The many episodes of mountain building and volcanism all left their lasting and unmistakable imprints across the face of the Yellowstone country. During the latter part of the Tertiary Period, erosion, too, had begun to make its own deep marks. But only in the last 100,000 years or so have the powerful exterior forces of the earth—chiefly running water and moving ice—had a virtually free hand in shaping the Park’s landscape. Nevertheless, in this short period of time they have wrought profound changes.
Glaciation
A giant boulder of Precambrian gneiss lies among the trees beside the road leading to Inspiration Point on the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone ([fig. 34]). This boulder, measuring approximately 24×20×18 feet and weighing at least 500 tons, is of considerable interest, not so much for its great size but because it is completely out-of-place in its present surroundings. The boulder rests on rhyolite lava flows of Quaternary age, at least 15 miles from the nearest outcrops of the ancient gneiss to the north and northeast. Obviously, this seemingly immovable chunk of rock was pushed or carried a long way by some very powerful transporting agent before it was finally dropped. A natural force of such magnitude could only have been exerted by moving ice; in fact, no further proof than this one boulder is needed for us to conclude beyond question that glaciers once existed in Yellowstone. There is, to be sure, much additional evidence that the Park region was extensively glaciated. Deposits of out-of-place boulders (glacial erratics), like the one mentioned above, are found nearly everywhere ([fig. 35]) and the mountains and high valleys still bear the vivid scars of ice sculpturing (figs. [36] and [37]).
GIANT BOULDER (glacial erratic) of Precambrian gneiss near Inspiration Point on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The boulder, measuring 24×20×18 feet and weighing more than 500 tons, was dropped at this locality by glacial ice; it now rests on the much younger Plateau Rhyolite. The distance that the boulder was carried or pushed was at least 15 miles. (Fig. 34)
The principal requirement for the formation of glaciers is simple: more snow has to accumulate during the winter than is melted during the summer. If this condition continues for a long enough period of time (measured in centuries), the snow compacts to ice, and extensive icefields grow until they finally begin to move under their own weight, thereby becoming glaciers. Records show that the average year-round temperature is 32°-33°F along Yellowstone Lake, 35°F at Old Faithful, and 39°F at Mammoth. Each winter, snow accumulates to depths of 5-10 feet throughout much of the Park. If the average annual temperatures were to decrease a few degrees or the yearly snowfall were to increase a foot or so, either change could possibly herald the beginning of another ice age in the Yellowstone region.
Yellowstone was glaciated at least three times. These glaciations are, from oldest to youngest, the pre-Bull Lake, Bull Lake, and Pinedale. Their precise age and duration are imperfectly known, but estimates based on a few radiometric determinations are: (1) the oldest glaciation (pre-Bull Lake glaciation) began more than 300,000 years ago and ended between 180,000 and 200,000 years ago; (2) Bull Lake Glaciation began about 125,000 years ago and ended more than 45,000 years ago; (3) Pinedale Glaciation began about 25,000 years ago and ended about 8,500 years ago. The pre-Bull Lake and Bull Lake are known only from scattered deposits of rock debris (glacial moraines) and other features, but the distribution of these deposits indicates that glaciers were widespread throughout the region and occurred both between and during eruptions of the Plateau Rhyolite. The effects of the Pinedale glaciers, on the other hand, are obvious in many parts of the Park, and the history of this youngest glacial cycle (described below) is known in much greater detail than that of the two older ones.
In the early stages of Pinedale Glaciation, an enormous icefield built up in the high Absaroka Range southeast of the Park area. A glacier, fed by this icefield, flowed northward down the upper Yellowstone valley and into the basin now occupied by Yellowstone Lake. At about the same time, another great icefield formed in the mountains north of the Park and sent long tongues of ice southward toward the lower Yellowstone and Lamar River valleys. Smaller valley glaciers flowed westward out of the Absaroka Range along the east edge of the Park, and still others formed along the main ridges and valleys of the Gallatin Range, in the northwestern part of the Park. Thus, many huge masses of ice from the north, east, and southeast converged and met in the Park. At this stage, probably about 15,000 years ago, only the west edge of the Park, and perhaps a few of the highest peaks and ridges within the Park, remained free of ice. It is interesting to note that although ice moved across and buried the ancestral Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, it did not flow down and scour the canyon ([fig. 36]). If it had, the canyon would look much different than it does today ([fig. 41]).
