The park ranger asked her students about the mystery of the dead trees. Some wondered if the 1988 fires burned them. Others, thinking about experiments that showed acidic spring water in the Norris Geyser Basin, said the culprit might be similar water. These trees were buried alive. The Silverthorne students later would get a peek at the future through a series of small holes that resembled tiny volcanoes or prairie dog burrows in solid rock.
Rock lasts longer than wood.
But first, Doss told the students to clench their fists and pound on the dirt beneath them. The students' last experiment compared the temperature and acidity of a hot spring in the Mammoth area to similar measurements taken in the Norris Geyser Basin. The hottest temperature measured in Mammoth was 140 degrees, much cooler than the 210 degree reading taken in boiling water in Norris. The water temperature in Mammoth decreased as students moved down a small stream and away from the source of the spring. Maybe way down at the end, it would be cooler.