Winter Wonderland

Language level: Advanced

Standard: American Standard accent

Source: Speak Up

Winter Wonderland

In winter Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming appears to be a peaceful world of white: all frozen silence and stillness. But beneath the ice and snow it remains a very dynamic place. Plumes of steam point to the raw volcanic power that lies not far below the surface. The stench of sulphur hangs in the air as further evidence of the unique chemistry here. Yellowstone is world-famous for its powerful geysers like Old Faithful, as well a colorful hydrothermal sights like the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces.

Yellowstone became America’s first National Park when it was founded in 1872. It quickly gained the nickname “Wonderland” and it’s not hard to see why. Every year three million people come to get a glimpse of Yellowstone’s well-protected wilderness and enjoy a wide range of outdoor activities. They enjoy its abundant wildlife, magnificent mountain scenery, river canyons, waterfalls and forests.

MOTHER NATURE

Many visitors bring binoculars, telescopes and cameras in the hope of capturing some of the park’s most popular animals: bears (which hibernate in winter), bison, elk, moose and wolves. A single-sighting can bring traffic to a standstill and dozens of enthusiasts to the roadside. With only 150.000 visitors entering Yellowstone in winter, it’s an ideal time to view the wildlife close-up and away from the crowds. But even sights like the bison, icicles clinging to their shaggy beards as they forage through the snow for food, are due to the area’s underlying geology, explains Henry Heasler, Park Geologist for Yellowstone National Park.

Hen Heaster

(Standard American Accent)

Geology is the foundation of Yellowstone, Ok? It defines the soils, it defines the amount of heat coming out of the ground, that affects the plants and soils OK? The plants then affect the openness of an area and the habitat that’s available and then affects that the animals. So I very easily can go through and give you the underpinning of the ecology of an area based on the geology in Yellowstone. There’s a very clear connection and it’s fascinating to go round and look at that connection.

UNDER THE VOLCANO

Yellowstone is part of the spectacular Rocky mountain region. And while you can’t normally feel it, the national park is constantly on the move. There are hundreds, even thousands, of small earthquakes here each year. The Yellowstone caldera, covering some 4.000 square kilometros, rises and falls as if breathing. In the past two years alone, the whole area has uplifted about 17 centimetres. Yellowstone has experienced three catastrophic eruptions in its history: 2.1 million years ago,1.3 million years ago, and most recently, 640.000 years ago. The Yellowstone volcano is constantly monitored and Henry Heasler doesn’t think that another catastrophic eruption, which could wipe out much of northwest America, is coming just yet. But he does believe that Yellowstone offers lessons to us all about the power of nature:

Yellowstone in some ways is very frightening to some people because there is so much raw power here associated with eruptions, with earthquakes and that. I sometimes get the question, can’t we do something to control the volcanic forces? Very interesting suggestions about drilling or using other techniques. And the Yellowstone volcano is not anything that we as humans can control. We can be aware of it, we can live with it, we can destroy hot springs and geysers and that, but we will not affect the underlying processes and that’s one of the lessons of Yellowstone –is that nature always wins. It may take a hundred years, a thousand years, a hundred years, but natural processes are what’s going to win and Yellowstone’s, I think, a very beautiful reminder of that principle.