Adventure Quest

09/09/2025

Ever wonder who collects hats blown into Yellowstone hot springs, repairs damage to bacterial mats or thermal ground, and monitors the health of Yellowstone’s thermal features? Today's introduces you to the Yellowstone Geology Program!

https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/hydrothermal-hats-and-visitor-safety-walking-boots-yellowstone-national-park

When recreating or working in Yellowstone National Park, it’s not uncommon to stumble across a team of National Park Service (NPS) geologists in distinctive red safety vests. These folks are part of Yellowstone’s Geology Program: a specially trained team dedicated to protecting, remediating, and studying Yellowstone’s incredible geology and hydrothermal features. No two weeks are the same for the Geology Program team. Let's walk through some of the responsibilities of this unique NPS working unit!

One of the Geology team’s most important tasks is hydrothermal area cleanup. Yellowstone’s picturesque landscapes are visited by over four million visitors each year. This immense amount of visitor traffic combines with the area’s intense winds to create a near-constant stream of trash and hats that blow into delicate hydrothermal areas. Nearly all of this litter is unintentional, although sunflower seed shells, orange peels, and other food materials discarded by the occasional visitor accumulate as well and are particularly time-consuming for the team to remove.

To reach this debris, which is often literally floating in boiling water, the Geology team uses a collection of tools: some off-the-shelf and others manufactured in-house using little more than creativity and elbow grease. From 2-foot to 12-foot and even 30-foot grabber poles, to fishing rods and extra-long slotted spoons, the team uses (or creates!) any device necessary to remove items safely. The Geology team, who represent a range of earth science backgrounds from geophysics to volcanology to science education and more, are trained to carefully traverse Yellowstone’s dangerous yet delicate hydrothermal areas, preventing damage to fragile bacteria mats and geologic formations while also keeping themselves safe.

Sticks and rocks need to be removed from thermal springs, too! Although these items are “natural,” it’s not a coincidence that hydrothermal features near boardwalks and trails accumulate more rocks and sticks than more remote features. Debris thrown into a hot spring can irreversibly change its behavior, resulting in lower temperature, changes to color, and altered (or halted altogether!) eruption behavior—this is what caused a change in the color of Morning Glory pool, for example.

So far in 2025, the Yellowstone Geology crew has collected more than 13,000 pieces of trash, 4,000 rocks and sticks, and over 300 hats (estimated to be worth upwards of $6,000!) from hydrothermal areas. In doing so, they have covered over 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) of trails and boardwalks on foot and have driven more than 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) to reach the various thermal areas throughout Yellowstone National Park!

With so much time spent collecting debris, it’s only natural to find some bizarre items. Favorite finds from the team during the summer of 2025 include a Birkenstock sandal, a pizza box with slices still inside, a fake Louis Vuitton bucket hat, a stuffed koala toy, a ball cap with the phrase “I P*E IN THE LAKE,” and a Polaroid picture of Excelsior Geyser—which was found within Excelsior Geyser’s crater!

In addition to hydrothermal trash collection, the Geology team also conducts a lot of science! The staff use water quality instruments and a network of more than 100 temperature sensors to measure chemical composition and the eruptive activity of features across the park—information that is used by the park’s interpretive staff to help predict geyser behavior. Even more monitoring is done in collaboration with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), with Geology team members helping YVO partners install and maintain instruments that measure seismic activity, weather patterns, hydrothermal features, and more.

But that’s not all! The crew also spends time installing hazard signage, remediating footprints and graffiti, supervising maintenance work in hydrothermal areas, assessing geologic damage or hazards in collaboration with law enforcement investigations, and examining scientific records and resources to answer questions from other park departments.

The Geology team educates the public, too! They frequently stop to chat with curious visitors along boardwalks and trails, teach Junior Rangers about hot springs, and explain scientific concepts to tour groups—all important ways to help the public understand more about Yellowstone’s unique landscape.

You can help protect Yellowstone as well! When you visit the park, hold on tight to your hats, stay on marked boardwalks and trails, and make sure all your trash (even the food!) ends up in a trash can.

(Photo: Just some of the hats collected by the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program from sensitive thermal areas throughout the park in 2025. National Park Service photo by Margery Price, September 3, 2025.)

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Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Margery Price, Physical Science Technician with the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program.

09/08/2025

Starting a new job at the Forebay Aquatic Center, expanding in Adventure Quest in some ways. We went for the Moonlit Paddle last night and I’ll be leading Salmon Tours on the Feather River. The Moonlit Paddle was loads of fun! Highly recommend it! Thanks to April Mangino for going and taking pictures and making this post!

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09/08/2025

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The ultra-rare Wondiwoi tree kangaroo has reappeared after vanishing for nearly a century.

This elusive animal was last seen by scientists in 1928, when German zoologist Ernst Mayr collected a single specimen from the Wondiwoi Mountains in New Guinea. For the next 90 years, it vanished into legend. Many believed it had gone extinct.

But in 2018, deep in the misty mountains of Papua, British naturalist Michael Smith captured the first-ever photographs of a living Wondiwoi tree kangaroo. With its golden fur, black nose, and long tail, the animal looks almost like a cross between a teddy bear and a wallaby – and it lives high in the rainforest canopy, rarely seen by humans.

Tree kangaroos are unusual marsupials. Unlike their ground-dwelling cousins, they have evolved strong forelimbs and long tails to balance in the treetops. The Wondiwoi species is considered one of the rarest, found only in a remote corner of New Guinea, and its rediscovery is thrilling news for conservationists.

The sighting doesn’t mean the species is safe – logging and habitat loss still threaten its survival. But the fact that this animal has endured for so long, unseen and unknown, gives hope that even in the 21st century, the natural world still holds secrets waiting to be rediscovered.

Learn more
“Elusive Tree Kangaroo Spotted for First Time in 90 Years.” Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Sept. 2018.

09/03/2025

08/20/2025

Adventure Quest has many fascinating and engaging classroom presentations for Nature Education available. Schedule your classroom for a presentation today!

Bats, arachnids, butterflies, adaptations, nature’s creepiest, skulls and skins, and more!

08/18/2025

A slide from our presentation, Amazing Arachnids! One of many classroom presentations available for nature education!

08/10/2025

08/09/2025

What if a raptor as big as a car once prowled the ancient floodplains of South Dakota

Meet Dakotaraptor steini, one of the most fearsome predators of the Late Cretaceous. Living around 66 million years ago in what is now North America, this massive feathered dinosaur roamed the Hell Creek Formation just before the extinction event that ended the age of the dinosaurs. At up to six metres long and weighing around 300 to 350 kilograms, Dakotaraptor wasn’t just big, it was powerful, agile, and terrifyingly fast.

This raptor had long legs built for running, a stiff tail for balance, and enormous sickle-shaped claws on its feet, measuring up to 24 centimetres. These claws weren’t just for show. They were hunting tools, perfect for slashing, gripping, and taking down prey. The creature’s bones show quill k***s, a feature that confirms the presence of large feathers. While it couldn't fly, these feathers may have helped with maneuvering during high-speed chases or added balance while grappling prey.

Unlike the smaller Velociraptor made famous by movies, Dakotaraptor was much larger and possibly smarter. Some fossil finds suggest it may have moved in small groups, although whether it hunted cooperatively remains a topic of debate. It likely preyed on smaller dinosaurs, juvenile hadrosaurs, and perhaps even scavenged kills made by larger predators like Tyrannosaurus rex.

Its sleek build, strong muscles, and aerodynamic form made it one of the top predators of its environment. With hollow bones that kept it light on its feet, and sharp, curved claws built for combat, Dakotaraptor was the perfect blend of speed, strength, and stealth.

Strange fact: Despite being one of the largest raptors ever discovered, Dakotaraptor's claw was nearly a third the length of its thigh bone, a proportion unmatched in any other dromaeosaurid, making its foot a weapon of almost surgical precision.

Follow The PreHistoric World to uncover more untold stories from Earth’s ancient past. Share this post with someone who still thinks raptors were only the size of turkeys.

08/09/2025

What if Earth has been carrying the remains of another planet deep inside it for over 4.5 billion years?

Beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean lie two massive, mysterious structures embedded near the Earth’s core. These colossal formations, known as large low shear velocity provinces, are unlike anything else inside our planet. They are hotter, denser, and larger than entire continents. And now, scientists believe they might be fragments of an ancient world that once collided with Earth.

This theory leads us back to the birth of the Moon. Around 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized planetary body named Theia slammed into the early Earth. The force of the impact was so powerful that it likely vaporised both planets' crusts, sending debris into space that eventually formed our Moon. But not all of Theia may have escaped. Some of it may have sunk into Earth’s mantle, becoming these gigantic deep-Earth blobs that still remain hidden today.

One of these structures beneath Africa stretches thousands of kilometres across and reaches nearly 800 kilometres tall. That’s taller than 90 Mount Everests stacked on top of each other. What makes it even more fascinating is that it affects how seismic waves travel through Earth during earthquakes. That means it is still interacting with Earth’s interior after billions of years.

If this theory is correct, then these structures are not just part of Earth's geology. They are part of another world. A world that no longer exists, except buried within our own.

This discovery challenges how we see our planet. Earth’s inner layers may hold the history of a long-lost planet that merged with us during the violent early days of the solar system. It turns out, our planet’s story is not just about what happened on the surface, but also what it swallowed long ago.

Here’s a strange but true fact to leave you with Some scientists believe these buried alien remnants may have played a role in major volcanic hotspots, including the one beneath Yellowstone.

Follow PreHistoric World for more ancient discoveries that shape the way we see Earth’s past. If this story shook your view of our planet, don’t forget to share.

07/30/2025

🔥 This is the TRILOBITE BEETLE — a bug that looks straight out of prehistory!

Its armored body looks more like a fossil than a living insect.
And here’s the weird part: only the females look like this!

✨ Fun Fact: Males are tiny, can fly, and look completely different — for years, scientists didn’t even realize they were the same species!

📸: unknown

04/30/2025

04/12/2025

When in 1995 fourteen wolves were released into the wild in Yellowstone National Park, scientists did not suspect that this would radically change the entire ecosystem of the park.
There were no wolves in the park for 70 years, and all this time deer reigned there, which over the years of uncontrolled reproduction (all the efforts of people to control their population did not bring success) caused severe damage to the local flora. Fourteen wolves, of course, could not eat all the deer, but they forced those to be more careful in choosing places for pastures and to avoid certain parts of the park. In those places, vegetation began to revive. In six years, the number of trees has increased fivefold. Beavers have appeared, which need trees to build dams. Muskrats, ducks and fish have been bred in the backwaters. Wolves reduced the population of jackals, which led to an increase in the number of hares and mice, and they attracted hawks, ferrets and foxes to the park. The bears came to the park because they were able to drive the wolves away from their prey or eat up their scraps. The number of berries has increased in the park.
But the most amazing thing is that the wolves have changed the flow of rivers. Their channels straightened and stabilized, and coastal erosion decreased. This happened because the influence of wolves on deer led to the explosive growth of trees and grass along the banks of the rivers, which led to their strengthening. The very geography of the park has changed, and all thanks to the fourteen wolves released there less than twenty years ago