How do geysers work

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More Awesome Stuff. Put your goggles on, turn on the heating element, and stand back. It might take a while for your geyser to blow the first time—be patient. From a safe distance, watch what happens as the water heats and boils. After your geyser "blows," it will reset itself by drawing the cool water from the inverted bottle back into the flask. Several eruptions will occur before the water in the plastic bottle gets too hot and the temperature difference between the water in the flask and the water in the plastic bottle is not great enough to refill the system.

When this happens, turn off or unplug the heating element and wait until the water in the plastic container cools.

Note: It might take a few tries to find the right temperature to make the geyser blow in a repeatable cycle—too much heat and the flask will not refill; too little and the geyser will not erupt.

Use your stopwatch to time and record the duration between eruptions and any other cycles you observe. There are three main phases to this geyser's cycle: heating, erupting, and refilling. The heating time required to cause an eruption is based on two main factors: The energy output of the heat source and the length of the glass tubing. The longer the glass tube, the more pressure there is on the flask of water. The more pressure there is, the more heat is needed for the water to boil and the longer it takes for the geyser to erupt.

Steam expands to over 1, times its volume as liquid water. As the steam bubbles and liquid begins to rise up the tube, it reduces the pressure in the chamber below. This in turn reduces the boiling point of the water, causing a rapid conversion of liquid into steam.

That's what causes the eruption you see, and launches the water out of the geyser. After the eruption slows, a small amount of cool water in the upper container will flow down into the flask, causing the steam in the tube and flask to condense. This decreases the pressure inside the apparatus, allowing the atmosphere outside to push more water down into the flask, refilling it.

Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming contains approximately of the world's geysers. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Carolyn Collins Petersen. Astronomy Expert. Carolyn Collins Petersen is an astronomy expert and the author of seven books on space science. She previously worked on a Hubble Space Telescope instrument team.

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