Yellowstone accident

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Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38018209

The remains of a man who died in a hot spring accident in Yellowstone National Park were dissolved before they could be recovered, it has emerged.

Colin Scott, 23, died in June in an illegal attempt to soak, or "hot pot", in the US park's thermal pools.

The accident was recorded by the victim's sister on her mobile phone, the incident report says.

The grisly details came to light following a freedom-of-information request by local television news.
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It happened a few months ago (June) and was a pretty horrific accident.:( We were actually in the park at the time and were at the feature that morning, and driving past the entrance when the rangers vehicles all turned up. :/

It's interesting to see how the "story" has changed from the initial information (that they couldn't get to the body due to the unstable crust in the area) but also now the idea that his body dissolved so quickly.

Herein lies my question - Is it actually possible for a body to dissolve that quickly? Even with the increased reaction rate caused by the heat I just can't see how a fully grown body (including bone) can dissolve that quickly (around 12 hours I'm assuming, if they went the next morning to find him). Are there any chemists here that have an idea on this subject?
 
I wonder how many murderers have disposed of bodies in those springs over the centuries!

I can only imagine that pools like the one in this article are basically sulphuric acid, nasty stuff.
 
Well it might be they couldnt reach it and by the time they worked out s plan it had broken down into "chunks" are they just hot or are they also acidic
 
Maybe it's like Dante's peak where the spring turned into basically neat sulphuric acid?

I have read it can quite easily dissolve a body, but whether it could do so in 12 hours is another matter.
 
How long does it take for the meat to fall off the bone on a boiled joint? Imagine the same experiment carried out using a pan full of boiling sulphuric acid.

I reckon 12 hours would do it easy.
 
Tefal said:
Well it might be they couldnt reach it and by the time they worked out s plan it had broken down into "chunks" are they just hot or are they also acidic
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It says in the article that they had to give up for the night because of the darkness, danger of falling in themselves and an approaching lightning storm.

It was explained to me that due to the acidity of the water in the thermal feature, as well as the extremely high temperature of the thermal feature, the remains most likely dissolved overnight
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Even if all of the tissue hadn't totally dissolved it probably could have sunk beyond the reach of a recovery team. Not a nice way to go, but it's not like there aren't signs and barriers up.
 
The Funktopus said:
Can you really describe it as an accident when a moron deliberately climbs into something he shouldn't?
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He didn't climb in, he fell in while testing the water, hence moronic or not, it is an accident :p

I guess people are looking for the non boiling, non acidic pools to bath in :D
 
I cant see how you would retrieve body parts from this boiling soup of minerals, even here with train deaths on the tracks, they pick up as much as they can, then the rest is dissolved with acid, using a spray.
 
Freakbro said:
He didn't climb in, he fell in while testing the water, hence moronic or not, it is an accident :p

I guess people are looking for the non boiling, non acidic pools to bath in :D
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Testing the water with a view to getting in it for a soak.

Point is they were away from the designated area and ignored the warning signs about the water pools been boiling hot and/or acid and he goes to test the water with his hand and fell in.

Hence why he sister was filming. I can only assume that if the water didnt strip his flesh from his hand he was going to jump in for a swim.

But you have to be some kind of special to go around testing pools of liquid with your body parts to see which ones are the flesh dissolving acid ones in the first place.
 
I'm assuming he was already dead by the point the rescue teams got to him. So they would have been basically trying to recover his corpse, which was probably already partially dissolved at that point.

Its hard to believe people can be that reckless. You would think all the barriers blocking the pools would give you some idea that their not safe to enter. I expect a giant neon sign saying "THIS POOL WILL MELT YOU!!!" wouldn't have stopped him though.
 
Read about this earlier, how brutal! When he fell right in, I wonder how long it would have taken for him to lose consciousness?

Not only would it have been a horrific sight to see but seeing him thrash around screaming would have been the hardest part to witness.
 
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