Crystal Geyser is located on the east bank of the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

approximately downstream from

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is a rare example of a cold-water carbon dioxide driven geyser; geothermal activity does not play a role in the activity of the geyser. The ground water near the geyser has significant quantities of dissolved carbon dioxide, along with substantial underground gas accumulations in the surrounding area. Saturation of the aquifer with creates enough pressure to force groundwater through the geyser and out on to the surface. Historically the geyser erupted to a height of or more. During 2005, a study of the timing of the eruptions found them to be

bimodal In statistics, a multimodal distribution is a probability distribution with more than one mode (statistics), mode. These appear as distinct peaks (local maxima) in the probability density function, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Categorical, ...

. About 66% of eruptions in the study occurred about 8 hours after the previous eruption, and the rest about 22 hours after. The geyser erupts for an average of one hundred minutes a day, with eruptions either lasting 7–32 minutes, or 98–113 minutes. The bimodal distribution of eruptions is not a well-understood pattern, but is found in other geysers, both cold-water and otherwise. Between eruption events, the water level is approximately seventeen feet below the surface of the geyser—at the level of the water table. In the preface to an eruption, water surfaces, fills the pond around the geyser, and begins to bubble. Bubbling events occur with increasing frequency in the time leading up to an eruption, but are not constant; bubbling events last for a few minutes, with a few minutes of calm in between. Bubbling events at the main geyser also frequently alternate with bubbling events at natural side-pools. The current form of the geyser was created by an

exploration well Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vis ...

drilled in 1935 in attempt to locate oil. The well was originally deep, but an earlier owner of the land partially filled it in, meaning that the well is now only a couple hundred metres deep. The area surrounding the modern geyser is covered in a thick layer of orange

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a pro ...

. Near the river, adjacent to the modern orange travertine, are substantial deposits of white travertine, perhaps reflecting the original depositional environment of the geyser (before the exploratory well was drilled.) Crystal Geyser 2020

Currently the geyser erupts every 8-27 hours, with some eruptions lasting 14 hours or longer. The average height of modern eruptions are less than ten feet in height. Speculation is that a geological event changed the geyser's underground structure. Some believe people filled the geyser with rocks in an effort to provoke eruptions. The first written record of Crystal Geyser comes from the report of the

Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 The Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869, led by American naturalist John Wesley Powell, was the first thorough cartographic and scientific investigation of long segments of the Green and Colorado rivers in the southwestern United States, includi ...

, July 13, 1869:

''We stop to examine some interesting rocks, deposited by mineral springs that at one time must have existed here, but which are no longer flowing...''

Geology

The area surrounding the modern geyser is covered in a thick layer of orange

. The travertine is composed of couplets of highly porous, micritic laminae alternating with iron oxide-rich laminae. Aragonite is present near the vent and is replaced by magnesium-poor calcite farther away. The bacterium '' Leptothrix'' is probably responsible for the ''Frutexites''‐like iron-rich laminae.

Pisoid A pisolite is a sedimentary rock made of pisoids, which are concretionary grains – typically of calcium carbonate which resemble ooids, but are more than 2 mm in diameter. These grains are approximately spherical and have concentric lay ...

s ("pearls") form in pools near the vent. Source of the water is the nearby Green River, which flows along the Little Grand Wash Fault and dissolves the calcium carbonate from the underlying Middle Jurassic strata, particularly the

Summerville Formation The Summerville Formation is a geological formation in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah of the Southwestern United States. It dates back to the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic.Wilcox 2007 Description The formation consists of up to of red m ...

. The average geyser water temperature is 18°C (64.4 F). File:Travertine pearls.jpg, Pisoids ("pearls") at Crystal Geyser. File:Old travertine.jpg, Old travertine deposit along the Little Grand Wash Fault that was seen by the Powel Expedition. File:Permineralization.jpg, Permineralization of modern plant debris due to the high mineral content of the geyser water. File:Microbes at Crystal Geyser.jpg, Green tint of microbes at Crystal Geyser.

References

External links

Cold Water Geysers (Crystal Geyser, Utah)

Implications of results from flux surveys over known {{CO2 systems for long-term monitoring
Bodies of water of Grand County, Utah Geysers of Utah Cold water geysers Tourist attractions in Grand County, Utah

See also

References

External links