FAST FACTS
Where is it? Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming [44.46284445, -110.3628428]
What's in the photo? A perfect white blanket of snow covers Yellowstone Lake.
Who took the photo? An unnamed astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
When was this done? January 26, 2022
This eye-catching astronaut photograph shows Yellowstone's namesake lake covered in a thick layer of snow, making it appear a colorless, featureless void against the surrounding landscape. But underneath this icy empty space lie some of the most active and hottest hydrothermal vents on Earth.
The lake freezes over every winter, around late December or early January, with ice ranging from a few inches to about 2 feet (0.6 m) thick. But the snowpack on top of that ice could reach depths of up to 3.5 feet (1.1 m) by March, according to data. NASA Earth Observatory. By the end of May or beginning of June, the lake is usually free of snow and ice.
Thick snowpack means Yellowstone Lake. amazingly resistant to anthropogenic climate changemaintaining the thickness of surface ice despite rising air temperatures. This makes it a major exception among alpine lakes around the world.
This astronaut photograph shows one of these deep drifts, mostly untouched except for a few islands, the largest of which is Stevenson Island.
Although the surface of Yellowstone Lake may seem cold and lifeless during the winter months, the water underneath remains surprisingly soft thanks to a series of hydrothermal vents at its bottom. This allows aquatic animals, including the cutthroat lake trout (Oncorhynchus clarkiiThe population – the largest of its kind in North America – needs to survive long months under the ice, according to the NPS.
One of the vents, located right next to Stevenson Island, spews water that reaches 345 degrees Fahrenheit (174 degrees Celsius), making it hotter than Old Faithful And every second geyser or a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.
“This is much hotter than any surface hot spring in Yellowstone because the weight of the water from the overlying lake acts like the lid of a pressure cooker and allows temperatures above the boiling point to be reached,” USGS officials wrote in the report. article about lake vents. “These are the hottest lake hydrothermal vents in the world.”
Ventilation holes powered by a giant blob of magmaapproximately 2.6 miles (3.8 km) below Yellowstone National Park, which contains amazing amount of molten rock. This drop of magma acts like the cap of a giant volcanic bottle and will one day explode. causing the eruption of a “supervolcano” it could be felt across the continent.
Yellowstone Lake formed shortly after a similar eruption 640,000 years ago, which created a 1,500-square-mile (3,900-square-kilometer) caldera within which the lake currently resides. About 130,000 years ago, a smaller eruption carved out a doorknob-shaped lake handle called the Western Thumb (visible at the top of the astronaut photo).
For more incredible satellite photos and images of astronauts, check out our website. Earth from space archives.
