A teenager hiking the Yellowstone trail burned his feet and ankles badly on Monday (July 28) after breaking a thin crust and landing in the waters of his scalp.
The incident took place in a thermal area near Lone Star Geiser. This is an old, faithful 12 feet (3.6 meters) high cone layer that gushes out jets of steam reaching 45 feet (14 m) high.
The ground is thin and easily breaks in this area, and in other areas it is easily breakable in other parts of Yellowstone, as hot water and steam are weaker from below. Thermal areas may seem easy to walk in, but many of them have thin crusts that hide dangerous pools of burns or mud.
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A Yellowstone National Park representative wrote in a Facebook post after emergency medical staff took the 17-year-old hiker to the hospital for further treatment. The first reported burn incident in Yellowstone this year is currently under investigation, they wrote.
A similar accident occurred in the past when a visitor left the designated path. The last incident before Monday was in September 2024 when a 60-year-old woman walking the trail near Mallard Lake Trailhead suffered second and third-degree burns on her left leg after breaking a thin crust on the ground.
Related: Finally know where the Yellowstone volcano will erupt next
“The promenades and trails protect visitors and delicate heat layers,” the representative wrote on Facebook. “Hot spring water can cause severe or fatal burns, and water underlies most of the thin, fragile crust around the hot spring.”
Not only does yellowstone water and steam reach boiling temperatures due to the underlying volcano, it can also become very acidic, according to the American Chemical Society (ACS).
This is because the water circulating under the national park dissolves and collects various volcanic-related materials, such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. Some microorganisms can convert these substances into other chemicals that change the pH of water. For example, hydrogen sulfide can be converted to sulfuric acid, which is highly corrosive.
“It’s important to be careful with warnings and stay on the Yellowstone trails because just looking at them won’t tell which pools are fatally hot,” ACS said.
From the late 1800s around 20 people have died from burns that suffered after deliberately entering or accidentally falling into a hot spring in Yellowstone.
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