06x04 - Montana/Yellowstone

[bunniefuu]

It's GPS time on Dragonfly TV.

Today, we're blowing off some steam,

digging up 75 million-year-old dino

babies, and just having one doggone good

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The National Science Foundation. Where

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Number one, you might learn something to

tell someone It's

Dragonfly TV, Dragonfly

TV

I'm Eric. The old Dragonfly GPS is

going West. We're at 44 degrees

north. 111 degrees West.

Can you guess where we are?It's someplace

where there are over 3000 earthquakes

every year. It's also home to over

half of all the earth's hot springs and

geysers. And this place is so big. We're

not just in one state, but we're in three

states. Today we're in Idaho. But

wait, we're also in Montana and

Wyoming. You got it.

Welcome to Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park is over



very first National Park in the world.

But there aren't any yellow rocks around

here. So why is it called Yellowstone?

Well, it's named after the Yellowstone

River, which starts right in the park.

Today we're exploring all of Yellowstone.

This is one huge place. It covers nearly



It's also home to plenty of wildlife. If

you're lucky, you'll catch a glimpse of

some Gray wolves or a grizzly bear. But

you won't miss elk, bison or deer,

because they are everywhere.

Oh, give me a home where the

Buffalo roam.



National Park every year. They come to

see the geyser action. Whoa,



geyser around here.

Later on in the show, we'll be heading

north to Montana to hunt for dinosaur

fossils. But first, we're moseying on

over to the Canyon Visitor Center in

Yellowstone. Let's meet up with Phoebe

and Shannon, our true Yellowstone

explorers.

Hi, I'm Phoebe. And I'm Shannon. And we

love exploring Yellowstone National Park.

Nice day for a walk in the

park Buffalo Soldier.

Who did that?There are so many cool

things to see. The waterfalls, the

wildlife, the lakes, the

canyon, and the geysers.

I like that picture. That's a great one.

That's a good one. I think you took that

one. I really like that picture of the

bison. Good thing you didn't get too

close. Yeah, bison can be really

dangerous. I wouldn't want to get,

like, samples.

Oh, there's Mammoth Hawks Grain. My guy's

book says that Mammoth Hawks' is a

thermal basin. A what?A thermal

basin. What's that?

It's a place where there's lots of

geysers in Hot Springs. Look, there's

that geyser that we saw at Upper Geysers

Basin. Oh, I love that. And then there's

that terrace at Mammoth. I love that too.

That was my favorite. Yeah. But wait, we

don't have any pictures of geysers at

Mammoth Hot Springs. There's a bunch at

Upper Geysers Basin. There's none at

Mammoth. Why aren't there at Mammoth?

That's a good question. Maybe we should

find that out. Yeah.

Those photos got us a thinking. Why

doesn't every thermal basin have a geyser?

We're going in the Canyon Visitor Center

to check it out. The Canyon Visitor

Center has a lot of great information

about Yellowstone National Park and what

makes up all its cool features. We found

out that Yellowstone sits in a really big

hot spot. The hot spot is made-up of

magma rising from deep inside the earth,

which heats up the water in the ground,

creating all the cool thermal features in

the park. Geysers, hot springs,

fumaroles, and mud pots. What?

What did you use mud for?

We learned that geysers are thermal

features that have narrow spaces in their

plumbing. Steam forces water through

those places and boom, a geyser erupts.

We looked at other exhibits to explain

why we only saw geysers in some parts of

the park. Look, there's tiny bubbles in

here, Shan. It's all a different type of

rock. This rock is hard. With my

head full of words, I made this little

list. Now I can sound just like a

geologist. With all the different kinds

of rocks in Yellowstone, we should go

under the park and check it out. We

talked to the rangers at the visitor

center, and they had some tools that will

help us with our investigation. Come on,

Bubba, let's

go. The Earth is alive. Yellowstone is

the most active geothermal place on the

planet. There are 12,000 thermal features

here. The ground boils and belches

with a science secret so hot it might

explode.

What secret lies below Yellowstone?

Think about it, and we'll see if you're

right later on. Right now, it's back to

our junior Rangers who are on the verge

of figuring out how to find geysers.

We headed back to Mammoth Hot Springs to

start our investigation. We'll look at

two factors. What?First, we'll get the

water temperature at several locations,

since you need hot water for a geyser.

Second, we'll look for differences in the

rock. Then we can check out Upper Geyser

Basin. That's where a faithful is.

There's some things in this Junior Ranger

kit we can use to help us out. We'll use

an infrared thermometer to figure out the

temperature of the water, a magnifying

glass to get really, really up close and

personal with the rocks. Let's go figure

out what's up with these springs.

Temperature 198107.

We took water temperature

readings at lots of different hot spots

at Mammoth Hot Springs. It

looks hot. It looks by the steam and

everything. 127

hundred 11111 seems

all our temperatures are between 80 and



Wow, look at this whole area. The rock is

like grey. Yeah, there's a little bit of

white to it. Next we tried to

identify the rocks we found near the

springs. This is travertine, right?Yeah,

I think so. Look how many holes are in

this. It looks like a sponge. Exactly

like a sponge almost. Look at how

breakable it is. Wow. It's like

chalk. Yeah. Oh, come on, everybody.

Get in the van and get buckled up.

Shotgun. On the road again. Then it was

time for us to go back to Upper Geyser

Basin, where there were lots of geysers,

to do the same test. Zoom, zip, and I

wake up.



Wow. 170. 170?Oh, my

goodness. I like this one. I like this

one a lot. Look how deep it is.

That is really cool. Look how blue it is.





much hotter than the water that was in

Mam Hot Springs. Gotcha. One, two,

three, go. Look at this, Shannon. That's

really pretty. I like that a lot. I like

how there's tunnels and caves in it.

What's even cooler is that these are

actually trees. Oh, that's amazing. It's

just like the rock has grown over the

tree. You'd think it'd be the tree that's

grown over the rock. Oh, that's so cool.

Not if you're a tree. What do you notice

about the rock, Shannon?It's still, like,

white and gray, but it doesn't look as

breakable. Yeah, it looks more-- it looks

a lot stronger. Then we studied the rocks

again. It looks smoother, too. Yeah, it

does. Not as porous. It's hard

as a rock. Duh

Finally, we wanted to get the temperature

of a geyser as it was going off. But with

geysers, sometimes you have to wait a

while for the pressure to build up.

And wait. And

wait. We're trying to measure the

temperature of an Ant at the moment. It's

going. Whoa, this

is so cool. I like how it comes out like

diagonally sort of like... Yeah. Look at

all the steam, too. 114. It's

the last one. 99. And it's like raining.

Okay, team, let's go!

First, we calculated the average water

temperatures for our two locations.

Then we wrote them on a table to compare

them.

The average water temperature of Upper

Geyser Basin was 171 degrees, a lot

hotter than Mammoth Hot Springs. It made

sense that hotter water would make more

geysers, but the rocks were different

too. The rocks at Upper Geyser Basin,

they were super hard and wouldn't break

at all. And it was really smooth. It must

have the steam pressure build up. The

rock at Mammoth Hot Springs was really

porous. You remember how crumbly it was

in our hand?Any kind of pressure would

break it. I don't think any water

pressure could build up with it being

porous. Hey, wait a minute. Crumbly,

porous rock means no steam pressure. No

wonder there are no geysers at Mammoth

Hot Springs. So the rock makes all the

difference in the world. Great. We've got

the answer. Dude. Yeah.

YeahWow. There are



Wow. 12,000?We could check out the

fumaroles, the mud paws. What are we

waiting for?Let's go.

The steam coming out of Old Faithful is



steamy. What steamy secret lies below

Yellowstone?That's our science secret.

And you've only got a few minutes left to

shout out the answer, because it's time

to meet John, this week's sci star.

Let's go. We're

going to go find bear poop today. You

can't dance with poop in your ponds.

You can't dance with poop in your ponds.

My name is Amy Hurt. I'm John Beckman.

I'm a biologist and a dog handler. And

I'm a wildlife biologist. My dog's name

is Wicked. She's trained to find black

bear, grizzly bear, wolf, and mountain

lion poop.

In the field, she's supposed to go out

with myself and an orienteer.

And she's not using her eyes. She's using

her nose to look for scab. When she

finds it, she sits and looks at me, and

then the person working with us can pick

up the poop. What

we're going to do with the. data is to

try to figure out if carnivores are using

this area between Yellowstone and central

Idaho. I trained

Wicket. I started with boxes with holes

in the top, and we put one of the kinds

of poop that we want her to find in the

box. And I asked her to sniff that box,

and as soon as she does, the toy that I'm

holding flies out of nowhere, and she

gets to play with it. And we do that

enough time so that she learns that that

smell means her toy. When I was very

young, I wanted to be a cheerleader. I

wanted to be an Air Force pilot. I

remember telling my 10th grade biology

teacher that I will never need this

stuff. I started being in science clubs

clear back in third grade. I was wrong,

and I did need biology. The best part of

my job is being outside and getting to

see all the animals in the field.

We download the data off the GPS onto the

computer so we can identify exactly where

we want. The blue is where we walked, and

the red is where Wickett the dog walked.

The yellow triangles here represent where

we found poop. When we come back

to camp and work the samples, we put them

in an alcohol solution and then send them

off to the lab. And they can tell us

which kind of bear it came from and which

individual bear it came from. The data

actually helps us model

exactly the important areas. It's an

area that we would call a corridor, which

is a potentialarea for carnivores

between Yellowstone and central Idaho. We

think of carnivores as an umbrella. If we

protect them, then we protect all the

other species in the ecosystem.

Did you know that a dog's sense of smell

is a thousand times stronger than ours?

That's why John's project works. Why

don't you sniff out how this do-it works?

Create a rainbow using surface tension.

You'll need whole milk, a shallow dish,

food coloring, dish soap, and

a cotton swab. Pour just enough milk

to cover the bottom of the dish. Put one

drop of each of the colors in the center

of the dish. Dip the swab into the dish

soap and then into the milk where the

colors are. Watch the colors spread,

swirl, and mix. What happens if

you try using skim melt?

Want to do it but missed it?No worries.

Our website has all the info and a whole

lot more. Surf on

over to the Dragonfly TV website at

pbskidsgo.org. Stream a

cool DFTV video, play an awesome

game, or try a surprising do it. And

don't forget to tell us what you're doing

with science. We want to hear from you.

Bears love to eat huckleberries. It's one

of their key food sources. But it's not

just bears who love them.

Huckleberry ice cream is a park favorite.

Speaking of bears, check out how these

guys are helping the wildlife in Montana.

We're in the

Montana Outdoor Science School.

In the Montana Outdoor Science School,

you get to learn a lot of stuff while

having fun at the same time.

Today, we're tracking wildlife with

infrared cameras. If they pass through

the trees, then it takes a picture.

Exactly. We're also looking for signs

that animals have been here. Looks like

some sort of bone. Is that Claw Marx

right there?This sensor tracked



lot of activity. See, this is the elks

getting us the moose. It's important to

know how many animals traveled through

this area because we're so close to the

interstate. And trains.

We hope our research helps people come up

with ways to make this area safer for

animals. What are some options to

build a bridge over bridge over?

Absolutely, an overpass. There's animal

sensors that when they sense movement,

then they send off lights. Exactly. The

motion sensors go off. It sends out

flashing signals to warn motorists to

slow down. You can

enjoy the outdoors and learn about the

animals and other wildlife.

We're heading north to Montana. Which is

totally fossiliferous. That means there's

a lot of fossils here. Montana even has a

state dinosaur, the Maiasaura. In

fact, more information about Cretaceous

dinosaurs has been discovered in Montana

than anywhere else in the world. Ellen

and Nicole are taking the ultimate fossil

hunting trip right now.

Hi, I'm Nicole. And I'm Ellen. And we

love dinosaurs.

Let's begin. I love fossil hunting. I

wanted to be a paleontologist ever since

I can remember. Ellen and I are really

lucky to be able to study dinosaur

fossils in our own home state. Molly

from the Museum of the Rockies is coming

with us on our trip. Can we go now?Can we

go now?Yeah, let's

go. Montana's a big

state, and if you want to find the best

fossils,You got to drive.

Wow, look what Molly let me. Wow, that's

a really cool fossil. I know. It's

amazing how much it looks like a rock.

Yeah, but in a way, fossils are rocks,

because a fossil is a bone that was

turned into a rock. We're headed to the

Egg Mountain dig site in Chila, Montana.

Egg Mountain is a place where a famous

paleontologist named Dr. Jack Horner

discovered a new species of the

duck-billed dinosaur. The Maiasaura.

This place is called Egg Mountain for a

reason. There have been lots of

fossilized dino eggs found there, and

many of these eggs have been dug up.

What I really like about dinosaurs is

that they're from millions of years ago,

but we still have their bones today and

we can look at them. You can discover

something that no one else has

discovered. It's really fun to, like,

uncover something that you. just been

digging around for, and when you find it,

you feel so happy. Oh,

wow! Look at this! This is cool! Come on,

let's go! Egg Mountain isn't open to the

public, but the Museum of the Rockies

gave us permission to hunt for fossils.

We drove all the way. Once we got to the

dig site, Ellen and I set some ground

rules for finding fossils. We can hunt

for fossils right over here. And we're

going to look on the ground, and we're

going to look for darker rocks. We

learned that when you're searching for

fossils at Egg Mountain, you look for

dark objects. The fossils here are

usually darker than the regular rocks.

Yeah, I think it's the wrong color. Oh,

yeah. Rocks and fossils look so much

alike. They must have done something

here. There are all these red flags.

Yeah. Since we were at a research site,

where paleontologists have found a lot of

fossils over the years, we saw several

places where they have dug up dino bones.

Whoa. Oh, my gosh. That is so cool. Is

that a fossil?I think so. It must be a

bone. Oh, my gosh. Look at the tooth. I'm

digging up bones. I'm

digging up bones.

Hey, I wonder what this is. Well, Molly

told us they were digging up some nests

around here. Look at all these black

pieces. Whoa. Finally, we saw what Egg

Mountain is famous for-- traces of a

dinosaur nest and pieces of dinosaur

eggs. Whoa, look at all these. Wow,

they're everywhere.

Oh, my gosh. Nikki, come here. Look at

this. What?Look, look, lookThat's

gigantic. I bet it's a dinosaur, right?

Yeah, probably. Yeah, that's what they

dig up around here. It's hard to miss

this big box. The paleontologists built

it to protect some big fossils that they

are still removing from the rock. I

really want to measure the length of

this. We might want to find out more

about it later. Longest point to longest

point, right?RightOK, go.

It's 92 centimeters. Hey, I'm going to

record that. I wonder how old this

dinosaur was. Oh, about 75 million years

old. No. You know, was this from a baby

or an adult?Because this isn't a baby

bone, is it?They found a lot of young

Dinos here, but this looks pretty big,

even for a Dino baby.

So Santa's place is filled with Dino

youngsters. Ellen and I wanted to know,

was this Dino younger or older when it

died?And we knew just where to go to

figure it out. The Museum of the Rockies.

It has a world famous collection of

fossils, including a bunch of Maiasaura

bones. We are the dinosaurs. What do you

think of that?The museum has

lots of different dinosaur bones from

lots of different eras. We had to be

sure to look in the right time and place

for the Maiasaura bones.

Oh, hey, remember we thought we saw a

nested egg mountain?Yeah, yes, this is

what one actually looks like.

Aye, look, it's a Maiasaura. Hey, cool.

I can see why they call it Duck-billed

Dino. Hey, look, a Maiasaur femur. The

museum put out a cart with a bunch of

plastic casts of Maiasaura and other

dinosaur bones. Wow, this is much

smaller than the one we found at Egg

Mountain. Right. But I still

don't get if this is old or young. I

think we need to compare these to some

other bones, bones where scientists know

whether the dinos were babies or adults.

I know they have some of those bones

here. Let's go find them. OK.

Hey, look, these bones are labeled

embryo, small nestling, adult. I

wonder how the scientists knew that.

Scientists can compare the sizes of the

bones they find in the field and figure

out if they came from a baby, adult, or

somewhere in between. Let's use some

clues to figure out some info about our

bones. Let's measure the bone we found on

the cart first. OK. With the permission

of the museum, we were able to get up

close and personal with these Maiasaur

bones. 8 centimeters. They were found at

Egg Mountain, too. 48 centimeters. Once

we get the info on the museum bones, we

can compare the measurements of our bones

to the bones in the museum and come up

with an approximate time of life for our

bones. What bone

graph do you want to make?I don't know.

We should do a bar graph. A bar graph?Oh,

that's a good idea. Hey, we can do bones

and stuff. Oh, just bars. The

smallest bone, the bone from the embryo,

was only 8 centimeters long. The small

nestling bone was only 11 centimeters,

and the large nestling was 21

centimeters. But the juvenile bone was 38

centimeters. But on the adult bone, it

went all the way up to 103 centimeters

long. Wow, that's a big jump.

So the bone we found on the cart was 13

centimeters long. That's closest to the

small nestling, which was 11 centimeters.

The bone we found in the field. is 92

centimeters long, and it fits between the

sub-adult and the adult. Yeah, but it's

closer to an adult, so I think the Dino

from Egg Mountain was an adult when she

died. But how old is an adult?Is it



live anyways?I don't know. Let's go

inside and see if we can find some clues.

Okay.

Wow. It looks like paleontologists are

trying to figure out exactly how old the

dinosaurs were when they died by looking

at cross-sections from their bones under

a microscope. Paleontologists use growth

rings to learn about the age of

dinosaurs, sort of like counting tree

rings. So far, scientists estimate

that adult Maiasaurus only live around 30

years. But there's still a lot of

research to be done. That answers our

question. The bone we saw at Egg Mountain

was from a dinosaur that was about 20

years old when it died. Hey, those bone

slides were really cool. Yeah, they were.

I wonder how old Big Mike was when he

died. I don't know, but I'd sure love to

find out. Sounds like another

investigation to me. Here it goes, here

it goes Here it

goes, girl Oh, here it goes, girl I

should've known Should've known Should've

known it girl One of the characters in

JurassicPark is based on a real Museum of

the Rockies scientist who discovered the

dino eggs in Montana. Even

cooler, the Museum of the Rockies has the

world's biggest T-Rex skull.

Montana is fossil central.

Have you figured out what lies below

Yellowstone?I've got the answer--

an active volcano.

The Earth is alive in Yellowstone.

Selching, breathing, boiling.

Hi, I'm Bob Furman, an educator here in

Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone

National Park was created by three major

volcanic eruptions. The three volcanic

eruptions that occurred here are some of

the largest known on the planet, the most

recent being about 640,000 years ago. It

created the basin or caldera that we

stand in today. It is huge, 30 by



Ridge that we see in the background here,

which is the edge of the volcano.

Magma is is molten rock or lava

underground. When you're traveling or

hiking or camping in Yellowstone National

Park, the magma is only about 3 miles

below the surface of the earth here,

compared to about 50 miles in other

places. There's still evidence of a

volcano here in Yellowstone. Those

include the geysers, the hot springs, the

mud pots, and the fumaroles or steam

vents. Some people are concerned about a

next volcanic eruption, but it won't be

for another thousand, if not millions of

years before a next eruption. Until then,

come and enjoy Yellowstone's unique

beauty.

Yellowstone is full of science secrets.

Do you know what makes Yellowstone's

thermal pools so colorful?They're alive.

Tiny organisms called thermophiles cause

the color. No kidding.

Wow. If we can figure out what's going on

below us. We might have clues to how the

Earth was created, and then we might be

able to figure out more about life on

other planets. It's all up to you.

Surf on over to the Dragonfly TV website

at pbskidsgo.org. Tell us

what you're exploring in science museums

where you live. We want to hear from you.

Want to watch Dragonfly TV again?You can

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Dragonfly TV GPS.

Pack your bags for next time on Dragonfly

TV GPS. There's a

lot to see out here in the wild, Wild

West, but it's time to ride on

until our next adventure. Happy Trails.

Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by the National

Science Foundation, supporting

education and research across all fields

of science and engineering. The

National Science Foundation, where

discoveries begin.

PBS has been inspiring new ideas and

creativity for generations of bright

young minds. Barbie's proud sponsor of

Dragonfly TV and PBS.