Online Scenic Jigsaw Puzzle of Geyser and Rainbow at Yellowstone National Park

The park is actually centered on the Yellowstone Supervolcano, a huge active volcano which first erupted about 2.1 million years ago. This first eruption resulted in a crater over 52 miles long and 37 miles wide. Since then it has erupted quite regularly around every 600,000 years or so. The most recent was around 640,000 years ago, so another eruption is likely reasonably soon. However, as we're talking in terms of geological timescales, this could be any time from now to tens of thousands of years away.

That last eruption ejected 8,000 times the anount of ash, dust and lava that Mount St Helens did in 1980. Scientists say that another eruption could devatate the USA. The dust and ash could plunge the whole world into a volcanic winter which would last two years. Let's just hope that we have a few thousand years for the world to prepare! According to those same scientists, there would likely be warning tremors and rapid deformation of the land for weeks or even years before any eruption, so don't be too afraid of visiting Yellowstone, and think of the thrill of standing on top of one of the world's largest supervolcanoes!

The volcanic nature of Yellowstone is responsible for the existence of over 500 geysers throughout the park. If caught in the right light at an appropriate time, particularly early in the morning or late in the fternoon they can create a rainbow in their spray af water like the one shown in our scenic jigsaw puzzle. The formation of geysers requires certain conditions in the underground water and rocks that occur only in certain places on earth. Although hot springs and fumaroles are very commonly found in places of volcanic activity, geysers are in fact quite a rare phenomena, with only around 1,000 in the entire world. Yellowstone therefore has over half of the total earth's number of geysers. The rarity is thought to be due to the type of rocks required to produce a geyser. Strong rocks are needed to maintain the high presures required to eject the water from the ground.