120 A. HAGUE — THERMAL WATERS IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 



it may be said, and it is generally accepted by those who have studied the 

 region, that the mineral waters of Pfaeffers, in the Tyrol, have a vadose 

 origin, and analyses show that both these elements are present/ Both 

 these elements are found associated together in many thermal waters of 

 Europe. Not only is it true that, with these exceptions, all the elements 

 are accounted for in the rocks, but the proportion of the ingredients in 

 the waters bears a remarkable relation to that of the elements in the rhyo- 

 lite itself. Silica and the alkalies are the predominating elements. Even 

 lithia, which is a feature of many siliceous lavas, has been quantitatively 

 estimated in all these thermal waters. The water from Old Faithful 

 yielded .0056 of a gram per kilogram of water, which, according to the 

 theoretical composition, shows that lithium chloride forms 2.44 per cent 

 of the amount of material held in solution. The neighboring Giantess 

 Geyser carried precisely the same amount of lithium chloride. The low 

 percentage of iron, manganese, lime, and magnesia contained in the as- 

 cending waters is readily accounted for by the comparatively small quan- 

 tities of these elements in the glassy rhyolite through which these waters 

 pass. 



The circulating ascending waters may, to some extent, be charged by 

 foreign substances other than by superheated aqueous vapors. Neverthe- 

 less, in the park country the vadose ascending waters do not appear to 

 have been greatly affected by any primitive, deep-seated waters or their 

 contents. Even if foreign mineral matter were present it does not follow 

 that the material was not taken up originally by vadose waters. 



In Iceland geological conditions are apparently quite different, and 

 volcanic eruptions may be said, geologically speaking, to be still going 

 on, in strong contrast to the Yellowstone Park, where such action ceased 

 many thousand years ago. In Iceland the thermal waters are, in my 

 opinion, mainly vadose, and their heat derived from sources not far below 

 the surface.^ 



I agree with Dr. Eudolf Delkeskamp® that temperature, included gases, 

 and salinity in many localities are not in themselves conclusive evidence 

 of the source of thermal waters, and that far safer criteria for the deter- 

 mination of the primitive origin of waters are to be sought in uniformity 

 of flow and chemical composition. What I wish to emphasize, however, 

 is that the thermal waters of the Yellowstone National Park are charac- 



' M. De Launay : Annales des Mines, February, 1894. 



8 Since presenting this address I have received from Dr. Thorkell Thorkelsson, of 

 Copenhagen, a copy of a suggestive paper on "The hot springs of Iceland," vs^hlch con- 

 firms me in the opinion of the vadose origin of the Iceland thermal waters. Dr. Thor- 

 kell's paper appears as a recent publication forming one of the Memoires de I'Academie 

 Royale des Sciences et des Lettres de Danemark. Copenhague, 1910. 



» Juvenile und vadose quellen, Balneologlschen Zeltung, XVI, Jahrgang, No. 5, 1905. 



