Yellowstone National Park - World Heritage Sites on Waymarking.com

Yellowstone National Park, the world's first such reserve, was established by act of the United States Congress in 1872. As a source of public recreation and renewal, as one of the world's great scientific laboratories, and as an exemplar of a global conservation movement, Yellowstone is a unique natural and cultural resource. Originally set aside to preserve geological and geothermal wonders, such as several hundred geysers, many thousands of hot springs, and a complex volcanic and glacial landscape, Yellowstone's purposes have multiplied and broadened throughout its long life. It quickly became one of the world's foremost wildlife refuges, launching more than a century of ecological research and on-the-job training for generations of managers.




As ecological awareness grew, the park become a testing ground for new approaches in the management of predator-prey systems and native vegetation communities, as well as a leading presence in scientific inquiries into ecosystem management. Most recently,
microbiological treasures from park hot springs have again redefined Yellowstone's role in human society. In a hundred ways, Yellowstone has challenged its stewards and its public with great questions about our relationship with nature. All these additional roles have only heightened the pleasure, enrichment, and education received by ever-increasing numbers of park visitors, who now total in excess of 130 million since the park's creation.

Yellowstone's hot springs, ten-thousand (10,000) geysers and geyser basins, lava formations, lakes, waterfalls, rivers and river canyons make it a place of unrivalled beauty. It is also a place to study volcanic forces and heat flow within the earth. Yellowstone sits on top of a hot spot where a thermal plume or column of molten rock rises from deep within the earth and feeds into a large chamber 11,000 feet below the earth's surface. The 1,000F-degree heat from this molten rock in the chamber warms water from rain and snow that seeps down; the resulting steam and hot water rise again to the surface, forming hot springs and geysers such as Old Faithful. It is known that a similar chamber with molten rock burst forth in a volcanic eruption 600,000 years ago to form what is now Yellowstone. The question remains: When will Yellowstone erupt again? But, at present, it is a gentle and wondrous reminder of the volcanic forces that shape the earth. The park is a tribute to the foresight of those who created it and started a movement in conservation that has spanned the entire globe.

Inscribed in 1978 as a Natural site, under Criteria N (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv).

(All text for this waymark was copied from the NPS website.)

Type: Natural Reference number: 28

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