They were much bigger than anything we had ever seen before. At first glance we thought it was an old log or tree, but there were several. They look for all of the world sort of like old tree stumps with no branches. Klump says spires have only been discovered in the Bridge Bay area and only at a depth of about 45 feet. What researchers found after getting a closer look at spire samples surprised them.
Diatoms are planktonic organisms that are composed of silica.
Hydrothermal discharges that occur in Yellowstone are rich in silica. The spires are essentially silica cones that geologists believe formed near hot water vents located at the bottom of the lake, says Doss. The thought being is we have this hot rich silica water coming out of these hydrothermal vents and hitting the cold water interface of the lake forcing precipitation of the silica that is enriched in the lake's water. But this does not seem to be necessarily the case. It may be that the silica hydrothermal fluids come out of the lake's vents and as a result, diatoms are attracted to the vent areas.