Human Foot Found Floating In Yellowstone Hot Spring

On Tuesday, August 16, 2022, a park employee found a foot in a shoe floating in Abyss Pool, located in the West Thumb Geyser Basin in the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. It is thought to have become disarticulated due to submerged decay.

According to a statement published on the park’s website, evidence suggests that an incident involving one person likely occurred on the morning of July 31. However, it is not clear whether the person became incapacitated by vapors and the body washed into the pool, or the person fell into the pool and was killed by the high temperatures of the water.

Abyss Pool has a depth of more than 15 meters and is one of the deepest hot springs in the park. Its temperature is approximately 60 degrees Celsius.

Water in the pools fed by geothermal springs can exceed boiling temperature, and dissolved minerals can alter the water’s chemistry resulting in highly corrosive liquids. In 2016, 23-year-old Colin Nathaniel Scott visiting the Norris Geyser Basin – one of the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas – decided to venture off the boardwalk, when he slipped and fell into the boiling water. Rescuers could not retrieve him due to a thunderstorm, believing he died shortly after falling in the pool. When they returned the next day, the corrosive water had dissolved the entire body.

Two types of corrosive springs can be found in Yellowstone. Acidic sulfate hot springs, with a pH below 7, are clustered in the western areas of the park. Alkaline calcium-carbonate and -chloride springs, with a pH over 7, can be found all over the park. Norris Geyser Basin is characterized by steam-heated, highly acidic sulfate springs with a pH of 3. Abyss Pool is one of the park’s alkaline pools, with a pH of 8.65.

Since 1872, when Yellowstone became a park, hot springs and geyser eruptions have claimed the life of 19 people.