This panoramic photograph of the sun rising over Yellowstone Lake was created by moving the camera horizontally on its tripod to capture three different exposures on the same piece of film. An early-morning layer of fog rises slowly above the surface of the water on this early-October morning. Yellowstone Lake is a very young lake, geologically speaking, and was formed when the last major eruption in this region created a massive 40-mile wide caldera approximately 640,000 years ago. The lake occupies a small portion of the southeastern portion of this caldera. This enormous eruption spewed nearly 240 cubic miles of debris into the atmosphere. At 7,733' above sea level, Yellowstone lake is the largest high-elevation body of water in North America and reaches a maximum depth of 430 feet. The Yellowstone region is one of the most geologically-active areas on earth caused by a rare sub-continental hot spot of rising magma. Every 600,000 years or so, this bubbling mass of magma bursts to the surface to produce the most massive volcanic eruptions North America has ever witnessed. With Yellowstone currently at ground zero, this hot spot has blasted its way across the Snake River plain of southern Idaho as the North American Plate slides in a westward direction. Geologists estimate that it has taken 12 million years for this hot spot to carve its way from western Idaho to its present-day location under Yellowstone. This panoramic photograph was captured with a 6x17 panorama format camera. All photos in these fine art photo galleries may be ordered as fine art framed prints or for stock photography usage.