National Park Service geologic type section inventory: Greater Yellowstone Inventory & Monitoring Network

Henderson, Tim; Santucci, Vincent; Connors, Tim; Tweet, Justin

doi:10.36967/nrr-2280034

The National Park Service preserves a diverse cross section of park areas and resources representing America’s natural and cultural heritage. The collective biotic and abiotic natural resources span from tiny microorganisms thriving in thermal pools to majestic landscapes with iconic and scenic views of mountain ranges, canyons, rivers, and forests. The animals, plants, water, air, rocks, night sky and other natural resources define a moment of time in the evolutionary history of North America, preserving a long record of change. These resources possess an array of human values which draw visitors to parks to discover, experience, study, learn, understand, enjoy, benefit, and for other purposes. A fundamental responsibility of the National Park Service is to ensure that these park resources are preserved, protected, and managed in consideration of the resources themselves and for the benefit and enjoyment by the public. Through the inventory, monitoring, and study of park resources, we gain a greater understanding of the scope, significance, distribution, and management issues associated with these resources and their use. This baseline of natural resource information is available to inform park managers, scientists, stakeholders, and the public about the conditions of these resources and the factors or activities which may threaten or influence their stability. Geologic resources, including the bedrock, are the foundation of the ecosystem. The rocks and geologic features greatly influence the occurrence and distribution of other abiotic and biotic resources. The development and use of geologic maps enable us to better understand the geologic events and processes that shaped both the landforms and lifeforms of a region. Geologic mapping is both a fundamental and an essential tool for geologists, resource specialists, and park managers. The availability of geologic maps for National Park Service areas was identified as one of the critical needs when an initial strategy for the inventory of natural resources in parks was established in the late 1990s. Hence, the development of digital geologic maps was one of the twelve natural resource inventory themes prioritized by the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program. Geologic maps are important tools which display the distribution of the different types of bedrock units, surficial deposits, and other mappable geologic features (faults, folds, etc.). Geologic maps are valuable geospatial representations of geologic material occurrences both on and beneath the surface. These maps are used to identify groundwater aquifers, mineral deposits, fossiliferous rock strata, and a wide variety of other types of information. Stratigraphic units such as formations are the fundamental components of a geologic map and are color-coded and keyed to help identify the distribution and occurrence of these units on a map.

National Park Service geologic type section inventory: Greater Yellowstone Inventory & Monitoring Network

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