黄石公园被认为是上地幔柱[1],和我们这个星球上有几十到数百,虽然有大量的辩论这个问题[2]。地幔柱是一个巨大的确切性质备受争议的研究领域,但通常被认为是大融化最初来自D”层(核心/地幔边界)。在公园,羽流理论是导致岩浆入侵表面由热液系统。入侵也可以考虑作为超级火山的岩浆房,有几个ultraplinean caldera-forming事件。黄石热点是唯一明显的表达下地幔柱的美国大陆,这可能是为什么你认为它“独特”。The other major plume / hotspot in the US is Hawaii. Yellowstone is certainly not the only major geothermal area in the world; geothermal areas in New Zealand, Italy, Japan and Antarctica are comparable in terms of heat flow. It's unclear what you mean by "thermal power" but Yellowstone park does not have any geothermal electric power generation plants. New Zealand, on the other hand, generates 13% of their national power needs geothermally. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle_plume [2]: http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/40/5/479.full