Geyser

A geyser (/ˈɡaɪzər/, UK: /ˈɡiːzər/)[1][2] is a spring with an intermittent water discharge ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam.

A geyser's eruptive activity may change or cease due to ongoing deposition of minerals within their plumbing, exchange of functions with nearby hot springs, earthquake influences, and human intervention.

Due to the low ambient pressures, these eruptions consist of vapour without liquid; they are made more easily visible by particles of dust and ice carried aloft by the gas.

In the cases of the venting on Mars and Triton, the activity may result from solar heating via a solid-state greenhouse effect.

In all three cases, there is no evidence of the subsurface hydrological system which differentiates terrestrial geysers from other sorts of venting, such as fumaroles.

[6] The formation of geysers specifically requires the combination of three geologic conditions that are usually found in volcanic terrain: heat, water, and a subsurface hydraulic system with the right geometry.

[7] For the heated water to form a geyser, a plumbing system (made of fractures, fissures, porous spaces, and sometimes cavities) is required.

As it gets closer to the surface, the water cools and the silica drops out of solution, leaving a deposit of amorphous opal.

The main reason for their rarity is that multiple intense transient forces must occur simultaneously for a geyser to exist.

For example, even when other necessary conditions exist, if the rock structure is loose, eruptions will erode the channels and rapidly destroy any nascent geysers.

Many have been destroyed simply by people throwing debris into them, while others have ceased to erupt due to dewatering by geothermal power plants.

[17] Some geysers have specific colours, because despite the harsh conditions, life is often found in them (and also in other hot habitats) in the form of thermophilic prokaryotes.

As they have heat-stable enzymes that retain their activity even at high temperatures, they have been used as a source of thermostable tools, which are important in medicine and biotechnology,[20] for example in manufacturing antibiotics, plastics, detergents (by the use of heat-stable enzymes lipases, pullulanases and proteases), and fermentation products (for example ethanol is produced).

El Tatio is located in the high valleys of the Andes in Chile, surrounded by many active volcanoes, at around 4,200 metres (13,800 ft) above mean sea level.

Mount Ruapehu marks its southwestern end, while the submarine Whakatāne seamount (85 km or 53 mi beyond Whakaari / White Island) is considered its northeastern limit.

[33] Due to the high rate of volcanic activity in Iceland, it is home to some of the most famous geysers in the world.

It is also characteristic that many geysers here are reactivated or newly created after earthquakes, becoming dormant or extinct after some years or some decades.

At the plants, geothermal drilling reduced the available heat and lowered the local water table to the point that geyser activity could no longer be sustained.

In a number of places where there is geothermal activity, wells have been drilled and fitted with impermeable casements that allow them to erupt like geysers.

Since the 1920s hot water directed from the geysers has been used to heat greenhouses and to grow food that otherwise could not have been cultivated in Iceland's inhospitable climate.

[44] There are many bodies in the Solar System where eruptions which superficially resemble terrestrial geysers have been observed or are believed to occur.

Despite being commonly referred to as geysers, they are driven by fundamentally different processes, consist of a wide range of volatiles, and can occur on vastly disparate scales; from the modestly sized Martian carbon dioxide jets to the immense plumes of Enceladus.

Although these jets have not yet been directly observed, they leave evidence visible from orbit in the form of dark spots and lighter fans atop the dry ice.

These features consist primarily of sand and dust blown out by the outbursts, as well as spider-like patterns of channels created below the ice by the rapid flow of CO2 gas.

[46] There are a plethora of theories to explain the eruptions, including heating from sunlight, chemical reactions, or even biological activity.

[52] Plumes of water vapour, together with ice particles and smaller amounts of other components (such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, ammonia, hydrocarbons and silicates), have been observed erupting from vents associated with the "tiger stripes" in the south polar region of Enceladus by the Cassini orbiter.

The mechanism which causes these eruptions are generated remains uncertain, as well as to what extent they are physically linked to Enceladus' subsurface ocean, but they are believed to be powered at least in part by tidal heating.

[53] In December 2013, the Hubble Space Telescope detected water vapour plumes potentially 200 km high above the south polar region of Europa.

[54] Water was also detected by the Keck Observatory in 2016, announced in a 2019 Nature article speculating the cause to be a cryovolcanic eruption.

[55] It is thought that Europa's lineae might be venting this water vapour into space in a similar manner to the "tiger stripes" of Enceladus.