Crystal Geyser facts for kids
Crystal Geyser is a special natural water feature located in Utah, United States. It's found on the east side of the Green River, about 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometers) downstream from the town of Green River. What makes Crystal Geyser unique is that it's a cold-water geyser. This means it erupts because of carbon dioxide gas, not because of heat from deep inside the Earth like most geysers.
The ground around the geyser has a lot of dissolved carbon dioxide gas. There are also large pockets of gas underground. When the water underground gets completely filled with this carbon dioxide, it creates enough pressure to push the water up through the geyser and out into the air.
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How Crystal Geyser Works
Crystal Geyser is different from famous hot geysers like Old Faithful. Instead of hot water and steam, it uses cold water and carbon dioxide gas. Think of it like a giant soda bottle! When you shake a soda bottle, the carbon dioxide gas builds up pressure. When you open it, the soda fizzes and might even spray out. Crystal Geyser works in a similar way, but with natural gas and groundwater.
Past and Present Eruptions
In the past, Crystal Geyser could erupt very high, sometimes over 130 feet (40 meters) tall! A study in 2005 looked at how often it erupted. They found that about two-thirds of the eruptions happened about 8 hours after the last one. The other eruptions happened about 22 hours later. This is called a bimodal pattern, meaning there are two main times when it erupts.
On average, the geyser erupts for about 100 minutes each day. Some eruptions are shorter, lasting 7 to 32 minutes. Others are much longer, lasting 98 to 113 minutes. Scientists don't fully understand why some geysers have this bimodal pattern, but it's seen in other geysers too.
Signs Before an Eruption
When the geyser isn't erupting, the water level is about 17 feet (5 meters) below the surface. Before an eruption starts, the water begins to rise and fill the pond around the geyser. Then, you'll see bubbles! These bubbling events happen more and more often as an eruption gets closer. They usually last a few minutes, with short calm periods in between. Sometimes, the main geyser will bubble, and then nearby smaller pools will bubble too.
The Geyser's History
The Crystal Geyser we see today wasn't always there. It was actually created by accident!
How the Geyser Was Formed
In 1935, a company drilled a well in this area, hoping to find oil. The well was originally very deep, about 2,600 feet (790 meters). However, a later owner of the land partly filled it in. Now, the well is only a couple of hundred meters deep. This well created a path for the underground water and carbon dioxide to reach the surface, forming the geyser.
Travertine Deposits
Around the modern geyser, you'll see a thick layer of orange rock called travertine. Travertine is a type of limestone that forms when minerals from the water are deposited. Near the river, there are also older, white travertine deposits. These might show where the geyser erupted naturally before the well was drilled.
Changes Over Time
Today, Crystal Geyser erupts every 8 to 27 hours. Some eruptions can last a very long time, even 14 hours or more! However, the average height of modern eruptions is less than 10 feet (3 meters). People think that a geological event, like an earthquake, might have changed the underground structure of the geyser. Some also believe that people have put rocks into the geyser to try and make it erupt, which could affect its behavior.
Early Records of the Area
The first written mention of the Crystal Geyser area comes from a famous expedition.
The Powell Expedition
In 1869, the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 explored the Green River. On July 13, 1869, they wrote about stopping to look at "interesting rocks, deposited by mineral springs that at one time must have existed here, but which are no longer flowing." This suggests that there were natural mineral springs or geysers in the area even before the modern Crystal Geyser was created by the oil well.
Images for kids
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Pisoids ("pearls") at Crystal Geyser. These are small, round formations made of travertine.
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Old travertine deposit along the Little Grand Wash Fault that was seen by the Powel Expedition.
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Permineralization of modern plant debris due to the high mineral content of the geyser water. This means minerals from the water have turned parts of plants into rock.
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Green tint of microbes at Crystal Geyser. Tiny living things called microbes can grow in the water.
