The travertine terraces of Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs owe their existence to limestone.
Springs often exist in landscapes underlain with limestone, because this bedrock is typically laced with dissolved hollows that can shed groundwater where aquifer beds intersect the surface. The effects of this can be seen in places like Florida and the Yellowstone Plateau.
Permeation
Limestone dissolves in the face of acidic percolation formed from rainwater blending with atmospheric carbon dioxide and decomposing vegetation. Extensive fissuring in the limestone forms caverns, caves and tunnels. Therefore springwater often flows underground into subterranean aquifers via these limestone hollows. Florida is a limestone peninsula with many such springs.
Travertine Terraces
The volcanic landscapes of Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. Rocky Mountains include the magnificent formations of Mammoth Hot Springs --- an example of travertine terraces. There are more hydrothermal features in Yellowstone than anywhere else in the world, but the limestone-based springs at Mammoth are unusual; most Yellowstone hot springs have developed in silica-based layers.
Mammoth's Background
The travertine castellations at Mammoth also arise from spring water carbonic acid. Groundwater percolating downward in Yellowstone from abundant snowmelt and rain soon encounters the heat from the area's underlying magma; gases rich in carbon dioxide acidify the water, which ascends again toward the surface and eats away at the limestone beds. As the water emerges above ground in the hot springs, limestone residues solidify as travertine and creates the terraces.
Tags: carbon dioxide, Mammoth Springs
