WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: Geysers: Nature's Innuendo 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:05.120 Hello there, Hello, Hello. It's me Josh, and this week's 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.119 s Y s K Select is a little episode from 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:13.600 two thousand twelve called Geysers Colon Nature's Innuendo. I thought 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.360 of that title myself, and I still love it to 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.560 this day, so I hope you enjoy it. It's one 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.479 of those really cool Earth sciences bio geochemical ones that 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.720 really get me jazzed, and I hope it gets you 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:31.520 jazz too. Let's all get jazz. Welcome to Stuff You 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.680 Should Know, a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works, 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.600 Good Bloom, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.720 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and uh, this is Stuff 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.600 you should Know. Yeah, just a couple of regular guys 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:57.600 are sitting around chat. That was good. I know, I 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.680 genuinely didn't think you were going to say, guys, really 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:06.760 a little um. This was a pretty cool article. I 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.080 thought I knew a lot about Geyser's, but I did 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.479 not know exactly what was going on there. Yeah. In fact, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.480 I was wrong on a couple of key points. Oh really, yes, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.080 which I will not point out. Oh come on, well, 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:23.720 I thought they spit out lemonade first of all. Uh, 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:25.160 and I thought there was a little guy down there 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.800 doing it. Oh got lepre cons Yeah, yeah, that's what 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.000 everybody thinks. I was wrong on both of those points. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.440 Do we have a geyser myth sound effect? I don't 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.920 think so. Um does this count as weather? Now? This 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:42.720 is earth science, biogeochemical processes. Okay, I just know what 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.200 you're trying to be beef up our weather. Uh. This 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.000 is not whether it's not weather, although it does begin 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:51.480 with weather. Yeah, I mean when something precipitates, that's weather, 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:57.080 and precipitation precipitates the explosion of a geyser, that's right. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.000 Uh chuck, Yes, I have no guys are introduction. Man, 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.320 you can't blame me though, Like I looked, and there 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.080 is really not a lot going on on geysers. I 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:09.760 thought you might tell the story about the people in 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:11.640 nineteen o three. He was going to, but I didn't 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.320 want to just usurp it. Okay, but let's do that though, 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:15.959 since you brought it up, Because I mean I thought 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.240 about that too, I was like, whoa hang back, Josh 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:22.600 hanging back? Well, apparently guysers can kill you. Um, and 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.560 you know when you see something like old faithful go off. 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.200 That's why you're three ft away watching it. Yeah, you 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:28.520 know you're not gonna be on top of the thing. 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.040 But apparently in nineteen o three in New Zealand, which 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.800 is allowsy with geysers, um, some tourists visiting there got 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:41.600 caught in a jet at uh wy man Wymani valley 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.360 nice good and uh it killed all four people and 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.000 carried them more than a mile away. Yes, that is sad. 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.799 And after after we explain how guysers work, I think 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.560 that will well we should mention that again because once 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.160 I understood how guysers worked and I read that, I 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.639 was like, those people met a terrible, terrible demise, like 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.440 they that was terrible way to go. Yeah, I mean, 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:10.000 it's tantamount to getting thrown into a volcano or caught 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.200 in dropping into the cracks of an earthquake, and they're 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.800 all kind of related, as it turns out, or being 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.120 blood into death, which is not related. No, but it's 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.200 pretty bad way to go to the geothermal earth properties. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.200 So um chuck geysers, as I learned UM from reading 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.359 this article on how stuff works dot com um our 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.920 beloved site, UM, are actually kind of fragile and there's 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:38.120 not that many this this article, there's a thousand guysers 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.840 roughly in in the world. And um, I read elsewhere 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.080 that there's only about fifty geyser fields on the planet, 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.640 and about two thirds of those have five or fewer guysers, 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:55.600 which makes yellow Stone a pretty substantial repository of geyser 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.840 and guys are related activity. Because when you're talking guyser, 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:02.920 you you you don't ever just talk guys or you're 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:08.560 also talking um fumer roles. You're talking hot springs, mud pots, 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.000 steam vents, and all of them are based around the 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.320 same thing, which is there's some sort of geo thermal 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:21.600 activity that's relatively close to the Earth's surface, right, Um. 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:26.800 And there's three components to a geyser um and they 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.919 are water supply, plumbing system, and heat source. Yeah, and 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.400 I'm gonna argue with fourth later on later though, I 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.320 have to wait. I'm gonna call it. We'll just go 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.640 ahead and say what it is, which is a remoteness, 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.880 all right, and then we'll we'll circle back because detached 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:48.000 from its family, right, it comes very remote. So a 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.279 water supply, let's start there, because if you ain't got water, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.719 you ain't got no guyser. Yeah, and I saw in 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:59.719 this article that um rivers can often um form the 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.240 water or supply. I didn't. I didn't see that elsewhere. 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.159 For the most part, from what I from what I 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.400 can gather is that the water supply is um precipitation, 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.320 rain and snow melt percolating through the Earth's crust over 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.160 five thousand or so years, and then it trickles down 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.640 to the point where it comes in contact with like 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:24.880 we said, relatively shallow geothermal activity, usually very very young 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:29.160 volcano volcano or volcanic activity, or very very old like 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:34.479 on in the throes of death volcanic activity. Yeah. Um, 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.000 and it can be anything from magma to um cool magma. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.880 But it's very hot rock and it's close enough to 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.919 the surface that this water doesn't evaporate, it starts to 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.000 trickle back up. Yeah. And when do you say close? 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.640 Three miles down seems like a long way down. But 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.920 if you're talking the planet Earth, it's nothing. That's pretty close. Yeah, 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.960 if you're talking magma, it's pretty close. We're talking techtonic plates, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.360 it's pretty close. It's closer than you on it to 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:05.400 be pale. It's a go ahead, okay, Number two of 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.520 the plumbing system, right, very important. Um. The plumbing system 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.679 is a series of fissures that run miles beneath the surface. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.280 And one important aspect of these fissures is they're basically 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:24.760 sealed shut with silica from rhyolite. It's volcanic rock, um 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.440 and like these minerals have sealed this rock shut. Right, So, 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.200 like really important part of it. That water that's percolating down, 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.360 when it heats up and starts to travel back up, 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.320 it takes that silica that rhyolite with it, and then 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.760 it just kind of acts as a ceiling along these 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.880 pipes over five hundred thousand years, however long it takes 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.240 for it to go back up. It's it's ceiling and 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.000 it's making it water tight. Well yeah, and I imagine 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.320 I didn't read this, but I imagine that this kind 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.680 of activity happens elsewhere on the planet, but it's not 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.040 sealed up, so it just disperses, right. Yeah. Because one 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.839 of the key ingredients of a guy's or is pressure, 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.120 high pressure, that's right. And to get that pressure in 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.960 these pipes, you have to have ryolite coated sealed pipes. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.760 That's right. Okay, so there's the plumbing system and it 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.520 can the plumbing system varies. All guysers are different. Sometimes 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.480 it's just like a huge, long vertical chaft. Sometimes it 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.840 binds and turns and winds around. Okay, so this is 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.360 this is something that actually differentiates guys are from a 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.880 hot spring. So a hot spring is just like a 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:29.120 like a long vertical chaft coming from hot water um 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.920 up to the top, but there's no obstruction. What makes 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.000 the guys or a geyser is the fact that there's 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.760 an obstruction in the plumbing right where the hot spring 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.679 water can just move freely up and down. There's there's 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.320 just free exchange and you soak around in it like 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.200 a big lazy wall rush. But there's no pressure. With 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:50.320 the guys are, there's some sort of obstruction where either say, 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.320 the water on its way back up and there's this 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.800 wide pool that bottlenecks at the top, so now you 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.520 have pressure. There's a bunch of different pipes feeding into 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.679 one pipe and they all connect to the same place 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:07.280 another bottleneck or this this pipe of water is so 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.480 wide and so deep that the pressure from the water 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.640 above the water at the bottom is so tremendous that 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.800 for all intensive purposes, it creates a bottleneck just strictly 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.640 out of pressure without an actual obstruction. Yeah. Just the 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.200 weight of the water itself is so great. So we 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.760 have a water supply and a plumbing um system that 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.960 is sealed with rhyolite which makes it water tight and pressurized, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.240 and then some sort of means for pressure to build. Yeah, 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.000 and uh, I guess we can go ahead and liking 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.280 it to a pressure cooker now, so you understand we're 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.760 talking about if you've ever cooked with a pressure cooker 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.800 at home, or if you've ever eaten it Chick fil 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.959 A and eating their delicious pressure fried chicken. Is that 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:52.000 how they do it? Oh yeah, let's explain pressure. So 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.680 that's why there so juicy man um. So water is 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:57.959 standard water is just gonna boil it like a hundred 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:03.640 degrees celsius in the fancy French water. Um, if you're 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.960 if you're cooking with a pressure cooker, which means you know, 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.720 the littue sealed shut it lets out some steam or 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:13.040 else it would explode obviously, Um, it will actually take 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.720 a lot more energy to boil and bubble up, which 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.000 means more heat and so you can actually cook in 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.679 a pressure cooker at like twenty five degrees, right, because 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.040 it's just substantial for under that pressure. It takes a 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.520 lot more for what it was boiling water. But it's 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:32.160 like air bubbles forming and rising to the top. When 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.040 the pressure is too great, it can't boil. So the 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.000 boiling point rises, right, Well, it boils, but it won't 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.040 it can't evaporate. Well, no, it can't. It can't form 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.280 the bubbles that carry to the top, so it can't 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.800 actually boil. So it's just sitting there in this high 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:49.480 pressure environment at high higher than boiling point temperatures, and 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.280 the same things going on in a geyser. Right, You've 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.760 got the obstruction, you've got this heated water, and you 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.120 have a tremendous amount of pressure because again we're talking 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:03.120 about miles deep, um, and there's that's quite a bit 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.040 of pressure at the bottom the water at the bottom, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:11.640 and it's getting hotter and hotter and hotter. Yeah, like, um, 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.439 I mean, I guess it depends. But for guys are 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.840 to form and start, they think the oldest one is 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.440 between five thousand and forty years old. So yeah, so 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.320 it takes a little while because you know, the plumbing 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.000 has to has to steal up and everything. But as 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:31.680 that pressure builds and then that heat um increases, you 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.840 can reach temperatures of like four or five degrees fahrenheit 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.880 of this water and it's still not boiling, right, that's right. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.679 And then eventually it does boil. It overcomes that pressure threshold. Well, 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.120 it finds its way through to to the escape route, 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.520 which is the top of the surface, and it'll just 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.440 and that's not the eruption, it'll just scored a little 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.400 bit of water out. You'll go and think, wow, that 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.680 was a big relief, and such a big relief that, uh, 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.560 the steam all of a sudden expands to fundred times 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.319 the volume of the water. It's like if you're ever boiling, 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.679 uh you ever steam vegetables in your house. The best 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.760 way to steam vegetables is you don't just set it 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.280 on a massive boil and cover it up. You get 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.560 it to that massive boil and then you turn that 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:19.960 heat down low, and all of a sudden, that pressure 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.240 drop creates like massive amounts of steam. Right. And the 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.960 reason why is because when you increase pressure, you increase 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.320 the temperature. That's the boiling point of water. If suddenly 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.720 you have that temperature still, but the pressure decreases that 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.760 that water and this guys are just flash vaporizes. And 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.720 because there's a lot more volume to an equal amount 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.880 of water and steam, that steam, like you said, expands 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.640 to what times of volume? Yeah, and there's your guys 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.000 are how Yeah, it's that's all of a sudden, all 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.560 the steam in the water just gets shot out. Depending 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.160 on what kind of guys are it is, it's going 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.640 to take different formations and be different heights and last 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.400 different amounts of time. But um, it'll keep going until 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.920 it either runs out of water or it cools down 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:31.680 enough for it just start all over again. Yeah, and 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.360 then it just starts all over again, which is how 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.319 you get something like Old Faithful. All right, that's right. 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.720 Once it once it releases that um that pressure and 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.800 it shoots out, it's the whole process just begins again, 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.440 and you have, um, guys are's like Old Faithful that 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.160 erupt like on a pretty regular schedule. I think it's 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.600 between like sixty and eighty five minutes or something like that. Well, 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:56.440 I've got the new schedule schedule because it's been it's 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.960 been happening with greater with less frequency in greater power 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.240 in recent years, I think it's said since two thousand 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.920 UM and it's a bimodal. They call it bimodal. And 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.880 if you're going to Old Faithful in Wyoming, Um there 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.960 are generally two eruption durations now, either a long one 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:17.880 which is over four minutes, or a short one, which 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.240 is about two and a half minutes. And if you 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:23.120 have just missed the short one, there'll be about an 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.720 hour before your next eruption. If you have just missed 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.040 the long one, then there's gonna be about an hour 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.200 and a half until the next one. But either way, 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.839 it's it's worth sticking around for it. Yeah, And it's 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.640 funny if you go to the page and there's obviously 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:38.319 a webcam up where you can see it and stuff, 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.160 but that's not as fun. But if you go to 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.160 the web page and they ask for tips on you know, 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.400 seeing it, they say, well, if there's a lot of 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.600 people sitting around on the benches, that means there's one upcoming. 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:50.920 If there's a bunch of people getting up and leaving, 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:53.800 that means it just happened. It's like, wow, really, yeah, 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.600 that's the best you can do. That sounds like um, 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:01.720 like hippie park ranger logic exactly like um. Okay, so, 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.320 uh well, I guess we're onto like famous geysers, right, yeah, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.760 Actually quickly I mentioned I teased about the fourth um 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:14.000 thing remoteness. Apparently, in the last fifty years, uh, producing 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:18.880 energy with geo thermal energy production has increased so much 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.880 that it's affecting geysers, and so being remote is now 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:25.800 believed to be one of the requirements to be a geyser, 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.160 because geysers are vanishing because of man. Because so I 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.600 was trying to figure out this out, maybe you can 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:36.080 help me. That's because we dig down to these this 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.960 this um, these geysers of this geo thermal activity, and 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.760 in doing so, are we creating like a release valve 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.520 so the pressure camp build as much I think so. 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.920 I mean they're using it to spind turbines to create energy. 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:50.600 But I know you can also have like a geo 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:54.800 thermal system in your backyard, which I don't think uses 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.000 I don't think it like creates steam. So I feel 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.840 like what we're doing then is creating artificial geysers, like 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.880 eating an artificial pipe to let steam out, which would 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.840 impact any natural guys activity. I because like we said, 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:11.600 they're very fragile. Earthquakes frequently um cut them off. They 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.880 also bring them back to life too. Yeah, that's true. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:18.760 Like there was one called the Stroker Geyser that that 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.640 would be str o k K you are, yeah, and 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.040 that's stroker like stroker race right right. So Stroker geyser 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.800 um is after the Icelandic well, Stroker is after the 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.880 Icelandic verb to churn, and actually geyser's after the Icelandic 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:37.920 verb um to gush. So this is all very Icelandic 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.560 in origin. But that would be g e y s 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:46.240 i R geyser okay in Icelandic. Sure, I own how 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.160 Buyork pronounces guyser. Have you seen Kristen Wiggs impression of her? 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:54.200 Huh that's really great? Um okay, So the Stroker Geyser 0:15:54.320 --> 0:16:00.440 was actually um it was enacted in nine um because 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:05.240 of an earthquake, and then another earthquake hit in and 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.680 it became inactive. It went dormant and the local said, 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:10.760 we got to get our guys are back, man, it's 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.040 all blocked up. So they cleared it off and now 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.080 it's running again. I bet that was probably dangerous work 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:21.520 dangerous um. Another way to that humans are impacting is 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:26.160 a mineral extraction. Apparently in two thousand three, Uh, they 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:31.880 were extracting minerals in Chile, the second largest geyser field 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:37.120 in South America, and it killed it basically from extracting 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.560 golden stuff. Because basically they mess with the plumbing and 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.280 then you're finished. Because it's like you said, like, um, 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.960 in a pressure cooker has that little steam val so 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.080 it doesn't explode. The guys aren't supposed to have that, right. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.560 If they have that, they just don't go off. They're like, well, fine, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:57.880 I'll just let some steam off and um, um, that 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.000 does happen. Naturally, there are steam it's located near geysers. 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.720 Um like yellow stones. Like we have ten thousand um 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:11.040 geo thermal um what is the word they use, Uh, 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.560 basically different things. We have ten thousands of your thermal 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.600 different things. Um. But the vast majority of those are 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.560 like steam vents. Oh they're man made. No, they're they're natural. Like. Oh, 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.640 they're like little steam releases that come up through fissures. 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:27.680 Okay in the earth. I thought you meant we put 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:29.960 those in to make old faithful like safers. No, they 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.200 happen naturally. Um, but I think it's the same thing 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.560 as drilling a hole down to a geothermal um different 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.880 thing and uh and tapping it to run a turbine. Okay, 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.960 at least you didn't say interesting. Interesting, man, this stuff 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.800 is very interesting. Um, old Faithful is a cone geyser? 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.159 I'm not sure I understand the difference? Is it the 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.239 is it the good difference? Is it the outlet like 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.479 the shape of the thing above the earth. Yeah, So 0:17:57.600 --> 0:17:59.920 with the cone guys or, the rhyolite bubbles up and 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.879 enough over time that it builds up and it forms 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:04.760 a little cone and that's what the guys are shoots 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:06.600 out of. And normally with the cone guys or you 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.280 have a big stream going jet going into the air 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.320 like hundreds of feet. That one in um in uh 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:19.720 New Zealand, the Wyman ge geyser. Um, that one streamed 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:22.960 seventy ft into the air and for those of you 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:27.960 in New Zealand, that's four hundred fifty that's a world record, right, yeah, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.960 nineteen oh two, Yeah, before it killed people, right, and 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.600 then it went dormant in nineteen o four because of 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.720 a landslide, which makes me think like this thing's coming back. 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.879 I just gotta bubble back up and then shut down 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.359 right afterwards. Yeah, it's really had a really chaotic to 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:47.960 your career. It's like a rock star that overdosed on 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.119 heroin or something. Um. But anyway, as I was saying, um, 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:57.160 the cone shoots a jet into the air. The fountain, Um, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.919 it shoots in a much more like chaotic streme whatever. 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:01.680 But it doesn't come up from a cone. It comes 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.360 up from a pool. So at the surface, the geyser 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:09.280 goes into a pool of water and then that will 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.760 erupt out of the water, and that would be the 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:16.560 grand geyser. Um, the tall that's the tallest regularly erupting 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.240 guys are on the planet. And that is also a yellowstone. Yeah, 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:21.840 the tallest in that it shoots up in the air. Yeah, 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:27.520 two hundred feet in crazy fountain e hard to predict fashion. Yeah, 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.639 which is pretty surprising too, because the cone geyser shoots 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.520 a jet straight up in the air, and this fountain 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.560 geyser is still beating the average one. Yeah. Could you 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:38.800 imagine if it was a cone geyser, it would be 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:43.200 mind blowing to the moon. Uh. You mentioned the stroker 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:47.800 ace geyser the steamboat guys are. Yeah, apparently can choo 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.280 water up to three hundred feet, but don't bother stopping 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.680 by because it hasn't happened for fifty years. It can 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:58.359 go fifty years between. It's finicky. Yeah. Um there's also 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.920 the geyser. We to the o G geyser because that's 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:05.480 where the word came from. It's a geyser in Iceland. 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:10.400 It was discovered in um so it's the oldest known 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:12.800 guys are on the planet. But they took some samples 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.879 of the silica that forms the cone of the castle 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.439 guys are in Yellowstone. That's the one they think is 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.680 five thousand to forty thousand years old. Apparently silicon dating 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.040 can use some work. I did see one interesting little 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.320 and it wasn't a joke. It was almost like you 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.680 could hear science guys laughing about it. Though. You geysers 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:39.359 are always called geysers, even if they quit erupting, but 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.399 that ceased to make seats to be a geyser at 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.440 that point. But once you have erupted, you're always called 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:49.600 a geyser. The cone formerly known as geyser. Yeah, that's 0:20:49.600 --> 0:21:16.560 what I would call it. Shameful, uh, let's do you 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:20.760 know that whole story about Prince doing that about changing 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.280 his name. No, I never knew the story behind it. 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:25.760 So he was locked in a contract with Sony that 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:30.080 he didn't like, and Sony basically said, you can't release 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.840 an album as Prince. Yes. And but also that had 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.800 something to do with him acting basically crazy, like he 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:39.119 acted crazy on purpose to get out of his contract 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.000 because there was some sort of clause where like if 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.400 he was if he went nuts or whatever, it would 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.679 avoid his contract. So he did that, and he had 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.399 that font release and I remember he released it to 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.080 the media like, um, his little symbol yes to as 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.040 like a font add on so you could just print 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.959 the symbol when you were writing about him. And his 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:00.959 contract with Sony was either avoided they gave it up 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.199 or whatever. But he was basically like, I'll show you 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.320 crazy if I need to get out of this contract. Boy. 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:09.040 One of the best concerts I've ever seen. Oh yeah, 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:10.800 I'll bet. And I don't even think I put it 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.040 in my top five when we had that listener mail 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:16.160 that time, but probably forgot. It's probably in my top five. 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:18.719 I would like to see print sometimes he brings it 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:21.399 he um, he bought you me a bottle of water 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:24.000 at um a Miles Davis show at the Cotton Club. 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.280 Really wow. Her friends came up to see the lemon 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:29.080 Heads and she's like, yeah, I'll go with you, and 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.119 then found out that Miles Davis was playing. It's like, 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:36.360 I'm gonna go over here, bottle of water, Evan Dando, 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.879 Miles Davis exactly. Let me think about that. Sorry, e 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:46.480 d um So that's uh, that's print. Oh yeah, and guys, 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:48.720 oh yeah, guys are too. Um. If you want to 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:50.920 learn more about guysers, you can type that word g 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.640 E Y S E r S. That's the English spelling. 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.639 We didn't do it icelandically. Um, but you type that 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.840 in the search bar at how stuff Works dot com 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.560 and it will bring up this fine, fine article. And 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.200 I said search part host of works dot com, which 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:09.119 means it's time for listener mail. All right, Josh, I'm 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:13.280 gonna call this, uh given a local Brooklyn night, a 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:17.480 plug for his election. But that's not how it started. Okay, 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:20.840 that's kind of a complicated title. Um, guys who just 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:22.960 listen to your podcast How Labor Unions Work, And I 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.000 want to thank you for trying to give a very balanced, 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:29.400 uh story to what is a very complicated and contentious subject. 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.840 As a former New York City union organizer, so this 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:35.560 guy was the real deal. I am very familiar with 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.440