When nature hurls your garbage right back at you

As long as geysers are treated like garbage cans there remains the possibility of a trash eruption.

Ear Spring geyser, located in Yellowstone National Park, had long been engorged by years of trash left inside of it by ill-mannered tourists. So naturally when the geyser erupted in September, unleashing its usual blast of searing-hot water and air, a nasty wave of dreck followed.

The contents of the garbage eruption were displayed by the National Park Service. The agency advises tourists to refrain from treating ecological wonders like dumpsters.

The garbage had clearly been building within the geyser for a while, as evidenced by the breadth of the objects retrieved. A pyrex funnel, a rather large cement block, cigarette butts, a no.2 pencil, a plastic spoon, a Solo cup, a baby pacifier and various other things were found after Ear Spring’s 30-foot belch on September 15, 2018.

The garbage blast was also historic: Some of the objects are believed to date back to the 1930s and are primed to be “inventoried by curators and may end up in Yellowstone’s archives,” per the NPS.

Thermal activity has been surging recently in Yellowstone’s Geyser Hill, and Ear Spring’s September eruption was its biggest in over 60 years. Hence the garbage explosion.

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