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Yellowstone National Park
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"A thousand Yellowstone wonders are calling, 'Look up and down and round about you!'" John Muir
Introduction
YELLOWSTONE National Park (黄石国家公园) was established in 1872. Located in northwestern Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho, the park is known for its spectacular geysers (间歇喷泉似的喷柱), hot springs (热泉), canyons (峡谷) and fossil forests.
Yellowstone was the world's first national park and it is the oldest, largest and probably best-known national park in the United States. Yellowstone covers an area of 898,329 hectares.
History
The first explorer to visit the Yellowstone area was John Colter in 1807. Artist Thomas Moran convinced the American public and the United States Government to preserve the area. President Ulysses Grant signed the bill creating the national park in 1872.
An earthquake in 1959 with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale caused major disturbances throughout the park and was one of the largest ever recorded in the North American interior.
In August and September 1988, a series of fires, fuelled by dry and windy summer weather, burned more than 35 per cent of the park.
Natural features
Located in the central Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone is a broad volcanic plateau surrounded by mountain ranges. The park has an average elevation of 2,300 m.
Among the mountain ranges that protrude into the park are the Gallatin Range on the northwest, the Absaroka Range on the east, the Snow Mountain along the park's southern boundary. The park is also surrounded by the Custer, Shoshone, Teton, Targhee, Beaverhead and Gallatin national forests.
The Yellowstone River, which is 1,110 km long, crosses the region from south to north, flowing into Yellowstone Lake and through the famous Grand Canyon (大峡谷) of the Yellowstone. Covering 33,900 hectares at 2,357 m above sea level, Yellowstone Lake is the highest and largest mountain lake in North America.
Another geologic feature of the park is Obsidian Cliff, a mountain of volcanic black glass and one of the largest deposits of obsidian (黑曜岩) in North America.
(Part I)(SD-Agencies)
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