Photos

Opalescent pool - Black sand basin – sunset lake – Yellowstone National Park

This is a picture of ‘Opalescent pool’ and ‘in progress’ petrifying wood.

Black obsidian (volcanic glass) sand gives this geyser basin its name. Orange, greens, and other colors in and around the hot spring come from thermophiles (heat-loving microorganism).

Black Sand Basin, an isolated group of the Upper Geyser Basin, was originally named the Emerald Group by A.C. Peale in 1878. But turn of the century tourists began calling it Black Sand Basin because of the small fragments of black obsidian sand which cover portions of the basin.

Black Sand Basin contains a small collection of jewel-like geysers, and colorful hot springs. Emerald Pool is the most colorful and famous of these springs. It is a deep emerald green fringed by an outer ring of yellow and orange. Another colorful pool is Opalescent Pool. This recently formed pool inundated a stand of lodgepole pine, creating a stand of white skeletons amidst a rainbow-colored pool. An unusual geyser formed on the bank of Iron Creek. Cliff Geyser formed a rim or wall-like ridge of sinter around its crater from which it erupts 30 to 40 feet high.
The famous Handkerchief Pool was once the drawing attraction to Black Sand Basin. Turn-of-the-century tourists dropped their handkerchiefs into this small spring. Convection currents then whisked their laundry away where it would reappear again at the surface, freshly laundered.

OPALESCENT POOL

Temperature 144°F Dimensions 28x55 feet. Depth 6 feet. Opalescent pool has a cooler temperature than other thermal features at Black Sand Basin. Early in its history Opalescent was a boiling spring, surrounded by smaller springs. In the early 1950s it was a small dry pool, then the run-off from Spouter Geyser flowed into it. The increased water flow flooded the surrounding area, killing the lodgepole pine. Since then silica has precipitated upon the dead tree trunks creating the white "bobby sock" trees. This silica, a non-crystalline compound, slowly impregnates the wood and over time, with the absence of oxygen, could eventually petrify the wood.