Morning Glory Geyzer, Yellow Stone National Park

Much of Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a hot magma chamber which heats any water that leaks into it through fissures and raises it as steam. The water comes back out as springs, as in Mammoth Hot springs, which as it cools at the surface deposits whatever was dissolved in it, building the travertine terraces that appear in this photo. The bright colors in the photograph are not from the bland travertine, rather they are from the bacteria that make Yellowstone’s fiery landscapes their home.