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Climate change could melt decades of human poop on America's tallest mountain

It could start as soon as this summer at Denali in Alaska.
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
**FILE** In this file photo, climbers are seen near the top of the 16,000-foot headwall on Denali's popular West Buttress route in Denali National Park, Alaska on Friday, June 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Hage, File)

One of the latest concerns to be flushed, er, fleshed out by climate change is the thawing of decades worth of human feces on America's tallest mountain, Denali.

USA TODAY reports an estimated 66 tons of poop that has been frozen on the 20,310-foot glacier in Alaska is due to melt sometime in the coming decades and possibly starting as soon as this summer.

A glacier is a slow-moving mass or river of ice. A National Park Service glaciologist reportedly says the feces eventually resurfaces farther downstream on the glacier, and that's where it begins to melt.

The National Park Service recently instituted policies requiring human waste expelled below 14,200 feet to be carried off the mountain in designated Clean Mountain Cans.

Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
**FILE** In this file photo, climbers are seen near the top of the 16,000-foot headwall on Denali's popular West Buttress route in Denali National Park, Alaska on Friday, June 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Hage, File)

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