While most are ancient, some are still active. This topographical map (red denotes higher elevations blue is lower) reveals that many of the landslides are concentrated around the edges of the park. Laser-mapping of the Yellowstone area uncovered over 1,000 landslides (outlined in yellow), most within the national park.
The Yellowstone lidar data were collected as part of the 3D Elevation Program, an ongoing project spearheaded by the United States Geological Survey to map the entirety of the United States using lidar. Similar lidar observations have been used to pinpoint pre-Columbian settlements deep within the Amazon jungle ( SN: 5/25/22). “We’re able to see the surface of the ground as if there’s no vegetation,” says Kyra Bornong, a geoscientist at Idaho State University in Pocatello. Such “light detection and ranging,” or lidar, data reveal details that often remain hidden to the eye. By measuring the timing of pulses that hit the ground and reflected back toward the aircraft, researchers reconstructed the precise topography of the landscape.
Instead, the plane carried a downward-pointing laser that fired pulses of infrared light at the ground. But it wasn’t ferrying tourists eager for up close views of the park’s famous wolves or hydrothermal vents ( SN: 7/21/20, SN: 1/11/21). In 2020, a small aircraft flew a few hundred meters above the otherworldly landscape of Yellowstone. The millions of visitors that explore the park each year access Yellowstone through just a handful of entrance roads, one of which recently closed for months following intense flooding. Mapping Yellowstone’s landslides is important because they can cripple infrastructure like roadways and bridges.
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