Overview of Project Goals
and Interpretive Themes
Yellowstone’s geothermal features have long fascinated park visitors. From the time that Americans first heard of the Yellowstone region, it was the “curiosities” of the area—the geysers and other hydrothermal wonders—that spurred further exploration and the eventual protection of Yellowstone as the world’s first national park (Haines, 1974). Today, it is still these natural wonders that draw approximately three million visitors to Yellowstone National Park each year from all regions of the United States and from around the world.
The new Old Faithful Visitor Education Center will tell the fascinating story of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal wonders. Beginning with world-famous Old Faithful Geyser, exhibits and other interactive media will explore this unique area which is unlike any other on the planet.
Project Goals
The overarching goal for the OFVEC exhibits and programs is to help visitors understand and appreciate the geysers, hot springs, and other hydrothermal features in Yellowstone; the powerful volcanic forces that fuel them; and the microbial life within them. The following learning goals describe the desired project goals and cognitive outcomes:
- Develop systems and programs that emphasize sharing current scientific
knowledge among researchers, educators, students, citizens, and visitors
representing a national and international constituency. Integrate more than
100 years of existing and emerging research with a state-of-the-art public
education facility through the exhibits, an academic speaker series, programs,
curriculum-based activities, and online programs combined with a variety
of web-based “virtual park experiences.”
- Heighten public awareness and understanding of geoscience and microbiology
in YNP. Feature and connect visitors with current research on Yellowstone’s
hydrothermal systems, the hotspot that fuels the system, the extremophiles
that live in the thermal waters, and other related topics. Make this science
relevant and accessible to the public, and promote life-long learning opportunities.
- Help audiences understand the natural world and the role of humans in
it. Engender an ethic of stewardship and protection toward Yellowstone and
all our national parks.
- Use appropriate and innovative technology throughout to illustrate and
explain the mystery and magic of Yellowstone, particularly its geysers,
hot springs, and other geothermal features. This technology will be used
to enhance the visitor experience both on-site and on-line.
- Help audiences understand that the thermal features in Yellowstone preserve
gene pools that include rare and endangered species and that these living
creatures not only survive but thrive in environments that would be lethal
to humans.
- Engender interest among students in the study of geoscience, microbiology,
and related fields. Produce curriculum-based school programs that help students
understand how scientific research works and how science, math, and technology
relate in the context of the OFVEC interpretive themes.
- Identify the interrelationships between cultural knowledge and scientific inquiry.
Interpretive Themes
The primary theme for the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center exhibits and associated programs and curriculum-based activities is:
Yellowstone National Park protects the rarest collection of geysers and hot springs on Earth.
The OFVEC exhibits and associated programs will be developed based on the following five subthemes (these ideas are not prioritized or in any particular sequence):
1. At Yellowstone, hot water helps shape an extraordinary landscape
of rare hydrothermal features—geysers, mudpots, fumaroles, and hot
springs.
• Yellowstone’s more than 10,000 geysers, hot springs, mud pots,
and fumaroles represent the greatest concentration of thermal features in
the world.
• Hydrothermal features require a heat source, abundant water, and
a “plumbing” system. The heat source in Yellowstone is a magma
chamber. While it is uncertain exactly where all of the system’s water
comes from, the region receives an abundance of snow and rain.
• Geysers are rare in the world because they require a special underground
“plumbing” system. This system involves rhyolitic rock that
is riddled with cracks and fissures yet hard enough to withstand significant
pressure. Many geysers and other hydrothermal features within a geyser basin
are interconnected, and patterns of activity can be found that allow predictions.
• Yellowstone is home to the world-recognized icon, Old Faithful Geyser,
as well as other geysers and hot springs of note including the world’s
tallest active geyser (Steamboat Geyser), the world’s largest hot
spring (Grand Prismatic Spring), and a rare acidic geyser (Echinus Geyser).
• A wide variety of colors can be found in hydrothermal features and
their runoff channels. The colors are due to reflected sunlight and dissolved/deposited
minerals (e.g., iron and arsenic) as well as living organisms such as bacteria
and algae.
• Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features are in what are essentially
the only undisturbed geyser basins left in the world (most other geyser
basins have been modified or destroyed by human development). These basins
represent a world-renowned preserve and provide important opportunities
for research and education.
2. Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features exist here because of
past and ongoing volcanic activity.
• Yellowstone sits on a “hotspot” that the North American
plate is slowly passing over as it moves southwest. The hotspot has created
a magma chamber under a large portion of Yellowstone, and this is what fuels
the hydrothermal landscape (Smith and Siegel, 2000).
• Earthquakes occur frequently in Yellowstone. Every year there are
around 2,000 earth tremors recorded in the Yellowstone region. Most of these
earthquakes are not strong enough to be felt by humans, but they can and
do affect geyser activity.
• Earthquakes occur along fault lines and can be triggered by crustal
plate movement, rock slippage along the fault, or (in Yellowstone) even
movement of hydrothermal fluid.
• Small earthquakes are necessary to maintain the “plumbing
system” for Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features by keeping the
precipitating silica from sealing off the underground channels.
3. Yellowstone’s thermal waters are habitat for diverse thermophilic
microbial life forms that we are only beginning to understand.
• About 40 years ago, unique life forms were found in Yellowstone’s
thermal springs living in conditions that were thought prohibitive to life
(Brock, 1994). Today, many scientists believe that the diversity of life
harbored in Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features may be greater than
that of the rainforests.
• The various microbial life forms and communities found in Yellowstone
live in a wide range of different hydrothermal conditions, from acidic to
alkaline to high sulfur conditions and along thermal gradients (Brock, 1978;
Ward, et al., 1989; 1992; 1998).
• These microorganisms are aiding scientists in their search for the
origin of life on Earth and whether or not life exists (or once existed)
on Mars (Walter and Des Marais, 1993; Farmer, 1996).
• Yellowstone’s extremophilic microorganisms have immense value
for society. Heat-resistant enzymes found in Yellowstone’s extremophiles
unlocked the key to DNA fingerprinting, leading to DNA medical diagnoses
and DNA-based wildlife studies (Brock, 1997).
4. Americans’ fascination with and pride in Old Faithful Geyser
has transformed it into a cultural icon, a place of pilgrimage, and a shared
legacy.
• The sounds and smells of Yellowstone as well as its sights have
fascinated visitors for more than 10,000 years. Native Americans, early
explorers, mountain men, artists, and park visitors of all types and from
all eras have enjoyed and been inspired by Yellowstone.
• Rumors of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal wonders led to three
organized expeditions coming to the region to document the geologic features
unique to this area (the Folsom-Cook-Peterson Expedition of 1869; Washburn-Langford-Doane
Expedition of 1870; and the official, government-sponsored Hayden Expedition
of 1871).
• Old Faithful Geyser’s predictable eruptions have drawn people
to it from the park’s earliest days. Old Faithful symbolizes the National
Park Service ethic of preservation for future generations.
5. Yellowstone is a rare living laboratory that draws scientists who
want to explore the interplay between the volcano, the hydrothermal features,
and the diversity of life found here.
• The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, a partnership between the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS), the University of Utah, and the NPS was recently
established. This entity formalizes efforts to monitor active tectonic,
magmatic, and thermal systems of the region and encourages innovative and
integrated studies.
• The University of Utah maintains the Yellowstone Seismic Network—a
system of seismographs set up throughout the park to measure and record
real time earthquake information.
• Montana State University houses the NASA-sponsored Thermal Biology
Institute, which brings together local scientists studying the bacteria,
archaea, algae, fungi, protozoa, viruses, plants, and geochemistry of geothermal
areas. The Institute also promotes interactions with the many other microbiologists
around the U.S. and the world interested in extremophiles.
• Yellowstone’s thermophiles are being studied by the NASA Astrobiology
Institute, which believes that these heat-loving microscopic organisms might
be similar to life forms that may one day be found on other planets with
extreme environments.