Concept Introduction - The Yellowstone Caldera

Open the Yellowstone Caldera TIFF file and open the file in NIH Image. (Print these directions).

1. Click in the scale to fit window box located in the upper right-hand corner of the image.
2. Click on the line tool.
3. Place the "cross-hair" on the left hand end of the scale line which is located in the lower, right-hand corner of the image.
4. Press and hold the mouse button and drag the "cross-hair" to make a line which matches the length of the scale line.
5. Go to Analyze- options and toggle the "Perimeter/Length" option on. All other options should be toggled off.
6. Go to Analyze-set scale
   
1. The Measured Distance should be close to 86 pixels
2. Enter 16.129 in the "known distance" box (This number is found
   by dividing 1 mile by .62 kilometers and multiplying by the scale
   distance of 10 miles.)
3. Select Kilometers for the units.
4. You do not need to change any of the other menu options. (the magnification, pixel aspect ratio, and set scale are automatically calculated)
   
7. Go to Analyze-measure, then Analyze-show results. The number
   in the box is the length of the line in kilometers. (It should be close to 16.13.)
8. Now measure the length and width of the caldera. (The length of the caldera is approximately 64 km and the width is approximately 44 km) If you did not get a measurement close to this, try the procedure again. If you are not close this time, get assistance.
9. Go to File-print measurements.

Use NIH Image to open the Hot Spot Track stack of past Yellowstone caldera locations to:

1. Animate the stack Windows-animate (Found under Resources-"step by step")
2. Determine the speed of plate movement in cm/yr by measuring the distance between the calderas and dividing the distance by the difference in the years between the calderas. (Approximately 5 cm/year) This was determined by using the following procedure:
1. Click in the scale to fit window box located in the upper right-hand corner of the image.
2. Click on the line tool.
3. Place the "cross-hair" on the left hand end of the scale line which is located in the upper, right-hand corner of the image.
4. Press and hold the mouse button and drag the "cross-hair" to make a line which matches the length of the scale line.
5. Go to Analyze- options and toggle the "Perimeter/Length" option on. All other options should be toggled off.
6. Go to Analyze-set scale.
1. The Measured Distance should be close to 85.71 pixels.
2. Enter 161.29 in the "known distance" box (This number is found by dividing 1 mile by .62 kilometers and multiplying by the scale distance of 100 miles.)
3. Select Kilometers for the units.
4. You do not need to change any of the other menu options. (the magnification, pixel aspect ratio, and set scale are automatically calculated)
7. Go to Analyze-measure, then Analyze-show results. The number in the box is the length of the line in kilometers.
8. Go to File-print measurements. Now measure the distance from the front edge to the back edge of the caldera
9. Go to File-print measurements. Calculate the movement of the caldera (using the printout of your measurements) for that time period.
10. From the 12.5 to 10.3, the measurement is 211.36 km over 2,200,000 years. By division that is 0.000096 km per year, or 9.6 cm per year. (s = d/t)
11. Make a best "guess" as to the age of the caldera with "?" in it based on the distance between the calderas and the speed of the plate motion that you came up with. (Remember that crustal movement was greater then, when compared to more recent movement).
12. Using the speed that you obtained from step 7, predict where YNP caldera will be in 1 million years.
13. Predict when YNP caldera will be located near Lewistown, Montana (located at the geographic center of Montana)