Back in 2017, I wrote a blog about a Denver researcher headed up to Yellowstone to do some seriously cool research by flying a helicopter around the park. I wrote at the time, “According to the Denver Post, the helicopter will have a giant electromagnetic system attached to the bottom that will essentially x-ray the ground to determine where and how hot water flows beneath the surface.” Well, last week, outlets such as Newsweek began posting articles about the research. According to Newsweek, “They flew a helicopter with an 80-foot-wide electromagnetic hoop dangling beneath it. Water is much better at conducting electricity than rock, so the hoop was able to detect variations between wet and dry rock. The helicopter was flown back and forth across the park to measure electrical conductivity and magnetic properties, creating a picture of the plumbing system. The findings were published in the journal Nature.”
Reading through the Nature article, I understood very little of it due to the technical language. However, a Live Science article on the subject provided some more basic insight. “With the new maps, researchers can now see how the water pathways interact with magma to provide the superheated water that creates the geysers and hot springs above. As a result, the team now has a better idea of the inner workings of certain famous features, including the Old Faithful geyser and the Grand Prismatic Spring.”
Isn’t it amazing what is underneath the surface of the earth? We at Apex get to dig into the ground for a living by providing water line replacements and sewer line repairs. Sounds like Yellowstone might need us to hop in the backhoe and dig down to explore these things further 😉. Just imagine the amount of shoring you’d need to ensure the safety on a hole over 500 feet down next to a geyser! We’ve done over 10,000 repairs in 37 years of business, so we’d love the challenge. We’re just waiting on the call from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. National Parks to go work on the underground plumbing of Old Faithful. While we’re waiting for that call though, if you need your sewer repaired or water line replaced, contact us today for your free estimate! We’d even put Yellowstone on hold to help you out 😁.
