The Great Geysir in Iceland

 

The title “The Great Geysir in Iceland” is correct and at the same time a little incorrect [1], because on the one hand it is about the Great Geysir (Isl. Stóri Geysir), which gave its name to all geysers, and on the other hand the area of hot springs near Haukadalur in the area of the Icelandic municipality of Bláskógabyggð [2]. Other geysers are also active there, for example the Strokkur Geyser. But first things first.

In between the ferntree and the pandanustree
you may detect the geyser's fountain above the the roof [6]

I didn't see my first geysers in Iceland, but in New Zealand, and that's why I'm also posting two pictures from 1988. I arrived in Rotirua late in the afternoon and checked into the Geyserland Hotel. It was a bit of a climb up the hill and you couldn't see anything if you were busy searching and arriving. Then I got to my room and opened the door ... and left the door open. I rushed to the balcony because just as I had opened the door, a high fountain of a geyser shot up. Of course, I closed the door because it was already too dark to take photos, but I first gave myself over to the wonder of this natural spectacle. The next day I visited the geyser area of Roturua down below the hotel. Later, when I was back in Germany, a newspaper advertised the Geyserland Hotel for 3 million DM. I don't dare calculate how much that would be in today's money; in euros it's about 1.4 million. Well, that would have been far beyond my means, but I still found the offer surprising because Roturua had a lot of tourism. I assume that most guests found the sudden fountains and the smell of the fumaroles unpleasant. Enough of this digression!

I had been in Iceland a little over a year ago and visited the hot spring area of Haukadalur. I know that I admired the Great Geysir at that place, but I can no longer identify from my pictures which eruption, which fountain, which steam is associated with this great geyser. Geysir is derived from the Icelandic geysa "to spurt out, to pour out" and is in turn the frequentative of the verb gjósa "to bubble, to erupt". The Great Geysir was first mentioned in 1294. The sinter deposits around the geyser basin have been analyzed and it is estimated that its activity has been going on for about 10,000 years [3]. Earthquakes, which are more common in geothermally active areas, can lead to a cessation of activity or to renewed activity. The Great Geysir was temporarily inactive or only very sporadically active during the last century, but this has changed since an earthquake in the year 2000. Before the eruption and the water fountain shoots up with the steam and clouds, the water bubbles up and forms something like a bubbling bell; unfortunately I don't have a photo of this because I was too busy looking for fountains.

Now a few notes on what happens in a geyser and why; this is explained in more detail and more precisely on Wikipedia [4]. In principle, it is similar to making an espresso on the stove: water vapor pushes hot water through the coffee [5]. Seepage water reaches the depths, is heated by magma, while the pressure of the water column heats the water in the eruption channel to well over 100 °C without boiling. But then the pressure of the water vapor increases so much that it suddenly pushes the heated water upwards. We then enjoy the fountain.

I really enjoyed my stay there and you can watch geysers and other geothermal phenomena, such as mud pots or hot springs, fumaroles, deposits, algae growth, etc. I will come back to fumaroles separately later, as soon as I report on the north of Iceland.

Links and Annotations:
[1] I hate incorrectness, but I want to talk more about what I saw and thozght rather than write a treatsise on geysirs.
[2] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%9Fer_Geysir and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geysir and https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geysir
[3] It's an estimate and I should be happy with that. However, I wonder how they could incorporate periods of inactivity into this estimate.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geyser and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geysir
[5] In Roturua for instance the hot springs were used to cook.
[6] I forgot, where I found the add in 1988, but the hotel had been operational afterwards.
PS. Use the links, it's complicated, but each is an article of the own.

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