River Chemistry in Yellowstone National Park

The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) was established as a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey and Yellowstone National Park to "To strengthen the long-term monitoring of volcanic and earthquake unrest in the Yellowstone National Park region". Yellowstone National Park is underlain by a voluminous magmatic system overlain by the most active hydrothermal system on Earth. Tracking changes in water and gas chemistry is of great importance because anomalous fluxes might signal one of the earliest warnings of volcanic unrest. Because of the tremendous number, chemical diversity, and large aerial coverage of Yellowstone's thermal features, it remains daunting to monitor individual features that might serve as proxies for anomalous activity in the hydrothermal system. Sampling rivers provides some advantages, because they integrate chemical fluxes over a very large area and therefore, river fluxes may reveal large-scale spatial patterns. The ongoing monitoring and analysis of river solute flux is a key component in the current monitoring program.