Water Chemistry and Electrical Conductivity Database for Rivers in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Chloride flux has been used to estimate heat flow in volcanic environments since the method was developed in New Zealand by Ellis and Wilson (1955). The method can be applied effectively at Yellowstone, because nearly all of the water discharged from its thermal features enters one of four major rivers (the Madison, Yellowstone, Snake, and Falls Rivers) that drain the park, and thus integration of chloride fluxes from all these rivers provides a means to monitor the total heat flow from the entire Yellowstone volcanic system (Fournier and others, 1976; Fournier, 1979). Fournier (1989) summarized the results and longterm heat-flow trends from Yellowstone, and later efforts that applied the chloride inventory method to estimate heat flow were described by Ingebritsen and others (2001) and Friedman and Norton (2007). Most recently, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in conjunction with the National Park Service, has provided publicly accessible reports on solute flux, based on periodic sampling at selected locations (Hurwitz and others, 2007a, b). While these studies have provided a wealth of valuable data, winter travel restrictions and the great distances between sites present significant logistical challenges and have limited collection to a maximum of 28 samples per site annually.