Yellowstone National Park
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
Paint Pots Area

Celestine Pool (above)

Fountain Paint Pots (above & below)

Fountain Paint Pot is one of many mud pots found in the park. In early summer the mud pots are thin and watery from abundant rain and snow. By late summer they are quite thick. The mud is composed of clay minerals and fine particles of silica. In this area the rock is Rhyolite, which is composed primarily of quartz and feldspar. Acids in the steam and water break down the feldspar into a clay mineral called Kaolinite.  The temperature of Fountain Paint Pot is about 203°F and the dimensions are about 80x40 feet.

Clepsydra Geyser

The Temperature of Clepsydra Geyser is about 197.3°F.  It irrupts from four vents nearly all the time to a Height 10-40 feet.

Silex Spring

Hot water is a better solvent than cooler water; it dissolves large amounts of silica, the major element of these volcanic rocks. Silica, in the form of sinter, lines the bottom of Silex spring. It forms terraces along the runoff channels and gives the spring its name: Silex is Latin for silica.

Here's an interesting fact, the Fountain Paint Pots was originally named "Mud Puff" by the Hayden survey in 1871,  Early tourists called it Mammoth Paint Pots. Guide books referred to the area as Fountain Geyser and Paint Pots, soi n 1927 this name was the name that was finally adopted.

Dead Lodgepole Pines in alkaline water.

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More Photographs by Steve: Antelope Canyon|Monument Valley

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Revised: April 20, 2009.
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