NPS Ranger: We’d like to introduce Paul Doss, Supervisory Geologist from Yellowstone National Park and he’s going to be talking about the spires found at Yellowstone Lake.
Paul Doss: Talking to a ranger who just rubbed the spire, Paul points at a sign on the table and says, “Do not rub”.
Attendees: Laughs
Male Ranger: I just touched it like that, it was a gentle touch.
Attendees: Laughs
Female Ranger: Leave it to him.
Male Ranger: I knew I was gonna get yelled at.
Paul Doss: Now in its growth position it would be standing upright, this would be the base, this would be the top. You can really very obviously see the conduit and at least the lower part of the spire and it’s also very apparent that there are some concentric forms that might represent growth margins as this spire built itself vertically, apparently, although we know those answers yet. And then also in this middle part of this spire you can see that this very obvious conduit form starts to get diffuse and you start to not see its real evidence. Now, one thing that I didn’t mentioned early and probably should have, remember we are only looking at one plane, its possible that conduit maybe rose up here and came out in a different place, I mean it’s a possibility, we don’t know that. But then you also see these features that almost look like there was a bifurcation of these discharge points. You can see a little channel that comes out here and one that comes out over here, almost looks like they might correspond to this increased growth here on the side, maybe. But we don’t know the answer to that, so, the rest of the spire that used to be here was cut longitudinally again and each of those components were provide to USGS and University of Wisconsin research folks for destructive sampling to do geo-chemistry and dating and textures and what’s it built out of and how to did it form, how did it develop?
Female voice: And when you get photographs of the dissections ?
Paul Doss: Oh yeah, they’ll provide everything, they’ll provide all the geo-chemical analysis, they’ll provide thin sections. There are in existence right now, cat scans images of the entire spire form cut. We haven’t gotten those yet but hopefully we will soon.
Female voice: What does that show, the cavity versus the (garbled)?
Paul Doss: Well we all communicated and they, don’t want to say they in this the case I mean the University of Wisconsin team, wanted to use the cat scan images as a guide in how to cut it. Now remember that when we started it was just one spire that looked just like its margins all the way around the outside and so it, some how or another you had to make a decision on how to put this thing in the saw, how to put this thing in there to cut it. You know this way, it could have been this way, this way, and this way, you know, you didn’t know. So the cat scan images were meant to provide information on the internal architecture of this spire that would then allow it to be cut in a manner that would best display it, and, also, allow it to be cut in a way that everybody would get a piece of everything from the inside. So the park would have, you know, the conduit showing so that we can see it, display it, examine it, but that also Wisconsin and USGS would have a piece of all the different components of the inside for their various strategies.
Some of the other materials that have been found on the lake bottom have been composed of diatoms. And so, I mean this is silica. Is it essentially a massive community of diatoms that attached themselves to this part of the discharge so that they had all the silica in the world that they, that they would need to, to grow a colony or community? Then they’re just cemented together with inorganic silica or, or is it primarily inorganic silica that some dead diatoms happened to fall into and get stuck.
We’re still working right know on exactly how to store it. This thing has been kept moist and has been kept in a refrigerator and that’s gonna be a problem for permanent storage.
Male voice: So do you think if it would dry out it would get brittle and crack?
Paul Doss: It does, it does get, get um, I don’t know if it’ll break in half but it sloughs off and its very, I mean even now just touching little pieces of the rind are coming off and that appears to be enhanced when it’s dry. But, everybody involved wants it to be an educational tool. It should be. That’s the role of the part that the park received, the other parts will be destructive sampling. It was designed that way.
Male voice: Can you flip it over so we can see the other side?
Paul Doss: I don’t want to flip it over, but I’ll pick it up. It’s surprisingly light. It’s not really heavy at all.
Female voice: I’ll let you see the other side. It’s really neat.
Female voice: Thanks.
Female voice: Wow, that’s so cool.
Female voice: Hey Paul, I’m gonna get my camera real quick.
Male voice: We’ll have to do some digital editing and take the fingers out of there.
Paul Doss: I want my fingers in it. (laughing)
Attendees: Lots of comments and laughs.
Male voice: Are you getting some stills too, John?
Male voice: Our batteries are down.
Paul Doss: Is this Web stuff? You guys can come and see me. Yeah, that’s the point. So don’t worry about getting everything right now.
Male voice: Great, thanks Paul.
Paul Doss: They range is size from even smaller than this to, I know that one picture that, that we’ve been used a fair amount is like 7 meters for that one individual spire at Bridge Bay. And then there are spire-like forms that are upwards of 30 meters, 100 feet.
Female voice: What do you mean spire-like?
Paul Doss: Well, I mean, spire kind of conjures up…I mean, I’m the one that’s saying that. They’re not saying that. I’m saying spire-like in the sense that, spire conjures up a real particular image in the context of a chimney-like form with a conduit discharging the water right out of the top of it. And whether that exactly how some of these large features are formed (he shrugs).
Female voice: Yeah, are they more like that? (Making a rounded shape with her hands).
Paul Doss: Yeah, yeah, some of them are almost dome like, if you will.
Female voice: Uh huh.
Paul Doss: Obviously a lot of stories in here, texturally, geo-chemically, biotically, abiotically, all of those things. There’s probably a lot of information buried in here.
Male voice: Where was this cut at? What lab?
Paul Doss: It was cut, uh, I don’t know I don’t the exact name of the lab, but it was some commercial facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And it was in a hospital where it was CAT scanned, a medical facility.
Paul Doss: The process that led to the actual collection and removal of this was not a simple matter. It was some negotiations and agreements and signed agreements. A big part of that was the fact that this was not active and it was not in place. It was not in a growth position. It was over on its side, you know, on the lake bottom. How it, it could have been an earthquake that toppled it. Maybe a been a boat anchor, we don’t have any idea necessarily. We don’t know when it happened. Or it could have just had a weakened base that ultimately a big wave knocked over. So that was part of the logic behind justifying and allowing that sampling.
But it’s a beautiful piece. It’s a beautiful sample. I’m really glad that the park’s got it here, right now. And its gonna make a …. particularly when we find out the details of age, of geo-chemistry, of texture, I mean we’re gonna be able to highlight the feature and really talk about how these sub-lucustrine thermal features form. I think it’s going to be great. And ultimately, my understanding is that, we would hope to have a display at Fishing Bridge Museum. Another place, at least temporarily, that might be appropriate is Old Faithful when the new visitor center is up and running. It will highlight thermal features. But that’s the plan. I don’t think the plan is to bury this in an archive.
