July 15th – Norris Geyser Basin (Part 4)
Steamboat Geyser, roughly 250 yards south of Emerald Spring, is famous for being the world's largest active geyser. Major eruptions, rising from the north vent, may reach up 380 feet, but only occur once or twice a year, with breaks spanning many years. However, minor eruptions are frequent, reaching 75 feet or more. The crater is colorful and complex. It isn’t just a hole in the ground water shoots out of.
As an example of how many pools, springs, and geysers are interconnected subterraneanly, nearby Cistern Spring nearly empties after major eruptions of Steamboat despite them being over three hundred feet apart.
Other features along this section are called by such names as Echinus Geyser, Black Pit, Sulphur Pot, Crater Spring, Root Pool, Dishwater Spring, Arch Steam Vent, and Tantalus Geyser. There are also features that are only known by their geologic ID numbers, and some that have no name at all.
Further down the trail are Mystic Spring and Mud Spring that I wouldn’t have been able to tell apart without their signage. Their neighbor, knowns as Yellow Mud Spring, is just as confusingly similar.
A unique feature, and one of the most popular in the Back Basin, is Green Dragon Spring. The Spring isn’t exactly a geyser but it does “erupt” at two different spots of up to three feet in height (maybe more), caused by superheated boiling of the water in the “spring.” Sulfur emitted by the constant steam makes the walls inside the cave very colorful. The runoff from Green Dragon Spring flows into the Gray Lakes, which encompasses many submerged hot springs of their own. The whole area is a bubbling, steaming mess that smells worse than the old artesian well near the Barrymore homestead built out of cypress when the family first came to Florida.
Beyond the Gray Lakes are many more thermal features, named and unnamed, one of which is called Yellow Funnel Spring and that where the boardwalk climbs a low ridge and turns left to an observation platform, where you can overlook the central flat of Norris Back Basin. Directly in front of the platform is Orby Geyser (or Orbicular Geyser), and it spouts most of the time. Around Orby Geyser many craters perforate the ground, some of them belonging to informally named features such as The Cousins or Xiuhtecuhtli (name of the Aztec God of Fire). The area to the right (east) of Orby Geyser is partly obscured by trees but is where Son of Green Dragon Spring and Grandson of Green Dragon Spring are located. Beyond that are Daughter of Green Dragon Spring and Dabble Geyser. A couple other features closer to the boardwalk are called the silly names of Porkchop Geyser, Second Erupter, Sagebrush Lizard Spring. I’m thinking someone had gotten into the “special recipe” on those naming days or they were running out of names.
Further along the boardwalk Pearl Geyser is very popular because of its opalescent appearance and its sparkling eruptions. Sometimes the geyserite lining of the crater exhibits a pearl-like luster.
Almost as popular as Pearl Geyser is Vixen Geyser a short distance to the north. Vixen is erupting quite frequently.
From the boardwalk between Pearl Geyser and Vixen Geyser we could see two large steam plumes behind trees in the west. The left one was from Psychedelic Steam Vent. The other one was Recess Spring, which we learned sometimes acts as a geyser, and is approximately 400 feet from the boardwalk. There is a sad story about that area.
In 2016 a 23-year-old guy from Oregon and his sister were illegally looking for a pool suitable for so-called hot potting, the soaking in a natural hot spring. About 500 feet north of Recess Spring the siblings came across Orpiment Spring, which measures less than 15 feet in diameter and named after a yellow arsenic sulfide mineral. At first look, Orpiment Spring appeared suitable for illegal hot potting so the young man bent down to check the spring's temperature but when he lost balance. In front of his sister, who captured the whole incident on video, he plunged into the pool, which was an acidity of less than pH 5 and a temperature close to 199 °F, the boiling point at this altitude. From that moment on there was no escape, he was scalded to death within minutes. Later that same day a rescue team found his flip flops and some other personal items on scene and saw the body inside the spring, but during the night the rescue operation had to be suspended due to dangerous ground and an approaching lightning storm. On the next day the recovery of his body was to no avail because the acidic Orpiment Spring did not leave anything to retrieve.
I didn’t tell Benny that story on purpose, there was a tourist group and the guide told the lurid tale before I could get Benny out of there. After giving the area a hard look all he said was, “That’s why you follow the rules.” I struggled with deciding whether to go back to the van but Benny surprised me by pulling me along and asking me to read the next sign-thingie which had long words on it.
Steamboat Geyser, roughly 250 yards south of Emerald Spring, is famous for being the world's largest active geyser. Major eruptions, rising from the north vent, may reach up 380 feet, but only occur once or twice a year, with breaks spanning many years. However, minor eruptions are frequent, reaching 75 feet or more. The crater is colorful and complex. It isn’t just a hole in the ground water shoots out of.
As an example of how many pools, springs, and geysers are interconnected subterraneanly, nearby Cistern Spring nearly empties after major eruptions of Steamboat despite them being over three hundred feet apart.
Other features along this section are called by such names as Echinus Geyser, Black Pit, Sulphur Pot, Crater Spring, Root Pool, Dishwater Spring, Arch Steam Vent, and Tantalus Geyser. There are also features that are only known by their geologic ID numbers, and some that have no name at all.
Further down the trail are Mystic Spring and Mud Spring that I wouldn’t have been able to tell apart without their signage. Their neighbor, knowns as Yellow Mud Spring, is just as confusingly similar.
A unique feature, and one of the most popular in the Back Basin, is Green Dragon Spring. The Spring isn’t exactly a geyser but it does “erupt” at two different spots of up to three feet in height (maybe more), caused by superheated boiling of the water in the “spring.” Sulfur emitted by the constant steam makes the walls inside the cave very colorful. The runoff from Green Dragon Spring flows into the Gray Lakes, which encompasses many submerged hot springs of their own. The whole area is a bubbling, steaming mess that smells worse than the old artesian well near the Barrymore homestead built out of cypress when the family first came to Florida.
Beyond the Gray Lakes are many more thermal features, named and unnamed, one of which is called Yellow Funnel Spring and that where the boardwalk climbs a low ridge and turns left to an observation platform, where you can overlook the central flat of Norris Back Basin. Directly in front of the platform is Orby Geyser (or Orbicular Geyser), and it spouts most of the time. Around Orby Geyser many craters perforate the ground, some of them belonging to informally named features such as The Cousins or Xiuhtecuhtli (name of the Aztec God of Fire). The area to the right (east) of Orby Geyser is partly obscured by trees but is where Son of Green Dragon Spring and Grandson of Green Dragon Spring are located. Beyond that are Daughter of Green Dragon Spring and Dabble Geyser. A couple other features closer to the boardwalk are called the silly names of Porkchop Geyser, Second Erupter, Sagebrush Lizard Spring. I’m thinking someone had gotten into the “special recipe” on those naming days or they were running out of names.
Further along the boardwalk Pearl Geyser is very popular because of its opalescent appearance and its sparkling eruptions. Sometimes the geyserite lining of the crater exhibits a pearl-like luster.
Almost as popular as Pearl Geyser is Vixen Geyser a short distance to the north. Vixen is erupting quite frequently.
From the boardwalk between Pearl Geyser and Vixen Geyser we could see two large steam plumes behind trees in the west. The left one was from Psychedelic Steam Vent. The other one was Recess Spring, which we learned sometimes acts as a geyser, and is approximately 400 feet from the boardwalk. There is a sad story about that area.
In 2016 a 23-year-old guy from Oregon and his sister were illegally looking for a pool suitable for so-called hot potting, the soaking in a natural hot spring. About 500 feet north of Recess Spring the siblings came across Orpiment Spring, which measures less than 15 feet in diameter and named after a yellow arsenic sulfide mineral. At first look, Orpiment Spring appeared suitable for illegal hot potting so the young man bent down to check the spring's temperature but when he lost balance. In front of his sister, who captured the whole incident on video, he plunged into the pool, which was an acidity of less than pH 5 and a temperature close to 199 °F, the boiling point at this altitude. From that moment on there was no escape, he was scalded to death within minutes. Later that same day a rescue team found his flip flops and some other personal items on scene and saw the body inside the spring, but during the night the rescue operation had to be suspended due to dangerous ground and an approaching lightning storm. On the next day the recovery of his body was to no avail because the acidic Orpiment Spring did not leave anything to retrieve.
I didn’t tell Benny that story on purpose, there was a tourist group and the guide told the lurid tale before I could get Benny out of there. After giving the area a hard look all he said was, “That’s why you follow the rules.” I struggled with deciding whether to go back to the van but Benny surprised me by pulling me along and asking me to read the next sign-thingie which had long words on it.