The Grand Prismatic Spring

What makes it so hot and why is it so colourful?

Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, became the world’s first national park when President Ulysses S Grant signed it into law in 1872. It’s not hard to see why the government wanted to preserve this area of great natural beauty, especially with features like this: the world’s third-largest hot spring. The Grand Prismatic Spring is Yellowstone’s largest at 90 metres (295 feet) wide and 50 metres (164 feet) deep, and works like many of the park’s hydrothermal features. Water deep beneath the ground is heated by magma and rises to the surface unhindered by mineral deposits. As it bubbles to the top it cools and then sinks, only to be replaced by hotter water coming from the depths in a continuous cycle. The hot water also dissolves some of the silica in the rhyolite…

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How It Works Book of Incredible Earth (Digital) - 1 Issue, How It Works Book Of Incredible Earth 6th Edition

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