Thermal Hot Spot Melts Yellowstone Road

The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 11, 2014 | Associated Press

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

CHEYENNE, Wyo.—The ever-changing thermal geology of Yellowstone National Park has created a hot spot that melted an asphalt road and closed access to popular geysers and other attractions at the height of tourist season, officials said Thursday.

As they examined possible fixes, park officials warned visitors not to hike into the affected area, where the danger of stepping through solid-looking soil into boiling-hot water was high.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The article goes on to say that the damage to the road is unusually severe.

[wastedyears]

I think... it’s gonna blow soon. I think the park is gonna blow.

[Texas Eagle]

As they examined possible fixes, park officials warned visitors not to hike into the affected area, where the danger of stepping through solid-looking soil into boiling-hot water was high.

Yeah. Nothing more reassuring than a bunch of bureaucrats who think they can overcome the effects of a super-volcano. Psssst. Hey guys. I know. Try raising the asphalt a few inches off the ground so it's not in direct contact with the source of the heat.

What's next? Trying to administer the health care system for 300 million people?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

If we don't stop Global Warming, ALL of our roads will soon look like this. It's the truth, I tell ya!!

Actual Yellowstone road image from July 12, 2014.

I'm glad we visited 3 years ago on my 60th birthday rather than this July.

Firehole Lake Drive is closed:

[Yogafist]

I was on that road when they closed it. Its a one way drive , and when we completed it, the entrance was blocked. Thinking back, there was a portion if the road next to some boiling springs that was in very bad shape. I heard people talking about the road melting at another stop in the park, but assumed it was poor construction, and the warm temperature.

[cripplecreek]

There were a couple of spots in my hometown where the tar bubbled out of the road. Apparently they caught the sun just right during the summer and got slicked with tar.

[mware]

I saw a segment about the roads on the news the other evening. They only mentioned the heat causing it, not were it was coming from.

Can-can festival going on at Shop Rite, need to stock up on the canned good again.

[ansel12]

It looks like the asphalt roads of my youth in Houston Texas, when we used to go barefooted, and crossing the road in summer was quite a feat of courage and pain endurance.

[GeronL]

Could be losing 4 GOP states if it goes boom

[Carriage Hill]

Heck, that’d be a darned good road here in PA.

[Farmer Dean]

No one in South or Central America will want to sneak into the country after that.

[Sacajaweau]

I’m trying to figure out why people really want to see this geyser??

[GeronL]

and that tar would stick to your feet, right?

I hated that

[Starstruck]

Yeah. Nothing more reassuring than a bunch of bureaucrats who think they can overcome the effects of a super-volcano.

Yeah. The EPA will probably make them put a safety relief valve on that thing.

[RedStateRocker]

*when* it goes boom.

It’s like where I live- on a fault in California- merely a “when” not an “if”.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The ONLY thing worse than that tar sticking to your bare feet was it sticking to your sneakers and you then tracked it across Mom’s sparkling clean kitchen floor. I remember poor old Mom breaking down in tears after that.

[Born to Conserve]

I think an eruption here would be the best political and cultureal move we, as a nation, could make.

[TigersEye]

She’s gonna blow, Cap’n!

[gorush]

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You should skip White Dome Geyser and head straight to the nearby famous Mushroom Pool: "The thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus, important because it produces an enzyme used in polymerase chain reaction laboratory procedures central to modern molecular biology, was first isolated from Mushroom Pool, a non-eruptive hot spring a few hundred feet from White Dome Geyser."

You may ask "What in the world is Polymerase Chain Reaction?"

PCR is a technique of amplifying a single copy of DNA. Thousands and millions of copies of DNA can be produced through this technique having particular sequences. Many primers, enzymes and other conditions are involved in this process. It is often used in DNA fingerprinting, DNA profiling and other tests which are necessary. Its applications range from research to the commercial sector.

It has revolutionized medicine and forensics:

PCR has become an important tool for medical diagnosis. PCR can detect and identify bacteria and viruses that cause infections such as tuberculosis, chlamydia, viral meningitis, viral hepatitis, HIV, cytomegalovirus and many others. Once primers are designed for the DNA of a specific organism, using PCR to detect the presence or absence of a pathogen in a patient’s blood or tissues is a simple experiment.

PCR is also used in genetic testing, to determine whether patients carry a genetic mutation that could be passed on to their children (e.g. the mutation that causes cystic fibrosis) or to determine disease risk in patients themselves (e.g. a mutation in the gene BRCA1 predisposes a woman to breast or ovarian cancer). PCR is used to amplify the gene, which is then sequenced to look for mutations.

PCR is used in genome sequencing, including the Human Genome Project. Using random primers (not a specific sequence), the entire genome of an organism can be amplified in pieces. Once the pieces are amplified, they must be sequenced and then put back together to determine the genome sequence

Now THAT is why you want to go see the geyser!