Root Beer Float EarthCache
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An Extinct geyser cone located in the Lamar Valley.
When we first told our son we were going out to see soda butte, he thought of a Root Beer Float, thinking that we were talking about a soft drink.
Soda butte is actually named for the creek which runs just below the butte. The creek was named by the Horn Miller prospecting party in the early 1870s when they thought a formation next to the creek was actually made of sodium bicarbonate. The Formation is actually made of Travertine - Mounds of calcium carbonate formed from hot springs containing calcium rich water that bubbles up to the earth and cools down, and its capability to hold calcium is reduced. The water eliminates the calcium, and the calcium forms a porous mound of calcium carbonate. Travertine is sometimes used as an ornamental stone, as a type of marble. Now Soda Butte is an extinct geyser, Geysers are some of the most unusual geologic phenomena in the world. They are incredible natural fountains that can shoot boiling hot water and steam hundreds of feet into the sky in violent eruptions. While most geyser eruptions last only a few minutes, some last for days. Some geysers almost never stop. Others erupt violently, then stay dormant for years or even decades. Soda Butte is unique in the fact that it is located well away from any of the other geyser thermal areas. But it is still active in the since you can smell sulphur from the vents but it no longer erupts. Technically the U.S. Geological Survey defines a geyser as: A hot spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accomplished by a vapor phase. What makes a geyser act the way it does? In order for a geyser to exist, there are four specific conditions that must be met.
First, there must be an abundant supply of surface water over a long period of time. It is estimated that Yellowstone's geysers discharge a staggering seventy-million gallons of water a day. The water a geyser ejects comes from snow and rain. When precipitation hits the ground, most of it runs off into rivers and streams. A small portion, perhaps five percent, soaks into the ground. Moving slowly through tiny cracks it finds its way into the underground tunnels that make up the plumbing of a geyser, then is shot to the surface during an eruption. Travel from the surface down through the rock and out through a geyser eruption can take 500 years. Water we see today shooting out of geysers fell from the sky in the time of Columbus.
Secondly, there must be a volcanic heat source. All geyser field sites are above recently active volcanic areas. The surface water works its way down to a depth of around 7,000 feet where it meets up with hot rocks. The water is heated up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit or more, but cannot turn into steam because of the pressure it is under. Though the water is hot and under pressure it would never be ejected from geysers with such tremendous force if it were not for the special quality of the rocks in the geyser fields. The rocks produce a material called geyserites.
Geyserite, which is the third necessary condition, is mostly silicon dioxide, is dissolved from the rocks and deposited on the walls of the geyser's plumbing system and on the surface around the geyser. The deposits make the channels carrying the water up to the surface pressure-tight. This allows the pressure to be carried all the way to the top and not be leaked out into the loose gravel, soil or sand that is normally under the geyser fields.
The final condition needed to produce a geyser is a plumbing system below it with a special shape. All springs must have a set of channels below them that allow water to flow to the surface. In a geyser there must be a constriction at some point near the top. The water sitting in this narrow spot acts as a valve or lid that allows pressure to build up in the water below. When enough pressure builds up to overcome the constriction, the geyser erupts.
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS
BEFORE you may log and claim this earthcache as a find, you must first email us your answers to the following questions. Do NOT put your answers in your log posting!
1. How many people in your party?
2. What is the butte made of?
3. What is the third condition needed for a geyser?
4. What does the area around Soda Butte smell like?
Additional Hints
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