When a Tourist Fell Into Yellowstone’s Hot Spring It Became Clear Why Warning Signs Are Everywhere

Colin Nathaniel Scott slipped and fell into the acidic waters of the Norris Geyser Basin while walking with his sister.

PUBLISHED 3 HOURS AGO

A tourist walks in front of a steaming hot spring in Yellowstone National Park (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by imageBROKER | Mara Brandl)

When the park officials walked to the hot spring, they saw portions of a head, upper torso, and hands emerging from the blazing hot waters. They also noticed a V-neck-style shirt and what appeared to be a cross resting on a cheek. In that moment, they didn’t have any instruments to pull out the body, given that the waters were scalding and a fierce lightning storm was erupting in the skies. So they went away. When they returned the following day, the body had disappeared.

Norris Geyser Basin, hot spring in Yellowstone National Park (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Westend61)

The blistering waters had eaten up even the skeleton of Colin Nathaniel Scott, a 23-year-old man from Oregon, who had visited the Yellowstone National Park with his sister Sable. Nothing remained, except for billowing white smoke and an ominous pool of piping hot water gazing at the skies above with a merciless, unforgiving audacity, according to a report by The Guardian.

A man and a woman walking on the boardwalk of Norris Geyser Basin, hot spring in Yellowstone National Park (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Danny Lehman)

Scott and his sister were walking on a boardwalk at the Norris Geyser Basin, filming a video, when he tumbled down and fell overboard. According to the National Park Service, Norris is ill-reputed for its searing, acidic waters that leave nothing unscathed once they enter its mouth. Just 1,087 feet below the surface, the temperature recorded has been as high as 459 degrees Fahrenheit or 237 degrees Celsius. To make matters worse, the Scotts were venturing into a prohibited section of the geyser. Recalling the episode to the outlet, Sable said, once he dropped into the waters, he “did not get out.”

Boardwalk running alongside Norris Geyser Basin, hot spring in Yellowstone National Park (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Moonstone Images)

In conversation with CNN affiliate KULR-TV, Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress revealed that the brother-sister pair were searching for a place to “hot pot,” which is basically an illegal practice people follow, by swimming or soaking in any of the park’s thermal or hydrothermal features. “They were specifically moving in that area for a place that they could potentially get into and soak,” Veress said, adding, “I think they call it hot potting.”

People on a boardwalk across the Porcelain Basin, in the Norris Geyser Basin (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by John Elk)

And although many of the park’s geysers and hot springs are harmless, some of them, like Norris, are better beheld from a distance. CNN describes that the geyser’s water is not only scorching hot, but also highly acidic. These waters are fed by the chain of volcanoes sitting underground. The stirrings in the magma chambers of these volcanoes constantly spew hydrogen sulfide, which, when dissolved in the water, turns into sulfuric acid. The chemistry of sulphuric acid makes it so sinister that it can gobble up anything from a paper to a human hand in a matter of nanoseconds. NIH says that when entered into a person’s body, it can puncture holes inside. No wonder Scott’s body disappeared in just half a day.

Norris Geyser Basin, hot spring in Yellowstone National Park (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | John Elk III)

"In some of Yellowstone's thermal areas, heat flow is over 100 watts per square meter, about 50 times that of Yellowstone's average and ~2000 times that of average North American terrain," the US Geological Survey explains. "This enormous heat flow is derived from the molten rock or magma in the crust beneath the caldera, which ultimately is generated by the Yellowstone Hot Spot, an anomalously hot region of the Earth's mantle hundreds of kilometers beneath the surface," it adds.

Steam vents in Yellowstone supervolcano (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | JimFeng)

The moment when he slipped and his body plunged into the spring’s pool was recorded in Sable's smartphone. However, due to the unavailability of cellphone service at the basin, she had to rush to a nearby museum for help. The video clips were withheld from release. To caution other visitors for the future, the park’s visitors shared with The Guardian that they can follow the warning signs that are dotted along the boardwalk. Their website also warns tourists to stay on boardwalks and avoid going too near the hot springs of thermal pools. “There’s a closure in place to keep people from doing that for their own safety and also to protect the resources because they are very fragile," Veress explained to KULR-8.

More on Green Matters

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