyser Basin. Norris Geyser Basin is one of the only major thermal basins located outside of Yellowstone Caldera (it
The receding waters of Nuphar Lake, near Norris Geyser Basin
Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Michael Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Nuphar Lake is a small, non-thermal body of water—more pond than lake, really—adjacent to the entrance road to Norris Geyser Basin. It was mostly unremarkable until the past few years, when some interesting changes began occurring. In 2021 and 2022, the lake level started to rise dramatically, by several feet (about a meter), and the water changed color from dark green to a