59 Fun Facts About Geysers

The word 'geyser', borrowed from the name of one hot spring, means what?

'Geyser' means gusher: it comes from Geysir, whose name derives from Old Norse geysa, 'to gush'; the word entered English in the late 18th century.

The Great Geysir, which gave its name to every geyser on Earth, is in which country?

The Great Geysir lies in Iceland's Haukadalur valley, on the slopes of the Laugarfjall lava dome, about 50 metres from its livelier neighbour Strokkur.

Roughly what share of the world's geysers are in Yellowstone National Park?

About half of the world's geysers are in Yellowstone, whose basins hold more geysers than any other field on Earth alongside thousands of hot springs.

Yellowstone contains approximately how many geysers?

Yellowstone has roughly 300 to 500 geysers, more than anywhere else on Earth; most are small, spouting only a foot or two, and the famous giants are the exception.

What is the world's tallest active geyser?

Steamboat Geyser is the world's tallest active geyser; its rare major eruptions throw water more than 300 feet into the air, on an erratic timetable of days to decades.

The world's tallest active geyser sits in which Yellowstone basin?

The tallest active geyser lies in the Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone's hottest and most changeable basin; its two vents sit about 20 feet apart, the north vent throwing the tallest columns.

The tallest active geyser on Earth fell silent in 1911 and did not erupt again until which year?

After a major eruption in 1911 the geyser went quiet for half a century, erupting again in 1961; it then had active phases in the 1960s, 1980s and from 2018.

Old Faithful was named in 1870 by which expedition?

The Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition named Old Faithful on 18 September 1870 on entering the Upper Geyser Basin; it was the first geyser in the park to receive a name.

On average, how long is the gap between Old Faithful's eruptions?

Old Faithful's eruptions average about 90 minutes apart, with intervals ranging from roughly 35 to 120 minutes; longer eruptions are followed by longer waits.

What is the average height of an Old Faithful eruption?

Old Faithful's eruptions average about 145 feet high, ranging from 106 to 185 feet; each throws 3,700 to 8,400 US gallons of boiling water over one and a half to five minutes.

More than how many Old Faithful eruptions have been recorded?

More than 1,000,000 Old Faithful eruptions have been recorded since 1870; Harry Woodward first described the link between an eruption's duration and the wait before the next in 1938.

Old Faithful is the best-known example of which of the two main geyser types?

Old Faithful is a cone geyser, erupting in steady jets from a mound of sinter; fountain geysers, the other type, erupt from a pool in a series of violent bursts.

What is the tallest predictable geyser on Earth?

Grand Geyser, a fountain-type geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin, is the tallest predictable geyser, reaching up to 200 feet for 9 to 12 minutes; Ferdinand Hayden named it in 1871.

Geyserite, the deposit that coats geysers, is a form of what?

Geyserite is opaline silica: hot water dissolves silica from rocks such as rhyolite, and as it cools the silica drops out as opal, which slowly recrystallises into quartz.

The heat that drives a geyser comes from what?

Geysers are driven by magma close to the surface, which is why nearly all lie in areas of recent volcanic activity such as the Yellowstone caldera.

What feature of a geyser's underground plumbing sets it apart from an ordinary hot spring?

A geyser's plumbing has constrictions that build pressure as they trap water; cooler water above presses on hotter water beneath like a pressure-cooker lid, letting it superheat until it flashes to steam.

Which bacterium, isolated from a Yellowstone hot spring in 1969, gave biotechnology its key PCR enzyme?

Thermus aquaticus, isolated by Thomas Brock from a Yellowstone hot spring in 1969, supplies the heat-stable Taq polymerase that makes PCR possible; thermophiles prefer 50 to 70 °C.

The world's second-largest geyser field, the Valley of Geysers, is on which Russian peninsula?

The Valley of Geysers lies on Kamchatka, in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve; its six-kilometre basin holds roughly ninety geysers, second only to Yellowstone.

The Valley of Geysers was discovered by local scientist Tatyana Ustinova in which year?

Tatyana Ustinova, a hydrologist at the Kronotsky reserve, found the valley in April 1941 while tracing the Shumnaya river; little exploration followed until the 1970s.

In June 2007 a massive mudflow inundated how much of the Valley of Geysers?

On 3 June 2007 a landslide and mudflow buried about two thirds of the Valley of Geysers and dammed the Geysernaya river; many geysers returned once the new lake partly drained.

What is the only feasible way for visitors to reach the Valley of Geysers?

The Valley of Geysers has no roads; visitors fly in by helicopter from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, about 180 km away, and only a few thousand tourists a year make the trip.

El Tatio, the largest geyser field in the Southern Hemisphere, is in the Andes of which country?

El Tatio lies in northern Chile's Antofagasta region, near San Pedro de Atacama, at about 4,320 metres; it is the third-largest geyser field in the world.

The name 'tatio' comes from which indigenous language?

Kunza, the almost extinct language of the Atacameño people, gives 'tatio' meanings such as 'oven' and 'grandfather', the old man whose tears are said to form the geysers.

How high did eruptions of Waimangu, the largest geyser ever known, reach in the early 1900s?

Waimangu erupted to about 460 metres (1,500 feet) between 1900 and 1904, the tallest geyser ever recorded; its plumbing had been created by a huge volcanic eruption in 1886.

The name Waimangu, given by Māori, means what?

Waimangu is Māori for 'black waters' (wai, water; mangu, black), because the geyser hurled up water darkened by rocks and mud from the surrounding terrain.

Waimangu stopped erupting in November 1904 after a landslide changed the water table of which lake?

A landslide in 1904 altered the water table around Lake Tarawera, starving the geyser; its eruptions had grown shorter and weaker for weeks before stopping in November 1904.

One of four sightseers killed at Waimangu in 1903 was an international in which sport?

Joe Warbrick, who had captained the 1888 New Zealand Natives rugby tour, died with David McNaughton and sisters Ruby and Catherine Nicholls when a sudden eruption scalded and swept them away in August 1903.

Strokkur, the reliable geyser in the Haukadalur valley, has a name meaning what?

It usually reaches 15 to 20 metres, occasionally 40; in 1815 it was estimated at 60.

How often does Strokkur typically erupt?

Strokkur erupts roughly every 6 to 10 minutes, a regularity that makes it one of the few natural geysers tourists can count on seeing during a short visit.

Strokkur has erupted regularly since 1963, when locals did what on the advice of the Geysir Committee?

In 1963 locals cleared out its blocked conduit at the bottom of Strokkur's basin on the Geysir Committee's advice, restoring the regular eruptions that its mostly dormant neighbour Geysir lacks.

In 1845 the Great Geysir was recorded reaching what height?

Seismic activity in 2000 revived it, and for two days it reached 122 metres.

In dormant periods, eruptions of the Great Geysir were induced on special occasions by adding what?

Adding soap, which lowers the water's surface tension, was used to force the Great Geysir to erupt on special occasions such as Iceland's national day; environmental concerns made the practice rare in the 1990s.

What tends to revive or create the geysers of Haukadalur?

The oldest definitive account of the hot springs there dates to 1294, when quakes reshaped the landscape.

Pōhutu, the largest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere, is in the Whakarewarewa valley of which country?

Pōhutu is in New Zealand's Whakarewarewa valley at Rotorua; closing nearby geothermal heating bores in the late 1980s made it markedly livelier.

Pōhutu can erupt up to how many times a day?

Pōhutu erupts up to twenty times a day, with jets reaching as high as 30 metres; its name means 'big splash' or 'explosion'.

Two large geyser fields in Nevada, including Beowawe, were destroyed by the building of what?

Geothermal power plants drilled near Beowawe and Steamboat Springs drew down the hot water that fed both Nevada geyser fields; elsewhere geysers have been killed simply by people throwing debris into them.

The Wairakei geyser field in the Taupō Volcanic Zone was lost to a power station in which year?

The Wairakei geothermal power station began generating in 1958, and drawing off its steam and hot water killed the nearby Wairakei geyser field within a few years.

Fly Ranch's first accidental geyser came from a 1916 well drilled in search of what?

The 1916 well sought irrigation water but struck near-boiling water and was abandoned; a mineral cone grew over it, and a 1964 geothermal test well nearby created today's Fly Geyser.

Which organisation bought Fly Ranch, including its multicoloured geyser, in 2016?

The Burning Man Project, the non-profit behind the festival, paid $6.5 million for the 3,800-acre Fly Ranch in June 2016; limited public access began in May 2018.

Fly Geyser's vivid green and red colours come from what?

Thermophilic microbes, algae and cyanobacteria that flourish in hot, wet conditions, coat the geyser's travertine mound, painting it green and red.

The Andernach Geyser on the Rhine, the world's tallest cold-water geyser, is driven by which gas?

Carbon dioxide from volcanic activity beneath the Eifel saturates the groundwater; a 343-metre borehole drilled in 1903 to tap the gas for mineral water hit a pressurised aquifer and erupted immediately.

How high does the Andernach cold-water geyser reach?

The Andernach geyser reaches 30 to 60 metres in eruptions lasting several minutes at intervals of around two hours, on the Namedyer Werth peninsula reached by boat.

Soda Springs Geyser in Idaho, a capped 1937 drilling accident, erupts on what schedule?

Soda Springs Geyser in Idaho, created in 1937 when a drill hit a pressurised carbonated chamber, was capped and fitted with a timer that releases it every hour on the hour.

Enceladus, source of more than 100 water-vapour jets, is roughly how wide?

Enceladus is only about 500 km across, one-seventh the width of Earth's Moon, yet its south-polar jets make it one of the most geologically active bodies in the Solar System.

Which spacecraft discovered the plumes of Enceladus during flybys that began in 2005?

Cassini, orbiting Saturn from 2004 to 2017, spotted the plumes during close flybys in 2005 and later flew through them to sample their ice and gas.

The escaping plumes of Enceladus supply most of the material for what?

Ice grains escaping from Enceladus feed Saturn's E ring, the faint broad ring densest along the moon's orbit; the plume material resembles that of comets.

Eruptions of which substance have been observed on Neptune's moon Triton?

Voyager 2 photographed plumes of nitrogen gas and dust rising about 8 km above Triton in 1989, probably driven by sunlight warming dark material under clear nitrogen ice in a solid-state greenhouse effect.

Which Yellowstone geyser has a small 'Indicator' neighbour that often erupts before it?

Beehive Geyser, named for its cone, erupts for about five minutes to around 200 feet; Beehive's Indicator, a small vent beside it, usually spouts 10 to 20 minutes beforehand.

Riverside Geyser shoots a 75-foot arch, sometimes with a rainbow, over which Yellowstone waterway?

Riverside Geyser arches its 75-foot column over the Firehole River in the Upper Geyser Basin about every six hours; its isolated plumbing makes it one of the most predictable geysers.

Which structure did a large Upper Geyser Basin geyser's sinter cone resemble when named in 1870?

Castle Geyser was named in 1870 for its crenellated sinter cone, one of the largest in Yellowstone; every eruption adds another thin layer of geyserite to it.

Eruptions of the world's tallest predictable geyser are heralded by which neighbour spouting hours in advance?

Turban Geyser erupts roughly every twenty minutes, and the big geyser beside it usually begins within a minute or two of one of Turban's bursts; Vent Geyser then joins in.

In which year did Yellowstone become the world's first national park?

President Ulysses S. Grant signed the act creating Yellowstone, the world's first national park, on 1 March 1872; the Hayden survey's 1871 photographs and paintings had helped persuade Congress.

When 19th-century soldiers used Old Faithful as a laundry, which fabric came out torn to shreds?

General Sheridan's soldiers found in 1882 that linen and cotton garments dropped into the crater came out washed and unharmed, while woollen clothes were torn to shreds.

A vent that emits steam and volcanic gases but no liquid or solid material is called what?

A fumarole (from Latin fumus, smoke) vents steam and gases such as sulphur dioxide; fumaroles mark late-stage volcanism but can also precede eruptions, so they are monitored for prediction.

Since the 1920s, hot water from Icelandic geysers has been piped to do what?

Since the 1920s hot water from Iceland's geothermal fields has been piped to heat greenhouses to grow food the cold climate would not otherwise allow; homes have been heated the same way since 1943.

Which Yellowstone giant, once capable of 300-foot eruptions, has behaved as a hot spring since 1985?

Excelsior Geyser in the Midway basin threw water 300 feet in the 1880s; a 47-hour burst of eruptions in September 1985 was its last, leaving a huge boiling spring discharging over 4,000 gallons a minute.

How many geyser basins does Yellowstone National Park contain?

Yellowstone's geysers lie in nine basins: Upper, Midway, Lower, Norris, West Thumb, Gibbon, Lone Star, Shoshone and Heart Lake, alongside thousands of hot springs.

Above what temperature can no known eukaryote survive, leaving geysers to thermophilic prokaryotes?

No known eukaryote survives above about 60 °C, so hotter geyser waters belong to thermophilic bacteria and archaea; in the 1960s scientists had assumed nothing lived above 73 °C.

Which August 1959 earthquake near Yellowstone set off hundreds of the park's springs and geysers?

The Hebgen Lake earthquake of 17 August 1959, centred just west of the park, set off at least 289 springs and geysers erupting, 160 of them for the first time on record.