Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1899: Volume LIV, No. 4, February 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1899: Volume LIV, No. 4, February 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Death Gulch is a small and gloomy ravine in the northeast corner of
the Yellowstone National Park. "In this region the lavas which fill
the ancient basin of the park rest upon the flanks of mountains formed
of fragmentary volcanic ejecta, ... while the hydrothermal forces of
the central portion of the park show but feeble manifestations of
their energy in the almost extinct hot-spring areas of Soda Butte,
Lamar River, Cache Creek, and Miller Creek." Although hot water no
longer flows from these vents, "gaseous emanations are now given off
in considerable volume." On Cache Creek, about two miles above its
confluence with Lamar River, are deposits of altered and crystalline
travertine, with pools in the creek violently effervescing locally.
This is due to the copious emission of gas. Above these deposits "the
creek cuts into a bank of sulphur and gravel cemented by this
material, and a few yards beyond is the _débouchure_ of a small
lateral gully coming down from the mountainside. In its bottom is a
small stream of clear and cold water, sour with sulphuric acid, and
flowing down a narrow and steep channel cut in beds of dark-gray
volcanic tuff. Ascending this gulch, the sides, closing together,
become very steep slopes of white, decomposed rock.... The only
springs now flowing are small oozes of water issuing from the base of
these slopes, or from the channel bed, forming a thick, creamy, white
deposit about the vents, and covering the stream bed. This deposit
consists largely of sulphate of alumina.... About one hundred and
fifty feet above the main stream these oozing springs of acid water
cease, but the character of the gulch remains the same. The odor of
sulphur now becomes stronger, though producing no other effect than a
slight irritation of the lungs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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