News By Lee Mathews Jul. 12, 2014 12:30 pm
Asphalt is pretty neat stuff. Heat it up, mix it, lay it down, pack it, and you’ve got a nice, smooth roadway for people to drive on. Heat it back up, and you’ve got the potential for both hilarity and enormous problems.
That’s exactly what Yellowstone National Park is contending with right now. Stretches of the Park’s paved roads are sweating, blistering, and melting. As bizarre and alarming as it might sound to tourists, according to park officials it’s all perfectly normal stuff.
Some of the melting is due to natural temperature fluctuations in the Yellowstone’s massive geothermal system. Heat in the ground is only part of the problem right now, however. There’s also been plenty of hot weather in Wyoming of late, so the pavement is getting thermally abused from both sides.
For the past ten years, the magma pocket that’s responsible for heating the water in Yellowstone has been swelling and causing the ground above it to steadily rise. By 2010, some spots had risen by nearly a foot. Though the rate has slowed somewhat, the ground continues inching upward.
The park has dealt with this kind of thing before, and the maintenance department is already on the case. They’re investigating different repair scenarios, but visitors are strongly cautioned against ignoring warnings and venturing into areas that have been affected.
Why? Yellowstone staff aren’t just worried that your sneakers will get stuck in melty blacktop. They’re also concerned because there’s a chance that you could step right through the ground and into boiling-hot water. Sticky asphalt? Boiling water hidden inches below solid-looking ground? I’ve heard of tourist traps, but this is ridiculous.
More...
That’s exactly what Yellowstone National Park is contending with right now. Stretches of the Park’s paved roads are sweating, blistering, and melting. As bizarre and alarming as it might sound to tourists, according to park officials it’s all perfectly normal stuff.
Some of the melting is due to natural temperature fluctuations in the Yellowstone’s massive geothermal system. Heat in the ground is only part of the problem right now, however. There’s also been plenty of hot weather in Wyoming of late, so the pavement is getting thermally abused from both sides.
For the past ten years, the magma pocket that’s responsible for heating the water in Yellowstone has been swelling and causing the ground above it to steadily rise. By 2010, some spots had risen by nearly a foot. Though the rate has slowed somewhat, the ground continues inching upward.
The park has dealt with this kind of thing before, and the maintenance department is already on the case. They’re investigating different repair scenarios, but visitors are strongly cautioned against ignoring warnings and venturing into areas that have been affected.
Why? Yellowstone staff aren’t just worried that your sneakers will get stuck in melty blacktop. They’re also concerned because there’s a chance that you could step right through the ground and into boiling-hot water. Sticky asphalt? Boiling water hidden inches below solid-looking ground? I’ve heard of tourist traps, but this is ridiculous.
More...
