Following the links below will take you on our web-tour of the Mammoth Hot Springs area. To navigate the tour, simply click 'Next Stop' at the bottom of each page. If you prefer you may select features from the ' List of Stops ' or from the ' Interactive Map '. Today's geothermal activity is a link to past volcanism. A partially molten magma chamber, remnant of a cataclysmic volcanic explosion 600,000 years ago in central Yellowstone, supplies one of the ingredients, heat.
Hot water is the creative force of the terraces.
Without it, terrace growth ceases and color vanishes. The source of the water flowing out of Yellowstone's geothermal features is rain and snow. Falling high on the slopes in and around Yellowstone, water seeps deep into the earth. This cold ground water is warmed by heat radiating from the magma chamber before rising back to the surface. Hot water must be able to reach the earth's surface in relatively large volumes to erupt as a geyser or flow as a hot spring.