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Picture a Yellowstone eruption. What comes to mind? It’s a huge explosion, right? Like the one that formed the caldera about 631,000 years ago. But the most common form of eruption in Yellowstone isn’t a huge explosion, it’s a lava flow.

Just over one year ago, early morning visitors to Yellowstone’s Black Diamond Pool suddenly found themselves filming a spectacular event. The July 23, 2024 hydrothermal explosion threw material hundreds of feet high, including rocks that were a foot or more across.

Shakemovie animation showing seismic waves emanating from the magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake.

Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the US, and one of the largest in the world. The boiling lake was named for the spectacular array of colors along its rim.

In May 2025, record rainfall in Australia's New South Wales created major flooding along the coast. In Taree, a mid-North Coast city, the Manning River reached a height of 6.4m on May 21st. The previous record of six meters was set back in 1929. The torrential rains have left almost 800 properties and counting uninhabitable in New South Wales.

There’s a lot of hot water in Yellowstone. What’s it heated by? The magma chamber beneath the surface, of course!

The St. Marys River between Michigan and Ontario is typically frozen January through March. The US Army Corp of Engineers performs maintenance on regulated access channels (the Soo Locks) during the coldest months.

If you want to find a lava flow in Yellowstone, look to the trees! The vegetation is telling us more than you might think.

YVO Scientist-in-Charge Mike Poland reveals how vegetation can be used to map geology in this month's update from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

Well look at this mess! What’s going on? 

We’re just south of Mammoth Hot Springs at a place informally known as the Hoodoos. The official designation for the area is Silver Gate, named by an early Yellowstone National Park visitor because of the way the road wound between the closely spaced white and gray boulders. 

Is it true roads in Yellowstone National Park are melting? Whatever you might have heard, it's nothing new and it's not due to increased volcanic activity. Get up-to-speed in this month's update from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (March 2025).

The world’s largest iceberg floats freely in the Southern Ocean.

Iceberg A23a is a 1,500 square mile ice mass larger than the state of Rhode Island. A23a weighs approximately 1 trillion tons and measures around 1,300 feet thick.

The USGS EROS Landsat archive recently reached a milestone of 12 million Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 products. These are available for download at no charge. The image representing this milestone displays a sprawling desert landscape and contains a multitude of agricultural, geological, and urban features.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists captured these videos of the Kīlauea summit on January 3, 2025, during a morning overflight at approximately 7 a.m. HST. With permission from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, geologists landed in Halemaʻumaʻu, which is home to the Native Hawaiian elemental force associated with lava, Pele.

On January 2, USGS-Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists measured lava fountains at Kīlauea summit reaching heights of 262-295 feet (80-90 meters). USGS photo by M. Patrick. 

Another telephoto view of the vents erupting at Kīlauea summit on January 2, 2025. View is from the closed west rim area of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. USGS video by M. Patrick. 

Over the past day, vents in the southwest portion of Kaluapele (Kīlauea caldera) have continued producing a fan of lava flows covering the western portion of the crater floor during sustained lava fountaining. USGS photo by M. Patrick on January 2, 2025. 

Lava fountaining in the southwest portion of Kaluapele (Kīlauea caldera) has producing tephra cone perched along the caldera wall. USGS video by M. Patrick on January 2, 2025. 

In addition to the December 2024 update, Mike Poland, scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, presents YVO’s top five geologic stories from Yellowstone National Park in 2024.