While visiting Yellowstone National Park last summer my sister and I each made a short list of a few places within the park that we absolutely did not want to miss. One of the places on my list was Minerva Terrace, pictured above. The minerals in the travertine that make up the delicate stepped terraces near the northern border of the park are typically white when they first bubble to the surface of the hot springs as calcium carbonate. They later stain darker as microbes come to live in the boiling waters. Hot springs like these fluctuate, going dormant for days, months, or years, only to gurgle back to life. Or sometimes they close themselves off with build-up, emerging somewhere else where the crust of the earth is less solid. Regardless, the travertine terraces are yet another geothermal wonder of the greater Yellowstone area, one that I am so happy we didn't miss.
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