The subject matter of this bulletin is based chiefly on the results of a systematic program of geological investigations in Yellowstone National Park, conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey during the years 1965-71. The program, ably organized and directed by A. B. Campbell, required the special skills and knowledge of many individuals to make a comprehensive study of all the varied and complex features of the Park area. Without their invaluable cooperation, assistance, and interest, this endeavor to summarize the geologic story of Yellowstone would not have been possible. I therefore express my sincere thanks to the colleagues listed below, all of whom furnished unpublished information bearing on different aspects of that story: R. L. Christiansen and H. R. Blank, Jr. (Quaternary volcanism); H. W. Smedes and H. J. Prostka (Absaroka volcanism); D. E. White, L. J. P. Muffler, R. O. Fournier, and A. H. Truesdell (thermal activity); G. M. Richmond, K. L. Pierce, and H. A. Waldrop (glaciation); E. T. Ruppel and J. D. Love (sedimentary rocks and geologic structure); J. D. Obradovich and Meyer Rubin (radiometric dating). W. L. Newman provided many helpful suggestions regarding the preparation of the manuscript.
The geological studies in Yellowstone received the full support and cooperation of former Park Superintendent J. S. McLaughlin, Superintendent J. K. Anderson, and other personnel of the U.S. National Park Service. In particular, the helpful advice, interest, and enthusiasm of the entire Park Naturalist staff, especially J. M. Good and W. W. Dunmire, former and present Chief Park Naturalists, respectively, greatly facilitated the work in all phases of the program.
Footnotes
[1]The specific area about which the early-day Indians first used the term that is now translated as “Yellowstone” is unknown. The name may have referred to the yellowish rocks that line the banks of the Yellowstone River near its confluence with the Missouri River in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. However, in the opinion of H. M. Chittenden, who studied the question in considerable detail, there is little doubt that the name was taken from the striking yellow-hued walls of the gorge now known as the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Selected Additional Reading
Allen, E. T., and Day, A. L., 1935, Hot springs of the Yellowstone National Park: Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 466, 525 pages.
Boyd, F. R., 1961, Welded tuffs and flows in the rhyolite plateau of Yellowstone Park, Wyoming: Geological Society of America Bulletin, volume 72, number 3, pages 387-426.
Christiansen, R. L., and Blank, H. R., Jr., 1972, Volcanic stratigraphy of the Quaternary rhyolite plateau in Yellowstone National Park: U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Paper 729-B (in press).
Dorf, Erling, 1960, Tertiary fossil forests of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in West Yellowstone—Earthquake area, Billings Geological Society Guidebook 11th Annual Field Conference, 1960: pages 253-260.
Hague, Arnold, Iddings, J. P., Weed, W. H., Walcott, C. D., Girty, G. H., Stanton, T. W., and Knowlton, F. H., 1899, Geology of the Yellowstone National Park: U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 32, part 2, 893 pages and atlas of 27 sheets folio.