YELLOWSTONE PARK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 12

YELLOWSTONE PARK

RIVAL TO ROTORUA LECTURE BY SCIENTIST Now Zealanders arc apt to imagine that the thermal region of Potorua and Wairakei is without a serious rival in the world. Something of an antidote was offered last evening by Dr. H. T. Stearns, of the United States Geological Survey, who delivered a lecture in the University College hall upon the geysers, hot springs and other natural phenomena of the Yellowstone National Park- The lecture was given under the auspices of the college and of the Auckland Institute and Museum. The president of the institute, Professor H. \Y. Segar, presided, and there was a largo audience. * The Yellowstone Park, Dr. Stearns said, was in the north-west corner of the State of Wyoming and overlapped slightly into Montana and Idaho. It had an area of 3300 square miles, the average height -being 8000 ft., and a hurried tourist in a fast car could see all the best-known sights in a single day. There was an enormous number of geysers, some so. far off the beaten track that there were not even trails leading to them. The hot springs and mud pools wore innumerable and there were also multi-coloured terraces and blow-holes ejecting super-heated steam under high pressure. The scenery generally was most beautiful and waterfalls, largo and small, could be seen at every turn of the roads. It was remarkable, said tho lecturer, that thermal activity continued iti tho Yellowstone Park, although the last volcanic activity had taken place at least 1,000,000 years ago. It was also strange that no extinct volcanoes or volfcanic vents had been found in the region, There had been three distinct phases of activity and two of these had each built up lnvu deposits 2000 ft. thick. Some of the geysers were of the largest size, shooting water, stones and mud hundreds of feet into the air. Like Waimangu in New Zealand, such geysers were short-lived. Others were proved by the thickness of their silica basins to be fully 25,000 years old. The best known was "Old Faithful," which played- every hour with the greatest regularity, never varying more than a couple of minutes, Dr. Stearns illustrated his remarks with a cinematograph film taken by himself. Many of the views of geysers and hot pools might easily have been mistaken for pictures of the New Zealand thermal region. A further lecture, dealing with volcanic activity in Hawaii, will bo given by Dr. Stearns on Monday evening.