Millions of years ago, the North American continent was dragged over the world's largest continental hotspot, a huge column of hot and molten rock rising from the Earth's interior that traced a 50-mile wide, 500-mile-long path northeastward across Idaho. Generating cataclysmic volcanic eruptions and large earthquakes, the hotspot helped lift the Yellowstone Plateau to more than 7,000 feet and pushed the northern Rockies to new heights, forming unusually large glaciers to carve the landscape. It also created the jewel of the U.S. national park system: Yellowstone. Meanwhile, forces stretching apart the western U.S. created the mountainous glory of Grand Teton National Park. These two parks, with their majestic mountains, dazzling geysers, and picturesque hot springs, are windows into the Earth's interior, revealing the violent power of the dynamic processes within. Smith and Siegel offer expert guidance through this awe-inspiring terrain, bringing to life the grandeur of these geologic phenomena as they reveal the forces that have shaped--and continue to shape--the greater Yellowstone-Teton region. Over seventy illustrations--including fifty-two in full color--illuminate the breathtaking beauty of the landscape, while two final chapters provide driving tours of the parks to help visitors enjoy and understand the regions wonders. Fascinating and informative, this book affords us a striking new perspective on Earth's creative forces.

Excerpt from Geological History of the Yellowstone National Park The central portion of the Yellowstone Park is, essentially, a broad, elevated, volcanic plateau, between 7000 and 8500 feet above sea-level, and with an average elevation of about 8000 feet. Sur rounding it on the south, east, north, and northwest, are mountain ranges with culminating peaks and ridges rising from 2000 to 4000 feet above the general level of the enclosed table-land. For present purposes it is needless to confine ourselves strictly to legal boundaries, but rather to consider the entire region in its broader physical features. It is worthy of note, however, that by the proposed enlargement the protected area will agree closely with the geographical province. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Interpreting the Landscape of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks takes us into the natural world we see today through the prism of geology. It is difficult to gaze upon the Teton Range, the high plateaus of Yellowstone, the lakes, canyons, and land forms of the two parks and their immediate environs without asking how and when they were formed. This book answers these questions, and more. The text, photography, and graphics demonstrate that most of what we see today is young, geologically speaking - the product of volcanic eruptions, profound glaciation, and earth movements. Perhaps the most interesting of all, the book describes how processes originating half way to the earth's center seem to be the primary force which created volcanic fires, glacial ice, and the mountain ranges of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.