WEBVTT - Geysers: Nature's Innuendo 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.520 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know? 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:17.599 From House Stuff Works dot com bloom and welcome to 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.840 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.960 and uh, this is stuff you should know. Yeah, just 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:31.240 a couple of regular guys are sitting around. Check. That 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.400 was good. I know. I genuinely didn't think you were 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:40.960 going to say Geyser's really a little This was a 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.559 pretty cool article. I thought I knew a lot about Geyser's, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.239 but I did not know exactly what was going on there. Yeah. 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:50.040 In fact, I was wrong on a couple of key points. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.080 Oh really, yes, which I will not point out. Oh 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.240 come on, well, I thought they'd split out lemonade first 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.760 of all. Uh, and I thought that was a little 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.880 guy on there doing it. Oh got lepers Yeah, that's 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.120 what everybody thinks. I was wrong on both of those points. 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.600 Do we have a guyser myth sound effect? I don't 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:13.080 think so. Um does this count as weather? Now? This 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:18.080 is earth science, biogeochemical processes. Okay, I just know you're 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.560 trying to be beef up our weather. H this is 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.960 not weather. It's not weather, although it does begin with weather. Yeah, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:29.280 I mean when something precipitates, that's weather, and precipitation precipitates 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:35.600 the explosion of a geyser. That's right. Uh, Chuck, I 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.480 have no guyser introduction. Man, you can't blame me. Though, 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.760 Like I looked, and there is really not a lot 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:43.960 going on on guysers. I thought you might tell the 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.200 story about the people in nineteen three years that's going 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.440 to but I didn't want to just usurp it. Okay, 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:50.280 but let's do that though, since you brought it up, 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:51.920 because I mean I thought about that, I was like, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.920 whoa hang back, Josh hanging back? Well, apparently guysers can 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.680 kill you. Um. And you know when you see something 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:00.560 like old Faith will go off. That's why you're three 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:02.920 ft away watching it. Yeah, you know you're not gonna 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.320 be on top of the thing. But apparently nineteen three 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:10.400 in New Zealand, which is allowsy with geyser's um, some 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.160 tourists visiting there got caught in a jet at Uh 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:19.440 why man, why Mangu Valley nice? And uh? It killed 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.000 all four people and carried them more than a mile away. Yes, 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:28.320 that is sad, and after after we explain how geysers work, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.640 I think that will well we should mention that again 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.120 because once I understood how guysers worked and I read that, 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.880 I was like, those people met a terrible, terrible demise, 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.560 like they that was terrible way to go. Yeah, I mean, 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.120 it's tantamount to getting thrown into a volcano or caught 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.359 in dropping into the cracks of an earthquake, and they're 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.919 all kind of related, as it turns out, or being 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.320 bludgeoned to death, which is not related. No, but it's 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:59.400 pretty bad way to go to geothermal properties. So um chuck. Geysers, 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.600 as I learned from reading this article on how stuff 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:07.800 works dot com um our beloved site um, are actually 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:11.520 kind of fragile and there's not that many this this articles, 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.639 there's a thousand guysers roughly in in the world, and 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.800 um I read elsewhere that there's only about fifty guyser 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.119 fields on the planet and about two thirds of those 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.400 have five or fewer guysers, which makes yellow Stone a 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:33.040 pretty substantial repository of geyser and guys are related activity. 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.960 Because when you're talking guys are you you don't ever 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.040 just talk guys, or you're also talking um fumer roles. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:46.080 You're talking hot springs, mud pots, steam vents, and all 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.160 of them are based around the same thing, which is 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.480 there's some sort of geo thermal activity that's relatively close 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:58.440 to the Earth's surface, right, um. And there's three components 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:03.640 to a geyser um and they are water supply, plumbing system, 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.119 and heat source. Yeah. And I'm gonna argue with forth 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:11.480 later on later though, I have to wait. I'm gonna 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.360 call it. We'll just go ahead and say what it is, 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.320 which is a remoteness, all right, and then we'll we'll 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:22.159 circle back because detached from its family, it comes very remote. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.720 So a water supply, let's start there, because if you 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.240 ain't got water, you ain't got no geyser. Yeah. And 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.960 I saw in this article that um rivers can often 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:37.800 um form the water supply. I didn't. I didn't see 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.039 that elsewhere. For the most part, from what I from 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.680 what I can gather is that the water supply is 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.760 um precipitation, rain and snow melt percolating through the Earth's 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.520 crust over five thousand or so years, and then it 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.600 trickles down to the point where it comes in contact with, 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.320 like we said, relatively shallow geo thermal activity, usually very 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:04.080 very volcano volcano or volcanic activity, or very very old 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:09.560 like on in the throes of death volcanic activity. Yeah. Um, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:13.120 And it can be anything from magma to um cool magma. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.040 But it's very hot rock and it's close enough to 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.040 the surface that this water doesn't evaporate, it starts to 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.159 trickle back up. Yeah. And when do you stay close? 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.320 Three miles down it seems like a long way down, 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.160 but if you're talking the planet Earth, it's nothing. That's 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:32.000 pretty close. If you're talking magma, it's pretty close. We're 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.960 talking tectonic plates, it's pretty close. It's closer than you 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:40.040 want it to be. Pal, it's a go ahead, okay. 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.880 Number two the plumbing system, right, very important. Um. The 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:47.960 plumbing system is a series of fissures that run miles 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.760 beneath the surface. And one important aspect of these fissures 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:57.680 is they're basically sealed shut with silica from rhyolite. It's 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.080 volcanic rock. Um. And like these minerals have sealed this 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.800 rock shut, right, So like really important part of it, 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.280 that water that's percolating down. When it heats up and 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.280 starts to travel back up, it takes that silica that 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.680 riolite with it and then it just kind of acts 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:17.159 as a ceiling along these pipes. Over five hundred thousand years, 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:18.920 however long it takes for it to go back up, 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.480 it's it's ceiling and it's making it water tight. Well yeah, 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.880 and I imagine I didn't read this, but I imagine 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.599 that this kind of activity happens elsewhere on the planet, 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:32.440 but it's not sealed up, so it just disperses, right, Yeah, 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.000 Because one of the key ingredients of a geyser is pressure, 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.240 high pressure, that's right. And to get that pressure in 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:43.120 these pipes, you have to have rylelite coated sealed pipes. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.920 That's right. Okay, So there's the plumbing system and it 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.680 can the plumbing system barries. All guysers are different. Sometimes 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.640 it's just like a huge, long vertical chaft. Sometimes it 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.960 binds and turns and winds around. Okay, So this is 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.480 this is something that actually differentiates guys are from a 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:59.600 hot spring. So a hot spring is just like a 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.280 one like a long vertical shaft coming from hot water 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.640 um up to the top. But there's no obstruction. What 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.880 makes the guys or a geyser is the fact that 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.560 there's an obstruction in the plumbing right where the hot 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.240 spring water can just move freely up and down. There's 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.280 there's just free exchange and you soak around in it 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.000 like a big lazy wall rush, but there's no pressure 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.520 with the guys are there's some sort of obstruction where 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.040 either say, the water on its way back up and 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.680 there's this wide pool that bottlenecks at the top. So 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.640 now you have pressure. There's a bunch of different pipes 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.320 feeding into one pipe and they all connect to the 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:41.600 same place another bottleneck or this this pipe of water 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:47.000 is so wide and so deep that the pressure from 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.680 the water above the water at the bottom is so 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.400 tremendous that for all intensive purposes it creates a bottleneck 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.560 just strictly out of pressure without an actual obstruction. Yeah, 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.760 just the weight of the water itself is so great. 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.760 So we have a water supply and a plumbing um 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.840 system that is sealed with rhyolite which makes it water 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.640 tight and pressurized, and then some sort of means for 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.560 pressure to build. Yeah, and uh, I guess we can 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.280 go ahead and liking it to a pressure cooker. Now, 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.280 so you understand what we're talking about. If you've ever 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.080 cooked with a pressure cooker at home, or if you've 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.560 ever eaten it Chick fil A and eating their delicious 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.240 pressure fried chicken, is that how they do it? Oh? Yeah, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:30.600 pressure fried? So that's whether so juicy. Um, So water 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.760 is standard water is just gonna boil it like a 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:39.160 hundred degrees celsius French water. Um. If you're if you're 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.199 cooking with a pressure cooker, which means you know, the 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.839 litt a sealed shut it lets out some steam or 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:48.200 else it would explode obviously, Um, it will actually take 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.840 a lot more energy to boil and bubble up, which 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.240 means more heat. And so you can actually cooking a 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:58.000 pressure cooker at like twenty five degrees right, because it's 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.360 just substantial for under a pressure. It takes a lot 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.760 more for what it was boiling water. But it's like 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.400 air bubbles forming and rising to the top. When the 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.640 pressure is too great, it can't boil. So the boiling 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.240 point rises, right, Well, it boils, but it won't it 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.280 can't evaporate. Well, no, it can't. It can't form the 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.000 bubbles that carry to the top. So it can't actually boil. 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.920 So it's just sitting there in this high pressure environment 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.959 at high higher than boiling point temperatures and the same 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.760 things going on in the guyser. Right, You've got the obstruction, 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.520 you've got this heated water, and you have a tremendous 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.400 amount of pressure because again we're talking about miles deep 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:38.880 um and there's that's quite a bit of pressure at 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.520 the bottom the water at the bottom. It's getting hotter 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:47.120 and hotter and hotter. Yeah, like, um, I mean, I 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.760 guess it depends. But for guys are to form and start, 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.120 they think the oldest one is between five thousand and 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.240 forty years old. So yeah, so it takes a little 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.240 while because you know, the plumbing has to has to 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.240 steal up in every thing. But as that pressure builds 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.800 and then that heat um increases, you can reach temperatures 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.000 of like four or five degrees fahrenheit of this water 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.760 and it's still not boiling, right, that's right, And then 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:18.800 eventually it does boil. It overcomes that pressure threshold. Well, 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.240 it finds its way through to to the escape route, 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.599 which is the top of the surface, and it'll just 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.360 and that's not the eruption and it'll just squired a 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.719 little bit of water out and think, wow, that was 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:36.040 a big relief, and such a big relief that the 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:40.199 steam all of a sudden expands to times the volume 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.280 of the water. It's like if you're ever boiling, you 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.079 ever steam vegetables in your house, the best way to 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.120 steam vegetables is you don't just set it on a 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.599 massive boil and cover it up. You get it to 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.480 that massive boil and then you turn that heat down low, 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.640 and all of a sudden, that pressure drop creates like 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.199 massive amounts of steam, right. And the reason why is 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:03.040 because when you increase pressure, you increase the temperature that's 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.640 the boiling point of water. If suddenly you have that 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:11.000 temperature still but the pressure decreases, that that water and 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.920 this guys are just flash vaporizes. And because there's a 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.880 lot more volume to an equal amount of water and steam, 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.679 that steam, like you said, expands to what times the 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.320 volume And there's your guys are pal Yeah, it's that's 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:27.000 all of a sudden, all the steam in the water 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.560 just gets shot out. Depending on what kind of guys 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.679 are it is, it's going to take different formations and 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:37.439 be different heights and last different amounts of time. But um, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.600 it'll keep going until it either runs out of water 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.400 or it cools down enough for it just start all 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.720 over again. Yeah, and then it just starts all over again, 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.520 which is how you get something like Old Faithful. Right, 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.839 that's right. Once it once it releases that um that 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.760 pressure and it shoots out, it's the whole process just 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.600 begins again, and you have, Um, guys, there's like Old 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.560 Faithful that or run like on a pretty regular schedule. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.520 I think it's between like sixty and eighty five minutes 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.360 or something like that. Well, I've got the new schedule 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.280 to help schedule because it's been it's been happening with 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:15.080 greater with less frequency and greater power in recent years. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.840 I think it's said since two thousand UM. And it's 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.280 a bimodal. They call it bimodal. And if you're going 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.480 to Old Paple and Wyoming, Um. There are generally two 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.600 eruption durations now, either a long one which is over 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.120 four minutes, or a short one, which is about two 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.959 and a half minutes. And if you have just missed 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.560 the short one, there'll be about an hour before your 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.160 next eruption. If you have just missed the long one, 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:42.240 then there's gonna be about an hour and a half 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.800 until the next one. But either way, it's it's worth 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.240 sticking around for it. Yeah, and it's funny if you 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.080 go to the page and there's obviously a webcam up 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:51.520 where you can see it and stuff, but that's not 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:53.560 as fun. But if you go to the web page 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.559 and they ask for tips on you know, seeing it, 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.760 they say, well, if there's a lot of people sitting 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.120 around on the benches, that means there's one upcoming. If 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:03.839 there's a bunch of people getting up and leaving, that 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.000 means it just happened. It's like, wow, really, yeah, that's 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.640 the best you can do. That sounds like, um, like 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:15.040 hippie park ranger logic exactly. Um okay, so, uh well, 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.520 I guess we're onto like famous geysers, right, yeah, Actually 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.760 quickly I mentioned I teased about the fourth um thing 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.720 being remoteness. Apparently, in the last fifty years, uh producing 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:32.079 energy with geothermal energy production is increased so much that 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:36.720 it's affecting geysers, and so being remote is now believed 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:38.560 to be one of the requirements to be a geyser 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.880 because geysers are vanishing because of man because so I 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.040 was trying to figure out this out. Maybe you can 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.480 help me. That's because we dig down to these this 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.679 this um, these geysers of this geo thermal activity, and 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.520 in doing so, are we creating like a release valve 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.240 so the pressure camp build as much I think So, 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.640 I mean they're using it to spind turbines to create energy, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:03.719 but I know you can also have like a geothermal 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.520 system in your backyard, which I don't think he uses. 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.760 I don't think it like creates steam. So I feel 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.559 like what we're doing then is creating artificial geysers, like 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.600 creating an artificial pipe to let steam out, which would 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.800 impact any natural guys activity because like we said, they're 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.640 very fragile. Earthquakes frequently um cut them off. They also 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.440 bring them back to life to Yeah, that's like there 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:32.040 was one called the Stroker geyser that that would be 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.520 st r O k K you are, yeah, and that 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.160 stroker like stroker race right right, So stroker geyser um 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.160 is after the Icelandic well, stroker is after the Icelandic 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.960 verb to churn, and actually geysers after the Icelandic verb 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:51.600 um to gush. So this is all very Icelandic in origin, 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:53.800 but that would be g e y s I r 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.920 okas in Icelandic. Sure, I won't know how byork pronounced. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.560 And you've seen Christian Wiggs impression of her. Huh, it's 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.960 really great. Um Okay, So the Stroker Geyser was actually um. 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:13.920 It was enacted in seventeen nine um because of an earthquake, 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:19.240 and then another earthquake hit in Ee and it became inactive. 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.400 It went dormant and the local said, we gotta get 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.320 our guys are back. Man, it's all blocked up. So 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.040 they cleared it off and now it's running again. I 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:32.800 bet that's probably dangerous work. Dangerous. Um. Another way to 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.600 that humans are impacting is a mineral extraction. Apparently in 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:41.840 two thousand three, uh, they were extracting minerals in Chile, 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.880 the second largest geyser field in South America, and it 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:52.880 killed it basically from extracting golden stuff. Because basically they 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.800 mess with the plumbing and then you're finished. Because it's 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:58.720 like you said, like um, in a pressure cooker has 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.360 that little steam, but also it's doesn't explode. The guys 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:04.600 aren't supposed to have that. If they have that, they 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.600 just don't go off. They're like, well, fine, I'll just 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:11.760 let some steam off and um, um, that does happen naturally. 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:16.360 There are steam vents located near geysers, um like yellow stones. Like, 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:21.680 we have ten thousand um geo thermal um what is 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:26.080 the word they use, Uh, basically different things. We have 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.200 ten thousands of your thermal different things. Um. But the 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:33.120 vast majority of those are like steam vents. No, they're 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:37.600 they're natural, Like they're like little steam releases that come 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.120 up through fissures in the earth. I thought you meant 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.440 we put those in to make old bathele like safers. No, 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.760 they happen naturally. Um. But I think it's the same 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.600 thing as drilling a hole down to a geotherrmal um 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.640 different thing and uh and tapping it to run a turbine. Okay, 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.720 at least you didn't say interesting. Interesting, man, This stuff 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.600 is very interesting. Um, Old people, is a cone geyser? 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:04.920 I'm not sure I understand the difference. Is it the 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.159 is it the difference? Is it the outlet like the 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.440 shape of the thing above the earth. Yeah, So with 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.960 the cone, guys, where the ryo light bubbles up enough 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.680 over time that it builds up and it forms a 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:17.760 little cone and that's what the guys are shoots out of. 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:19.720 And normally with the cone guys or you have a 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.200 big stream going is yet going into the air like 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.879 hundreds of feet That one in um in uh New Zealand, 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:33.320 the Wyman Geo geyser. Um, that one streamed four d 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.680 seventy ft into the air and for those of you 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.560 in New Zealand, that's four hundred and fifty that's a 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:43.639 world record, right yeah, yeah, nineteen oh two, yeah, before 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:45.800 it killed people, right, and then it went dormant in 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.000 nineteen o four because of the landslide, which makes me 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.440 think like this thing is coming back. It just gotta 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:55.440 bubble back up, kill people and then shut down right afterwards. Yeah, 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.040 it's really had a really chaotic to your career. It's 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.679 like a rock star overdosed on heroin or something. Um. 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.679 But anyway, as I was saying, um, the cone shoots 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.560 a jet into the air. The fountain Um, it shoots 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.200 in a much more like chaotic streme whatever. But it 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:14.760 doesn't come up from a cone. It comes up from 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:19.240 a pool. So at the surface the geyser goes into 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.520 a pool of water and then that it will erupt 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.320 out of the water, and that would be the Grand guyser. Um, 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.720 the tall that's the tallest regularly erupting guys are on 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.520 the planet. And that is also a yellowstone. Yeah, the tallest, 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:34.800 and that it shoots up in the air. Yeah, two 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:40.320 feet in crazy fountain e hard to predict fashion. Yeah, 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.399 which is pretty surprising too, because the cone geyser shoots 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.280 a jet straight up in the air and this fountain 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.320 geyser is still beating the average one. Yeah. Could you 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.480 imagine if it was a cone guyser, it would be 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.920 mind blowing to the moon. Uh. You mentioned the stroker 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:00.760 Ace geyser, the steamboat guys Yeah, apparently can sheet water 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.240 up to three hundred feet. But don't bother stopping by 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.520 because it hasn't happened for fifty years. It can go 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.120 fifty years, but yeah, it's finicky. Yeah. Um. There's also 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:15.680 the geyser, which is the o g geyser because that's 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.280 where the word came from. It's a geyser in Iceland. 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:23.160 It was discovered in Umour, so it's the oldest known 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.520 guys are on the planet. But they took some samples 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.639 of the silica that forms the cone of the castle 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.200 guys are in Yellowstone. That's the one they think is 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:35.480 five thousand to forty thousand years old. Apparently silicon dating 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.760 can use some work. I did see one interesting little 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:44.080 and it wasn't a joke. It was almost like you 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.440 could hear science guys laughing about it. Though. You geysers 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:52.080 are always called geysers, even if they quit erupting. But 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.159 that ceased to make seeds to be a geyser at 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.240 that point. But once you have erupted, you're always called 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:02.359 a geyser. The cone formerly known as geyser. Yeah, that's 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.960 what I would call it. Shameful. Uh, listen, do you 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:11.160 know that whole story about Prince doing that, about changing 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.720 his name. No, I never knew the story behind it. 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.200 So he was locked in a contract with Sony that 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.560 he didn't like, and Sony basically said, you can't release 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:24.320 an album as Prince. Yes. And but also that had 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.240 something to do with him acting basically crazy, like he 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.600 acted crazy on purpose to get out of his contract 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:31.439 because there was some sort of clause where like if 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:33.880 he was if he went nuts or whatever, it would 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.119 avoid his contract. So he did that, and he had 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.800 that font release and I remember he released it to 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.520 the media like, um, his little symbol yes to as 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.480 like a font add on so you could just print 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.359 the symbol when you were writing about him. And his 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.200 contract with Sony was either avoided or they gave it 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:53.520 up or whatever. But he was basically like, I'll show 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.760 you crazy, but I need to get out of this contract. Boy. 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.480 One of the best concerts I've ever seen. Oh yeah, 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.240 I'll bet and I don't even think I put it 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:03.880 my top five when we had that listener mail at time, 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:06.879 but probably forgot. It's probably in my top five. I 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:09.919 would like to see print. Sometimes he brings it he um. 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.439 He bought you met a bottle of water at um 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.639 a Miles Davis show at the Cotton Club. Really wow. 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.040 Her friends came up to see the lemon Heads and 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.000 she's like, yeah, I'll go with you, and then found 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:22.000 out that Miles Davis was playing. It's like, I'm gonna 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:27.919 go over here yourself, bottle of water. Evan Dando, Miles Davis. 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:32.520 Let me think about that. Sorry, e d um So 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:38.679 that's uh, that's print. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Guys are too. Um. 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:40.560 If you want to learn more about guysers, you can 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:42.920 type that word g E y S e r s. 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.439 That's the English spelling. We didn't do it icelandically. Um, 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:47.960 but you type that in the search bar at how 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:50.680 stuff works dot com and it will bring up this fine, 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:54.080 fine article. And I said search part how stuff works 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.280 dot com, which means it's time for plug fest. It's 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.840 time for listener mail. All right, Josh, I'm gonna call this, 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:07.400 uh given a local Brooklyn night a plug for his election. 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:10.600 But that's not how it started. Okay, that was kind 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:13.320 of a complicated title. Um, guys who just listen to 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:15.359 your podcast How Labor Unions Work? And I want to 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:17.960 thank you for trying to give a very balanced a 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.520 story to what is a very complicated and contentious subject. 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.000 As a former New York City union organizer, so this 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:27.720 guy is the real deal. I am very familiar with 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.560 the arguments against unions, but I truly believe American workers 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.600 in the American economy are better off with unions and 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:39.240 without when unions are strong, organizing when unions are strong. 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.800 There is some counterpoint to this total acceptance of rampant 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:46.000 greed that was essentially the cause of the financial meltdown 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:48.320 in two thousand and eight. At this point, with unions 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:51.080 at their weakest and a half century, we average Americans 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:55.359 are being held hostage by corporations. That's what he says. Um, 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:57.679 I have to say in my line of work, violence 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:00.800