Geysir
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox landform Geysir ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), sometimes known as The Great Geysir, is a geyser in south-western Iceland,Template:Sfn that geological studies suggest started forming about 1150 CE.Template:Sfn The English word geyser (a periodically spouting hot spring) derives from Geysir.Template:Sfn The name Geysir itself is derived from the Icelandic verb geysa ("to go quickly forward").<ref name=EB1911/> Geysir lies in the Haukadalur valley on the slopes of Laugarfjall lava dome, which is also the home to Strokkur geyser about Template:Convert to the south.Template:Sfn The Strokkur geyser may be confused with it, and the geothermal field it is in is known usually as either, Geysir or Haukadalur.
Eruptions at Geysir can typically hurl boiling water up to Template:Cvt in the air.Template:Sfn However, eruptions are nowadays infrequent, and have in the past stopped altogether for many years at a time.Template:Sfn
HistoryEdit
A geyser at the general site is described in a written source by Saxo Grammaticus,<ref name=EB1911>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> as a mention in Gesta Danorum, his work finished about 1206 which was printed in 1514 as Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae.<ref>Template:Cite EB9</ref> However the oldest definitive accounts of the hot springs at Haukadalur in their present form, date back to 1294,Template:Sfn in the chronicle “Oddaverjaannáll”,Template:Sfn when earthquakes in the area caused significant changes in local neighbouring landscape, creating several new hot springs.Template:Sfn Changes in the activity of Geysir and the surrounding geysers are strongly related to earthquake activity.Template:Sfn In records dated 1630, the geysers erupted so violently that the valley around them trembled.Template:Sfn The name "Geysir" was first mentioned in written sources in 1647;Template:Sfn as unusual natural phenomena were of great interest during the Age of Enlightenment, the term became popular and has been used for similar hydrothermal features worldwide since then.
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In 1809 and 1810 the eruptions were about every 30 hours and up to Template:Cvt high.<ref name=EB1911/> In 1811 George Mackenzie, a geologist, first proposed that expansion of steam in a subsurface cavity explained Geysir's activity.Template:Sfn In 1845, it reached a height of Template:Cvt.Template:Citation needed In 1846, research on Geysir, and Iceland sponsored by the Danish Crown, by amongst others, the German chemist Robert Bunsen, resulted in a better general explanation of the mechanism of geyser activity which contributed significantly to the more refined models used today.Template:Sfn<ref name=EB1911/> Measurements by Professor Bunsen in that year showed that Geysir was erupting Template:Cvt high.
In 1882 an account of the first accurate survey (previous attempts were associated with instrument problems), noted that a booming sound warned or Geysir's eruptions, eruptions were about 6 hourly but often of only Template:Cvt.Template:Sfn
The records of recent centuries show that earthquakes have tended to revive the activity of Geysir, which then subsided again in the following years.Template:Sfn Before 1896, Geysir was almost dormant.Template:Sfn In that year an earthquake caused eruptions to begin again, occurring several times a day, lasting up to an hour and causing spouts of up to Template:Cvt in height.Template:Sfn In 1910, it was active every 30 minutes; by 1915, the time between the eruptions was as much as six hours, and in 1916, the eruptions all but ceased. In 1935, a man-made channel was dug through the silica rim around the edge of the geyser vent.Template:Sfn This ditch caused a lowering of the water table and a revival in activity.Template:Sfn Gradually this channel also became clogged with silica and eruptions again became rare.Template:Sfn
In 1981, the ditch was cleared again and eruptions could be stimulated, on special occasions, by the addition of soap.Template:Sfn Due to environmental concerns, soap was seldom added during the 1990s. During that time, Geysir seldom erupted. When it did erupt, it was spectacular, sending boiling water sometimes up to Template:Convert into the air. On the Icelandic National Day, authorized government geologists would force an eruption. Further earthquakes in 2000 revived the geyser,Template:Sfn and it reached 122 meters for two days.Template:Citation needed, thus becoming one of the highest known geysers in history. Waimangu Geyser in New Zealand typically erupted higher than this, up to Template:Cvt high,<ref>Template:Cite encyclopaedia</ref> but it stopped all activity around 1908.Template:Sfn<ref>Glennon, J Allan "World Geyser Fields" Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 2008-04-04</ref> Initially, Geysir eruptions were taking place on average eight times a day. By July 2003, this activity had again decreased to around three times per day. Large eruptions after this became so rare that one in 2016 was considered newsworthy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
GeologyEdit
A current geological definition of a hot water geyser is "…a hot spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by a vapor phase"Template:Sfn which is a technical correction of historic definitions that mention steam and a column in air.<ref name=EB1911/> Geysir is technically a hot water pool geyser rather than a cone geyser so much heat is lost to the atmosphere explaining why the maximum temperature in its conduit is several meters below the top of the water column rather than at the top like is the case with Old Faithful.Template:Sfn Geysir's funnel like surface conduit has a diameter of between Template:Convert and until a narrow constriction a depth of about Template:Convert.Template:Sfn In the conduit above Template:Cvt the geyser has a temperature between Template:Cvt and reaches higher temperatures of about Template:Cvt below this.Template:Sfn The conduit in this higher temperature region is more constricted and irregular than earlier studies could ascertain, and fracture related, with potential for the boiling temperature to be reached.Template:Sfn Below Template:Cvt the conduit has several branches and cavities.Template:Sfn As it is closer to sea level than most of the world's 1000 odd geysers the actual erupted water temperature is higher than most.Template:Sfn
The Template:Cvt Haukadalur volcanic system, which provides the heat,Template:Sfn is mainly to the west of Geysir but has not been active volcanically for over 10,000 years.Template:Sfn Geysir is on the eastern slopes of the rhyolitic Laugarfjall lava dome,Template:Sfn but the hyaloclastite nature of the rock that the water erupts through, may be important in its fracture network.Template:Sfn It is now known that the areas of thermal activity of the geothermal field align along microfractures that became seismologically active after the 2000 Iceland earthquakes.Template:Sfn
The geothermal water source may be the southern Langjökull ice sheet, about Template:Cvt to the north.Template:Sfn
Research on the deposits of sinter, formed from the dissolved minerals in the hot water, shows that hot springs at the Geysir location have been active for approximately 10,000 years.Template:Sfn However before Geysir became active as a definitive geyser the previous deposits were covered with tephra from Katla and Hekla, and little sinter was deposited for about 2000 years.Template:Sfn Once Geysir became active, precipitation of opal from the geothermal water lead to a siliceous sinter apron around the geyser.Template:Sfn This has allowed formation of the modern geyser to be dated to about 1150 CE which accords with the history of written mention above.Template:Sfn
Nearby GeysersEdit
The nearby geyser Strokkur erupts much more frequently than Geysir, erupting to heights of up to Template:Convert every few minutes.Template:Sfn Strokkur was first described in 1789.<ref name=EB1911/> There is contrast in its lack of warning of eruption with the case of Geysir and evidence that the plumbing might not be totally independent.Template:Sfn Strokkur's conduit has also been mapped in detail and is pipe shaped to Template:Cvt, where it narrows before expanding into a cavity at about Template:Cvt before narrowing again into a fracture configuration at about Template:Cvt where temperatures become close to the boiling point.Template:Sfn Strokkur's activity has also been affected by earthquakes, although to a lesser extent than the Great Geysir.Template:Sfn Due to its eruption frequency, online photos and videos of Strokkur are regularly mislabelled as depicting Geysir. There are around thirty much smaller geysers and hot pools in the area, including one called Litli Geysir ('Little Geysir').Template:Sfn Detailed thermal mapping of the geothermal field has revealed 364 distinct hot areas.Template:Sfn
Descriptions of the Great Geysir and Strokkur have been given in many travel guides to Iceland published from the 18th century onwards. Together with Þingvellir and the Gullfoss waterfall, they are part of the Golden Circle, the most famous tourist route in the country.
Geysir was officially protected by the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources on 17 June 2020.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Ownership of the areaEdit
Until 1894, the Geysir area was owned by local farmers.<ref name=landowership>Template:Cite news</ref> In that year the area was sold to James Craig (later Lord Craigavon), a whiskey distiller from Ulster and a future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.<ref name=landowership /><ref name=IR>Template:Cite news</ref> Initially, he erected large fences around the site and an entrance fee was charged for visitors wishing to view the geysers.<ref name=landowership /> The following year, he gave the area as a present to a friend, E. Craig, who dropped the entrance fees. Later Craig's nephew Hugh Rogers inherited the site.<ref name=IR /> In 1935, he sold the site to film director Sigurður Jónasson who subsequently donated it to the Icelandic people in perpetuity,<ref name=landowership /> although full public ownership of all routes of access did not take place until 2017.<ref name=IR />
GalleryEdit
- Great Geysir (4).jpg
The erupting Great Geysir in summer 2009
- Litli Geysir.jpg
Litli Geysir erupting
- Gran Geysir, Área geotérmica de Geysir, Suðurland, Islandia, 2014-08-16, DD 107.JPG
Geysir in 2014
- Geysir forest.jpg
A forest near the Geysir
- PSM V21 D387 Theoretical structure of the bjarnafell great geyser.jpg
Diagram of a theoretical structure for Geysir, from 1882
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
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Further readingEdit
- The Great Geysir, Helgi Torfason of the Icelandic National Energy Authority, 1985 (no ISBN, but book available from the Geysir tourist center).