Figures and pictures used with permission from
"Windows into the Earth, The Geologic Story of
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park", Robert B.
Smith and Lee J. Siegel, Oxford University Press,
2000.
Figure 1. Path of the Yellowstone hotspot. Yellow
and orange ovals show volcanic centers where the hotspot
produced one or more caldera eruptions- essentially
"ancient Yellowstones"- during the time periods indicated.
As North America drifted southwest over the hotspot, the
volcanism progressed northeast, beginning in northern
Nevada and southeast Oregon 16.5 million years ago and
reaching Yellowstone National Park 2 million years ago. A
bow-wave or parabola-shaped zone of mountains (browns and
tans) and earthquakes (red dots) surrounds the low
elevations (greens) of the seismically quiet Snake River
Plain. The greater Yellowstone "geoecosystem" is outlined
in blue. Faults are in black.
