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The Big Belch at Yellowstone

Garrison Keillor has written an entertaining piece (search Access World News—U.S. Newspapers for “Keillor” and “Yellowstone”) about the more than 250 earthquakes that have occurred in Yellowstone National Park during the past several days recommending that, if this is the Big One, the view would be safer from a distance—say, Paris.  Although Yellowstone is an active volcano with minor tremors a common occurrence, the recent cluster of larger earthquakes is uncommon. If the Big Belch occurs, something like a nuclear winter could impact a good portion of the U.S. including Iowa.

Anyway, the Government Publications collection is a good resource for information about Yellowstone including the wolf reintroduction program;  the bison-cattle war; forest recovery from wildfires and fire ecology (Gov. Pubs. I 29.2:Y 3/16); the history of Yellowstone (Gov. Pubs. I 29.9/5:150); river rafter’s guides (Gov. Pubs. I 53.7/2:Y 3/6); maps (many!);  and, of course, geosciences studies of the world’s greatest boiling-hot geyser collection.