[Geysers] Geyser versus geysering

[TSBryan at aol.com]

The following is in response to some aspects of a _Geothermics_ article  that 
was mentioned here previously. Many thanks to Randy Marrett (U Texas) for  
sending the complete article to me. And although I still haven't read it really  
thoroughly, I make the following comments now (since Betty and I will be  off 
tomorrow for five days of play in Death Valley).
 
This is the article that discusses eruptions occurring due to rising Taylor  
bubbles; that is, bubbles that occupy the entire diameter of a plumbing tube, 
so  that their rising toward the surface has no option but to live the entire 
water  column ahead of them = eruption. With this, boiling within a subsurface 
chamber  is not required. The model in this article is the Wilson Street 
Well, at Te  Aroha, New Zealand.
 
OK, I've long accepted that this -- eruptions that originate within a  
straight tube -- can happen. I've seen, for example, intermittent eruptions  by a 
couple of wells at Steamboat Hot Springs, Nevada, and the "perpetual" well  
eruptions at Beowawe. However:
 
1. It seems obvious to me that a simple conduit cannot account for most  
natural geyser systems, where subsurface connections clearly exist in what must  
be a complex network of tubes/channels.
 
2. I find it impossible to rectify extended steam phase action, such as at  
Castle or Giantess, with the lack of some sort of voluminous chamber.
 
3. I suppose those with strong physics background can find ways, but what  
about bi-modal intervals (Old Faithful, Riverside, maybe Fountain) that clearly  
are not a matter of simple variation within a range.
 
4. And the volume. Given the known constraints of the real, natural setting  
in Yellowstone (at least), where it is believed that the greatest depth of  
individual plumbing systems is not more than 400 feet, it again seems obvious to 
 me that the simple no-chamber model cannot account for the huge volumes 
ejected  by the largest of geysers (Giant, Steamboat).
 
I conclude that some natural geysers might well erupt from within  "straight" 
tube plumbing systems where there is little or no chamber-like  storage 
volume. But I think that such a case would be unusual and not applicable  as a 
general model.
 
I will end by pointing out that I think there is a significant difference  
between "geyser" and "geysering." the definition of "geyser," as devised by  
White and repeated with little or no modification worldwide, demands  
intermittent boiling within a natural plumbing system. That is not the case in  drilled 
wells (hor or cold), nuclear reactors, or rocket-engine fuel systems (as  cited 
in the article). In those systems, there might be some sort of eruptive  
action, e.g. "geysering," but they are NOT geysers.
 
Scott Bryan
 
P.S. This article (Geothermics 34 (2005) 389-410) is the one that  includes 
in its references the Transactions VII article about Geysir by  Gudmundur 
Palamson and the Transactions IX article about cold water geysers by  Alan Glennon 
and Rhonda Pfaff
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