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The most recent study of Yellowstone Lake revealed that the lake floor is a wilderness pockmarked by hundreds of fissures and hydrothermal vents. Gas bubbles out of deep cracks and eerie spires rise tens of feet above the lake floor. The spires are covered with algae, sponges, and other living aquatic organisms.

Analyses of one of the spires indicate that it is about 11,000 years old. Perhaps these spires are the remains of former hot springs. A CAT scan revealed numerous tiny soda straw-like channels within in which may once have been conduits for the flow of the thermal water.

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