Back in July, we deployed two seismometers in Yellowstone Lake in order to get preliminary information regarding the noise levels and seismicity rates on the lake floor in our study area. Today, we went out aboard the Annie to pick them up, and recover their precious data. Read More →

Yellowstone National Park is world renowned for its geothermal activity. Hot springs, mud pots, and geysers bubble and froth, sending plumes of steam up into the air on cool mornings. Scientists from the HD-YLAKE project are interested in measuring the flow of heat from the lake floor, and how it varies with time at different locations. Heat flow is measured by determining how fast the temperature increases with depth below the lake floor, and specialized tools are required when you are working in a lake that is more than 400 ft deep. The heat we are measuring comes directly from the magma chamber(s) that underly the Yellowstone caldera, and at our focus site we measured values greater than 100 W/m^2, which is more than one thousand times the average value for sites in North America.

Photos by Chris Linder and Rob Sohn, WHOI. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

Heat flow is happening all around us. In Yellowstone, it's easily visible on a cool morning as fog forms on the warmer (relative to the air) lake surface and geothermal steam from Sulphur Hills condenses as it rises into the air. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

Rob Harris from Oregon State University (middle of this photo, red shirt) is the lead scientist for the heat flow measurements. In August, Dr. Harris worked aboard the Annie to deploy a variety of instruments to measure heat flow on the bottom of Yellowstone Lake. Here he prepares a thermal blanket for deployment. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

In August, the team used 'the chandelier', an instrument that is lowered off the Annie and has a long temperature probe that measures the heat flow through the lake sediments. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

The team also used the remotely operated vehicle Yogi to carefully place heat sensors on the lake bed. The team will retrieve them, and their precious data, next summer. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

The team huddles around monitors in Annie's control room, watching a live video feed of Yogi's robotic arm precisely placing a heat flow probe into the lake bed. Yogi deployed 4 probes that will measure heat flow continuously for the next year. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

A monitor shows a closeup of the probe. The line attached to the probe links it with a float, which makes it easier for the team to find next summer. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

Todd Gregory lowers 'the chandelier' over the side. Once on the bottom, a probe with 6 thermometers at evenly spaced depth intervals is inserted into the sediment. By measuring the temperature change with depth the team can then compute how much heat is flowing into the lake from beneath the surface. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

The team lowers a thermal blanket over the side. The thermal blankets are simpler, but less accurate, instruments to use compared to the probes that must be inserted into the sediment. The instruments sit on the lake floor, and have a thermometer above and below a closed cell foam 'blanket'. The temperature difference across the blanket allows the team to estimate how much heat is flowing into the lake from the top of the sediment layer. Work was completed under an authorized Yellowstone Research Permit.

Before he even got his water samples back to the lab, Dr. Bill Seyfried from the University of Minnesota already knew he had hit gold… It was the same sulphur smell that overpowers you at Old Faithful, Mud Volcano, and other geothermal areas in Yellowstone. As Bill calls it, the “smell of Mother Earth.” But unlike the colorful and bubbling geothermal features that amaze visitors in the park, this odiferous water sample came from 400 feet down at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake. Bill and his team are using some hand-crafted instruments, wielded by the ROV Yogi, to take samples of geothermally-heated water that is bubbling up in the dark depths of the lake. Read the captions to see how his team is making these exciting new discoveries. Read More →

This August, the newly built Yogi remotely operated vehicle (named for the inquisitive picnic basket-stealing cartoon bear that inhabited “Jellystone”), made its first dive into Yellowstone Lake. Designed and built by the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration (GFOE) using technologies developed based on years of exploring the ocean depths, the Yogi robotic vehicle is a key tool in the HD-YLAKE project. Yogi gives scientists an unprecedented view of the lakebed through its high definition video cameras, plus the ability to retrieve samples and deploy instruments using a fully articulated manipulator arm. This will keep the lake floor clean of any waste so it is clean for any travelers who are interested in scuba diving or even snorkeling on the clear blue water.

Read the captions to see how the HD-YLAKE team uses Yogi in Yellowstone Lake.
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We got onto the water early each day, pushing off from the pier in Bridge Bay at 6 am. The pain of waking up early, however, was mediated by the incredible views of the sun rising over the mountains as we motored out onto the lake. The visual tableau was different every day, reflecting the different moods of the lake through the interplay of light dancing on water. Behold our office!   Read More →

We are taking gravity cores to sample the uppermost sediment layer near the lake floor vents. In some cases we may be able to sample sediments that were deposited during the Little Ice Age, some 1600 years ago. Sediments near the vents are altered by the hydrothermal fluids, which changes their composition. In addition, the pore fluids in the sediments contain hydrothermal components that will help us understand how the hydrothermal fluids migrate through, and interact with, the lake floor sediments.  Read More →

We are using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to survey our study area before we dive with the ROV in August, in order to create a high-resolution baseman of the area and to identify sites of active fluid discharge. The final base maps will have a lateral resolution of 20-25 cm and a vertical resolution of 1-2 cm. This is the first time that this state-of-the-art surveying technology has been used in the lake, and we’re excited about the maps we will produce. Read More →

We are deploying thermal blankets to measure heat flow around the lake floor vents. The instruments measure the temperature gradient across an open cell foam layer that insulates the sediments under the blanket from the overlying water column. We left them on the lake floor for about 24 hours and then moved them to a new location each day. Read More →

We are deploying seismometers on the lake floor to measure small earthquakes generated by hydrothermal fluid flow and to understand how they may migrate along fault surfaces. This is the first time that a seismometer will be deployed in the lake, so we don’t know what kind of noise levels and event rates to expect in the data. Before deploying a full-scale seismic network in 2017, our goal this year is to measure the noise levels and establish event rates during a ~1 month period from July to August. Read More →

We are deploying a dozen pressure-temperature gauges (PTGs) around Yellowstone Lake. These measure pressure and temperature at the lake floor every few seconds. With this network, we can record the pressure variations experienced by the deep hydrothermal systems we’re targeting. The high sampling rate means we record not only seasonal variations in lake level, but also the pressure variations from waves, including both wind-driven waves with a period of a few seconds and basin-wide seiche waves with a period of several minutes. Measuring these pressures is an important part of assessing the sensitivity of the deep hydrothermal vent fields. Read More →