Warm Mineral Springs at San Carlos Park
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Parking coordinates are:
26 28.595
081 50.195
IMPORTANT: PLEASE visit this EarthCache ONLY during the daylight hours.
You may enter the gate to make your observations. If you would like to enjoy the "healing powers" of these warm mineral spring pools, you may do so for a $10.00 charge. If you are a guest of the motel, the warm mineral spring pools are included with your stay.
A spring - also known as a rising or resurgence - is a component of the hydrosphere. A hydroshpere in physical geography describes the combined mass of water found on, under and over the surface of a planet. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground. Thus, a spring is a site where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface. An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand or silt) from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well.
A spring may be the result of karst topography where surface water has infiltrated the Earth's surface (rechrge area) becoming part of the area groundwater. The groundwater then travels through a network of cracks and fissures. The water eventually emerges from below the surface in the form of a karst spring.
The forcing of the spring to the surface can be the result of a confined aquifer in which the rechrge area of the spring water table rests at a higher elevation than that of the outlet. Spring water forced to the surface by elevated sources are artesian wells.
There are three types of spring outlets:
1. Seepage or Filtration Sprng. The term "seep" refers to springs with samll flow rates in which the source water has filtered into the permeable earth.
2. Fracture Springs, discharge from faults, joints or fissures in the earth, in which springs have followed a natural course of voids or weaknesses in the bedrock.
3. Tubular Springs ae essentially water dissolved and created in underground channels, basically cave systems.
Spring discharge, or resurgence, is determined by the spring's recharge basin. Factors that effect the recharge include the size of the area in which groundwater is captured, the amount of percipitation, the size of capture points and the size of the spring outlet. Water my leak into the underground system from many sources including permeable earth, sinkholes and losing streams. In some cases, entire creeks seemingly disappear as the water sinks into the ground via the stream bed.
Springs are often classified by the volume of water they discharge. The largest springs are called "first-magnitude", defined as springs that discharge water at a rate of at least 2800 liters or 100 cubic feet of water per second.
Minerals become dissolved in the water as it moves through the underground rocks. This may give the water flavor and even carbon dioxide bubbles, depending on the geology through which it passes. Springs that contain significant amounts of minerals are sometimes called "mineral springs". Springs that contain large amounts of dissolved sodium salts, mostly sodium carbonate, are called "soda springs".
A "warm spring" is defined as a spring with a water temperature between 68 and 122 degrees F (20 and 50 degrees C).
The water issuing from a hot or warm spring is heated by geothermal heat, i.e., heat from the Earth's mantle. In general, the temperature of rocks within the earth increases with depth. The rate of temperature increase with depth is known as the geothermal gradient. If water percolates deeply enough into the crust, it will be heated as it comes into contact with hot rocks.
Warm springs are sometimes the result of hot and cold springs mixing.
Because heated water can hold more dissolved solids, warm and espically hot springs also have a very high mineral content,containing everything from simple calcium to lithium and even radium. Because of both the folklore and the claimed medical value some of these springs have, they are often popular tourist destinations, and locations for rehabilitation clinics for those with disabilities.
Sulfur is a mineral naturally occuring near hot springs, warm springs and volcanic craters. The "rotten egg" smell of sulfur mineral baths is caused by sulfur dioxide gas escaping into the air. Sulfur has been used medically since ancient times.
The two warm spring pools here at San Carlos Park are fed by a 1,000 foot well drilled by an oil company in the early 1960s. They did not hit oil, but they did encounter a pool of hot mineral water. The water exits the well head at approximately 82 degrees F. The spring provides 1,800,000 gallons of water daily. Hydrostatic pressure eliminates the need to pump the water to the surface. The water is then piped to the fountain and exits at about 80 degrees F. Depending on the outside temperature and other factors, the water in the pools will be 65 to 85 degrees F. This spring is artesian, or flows freely without being pumped.
The white "stuff" you see on the fountain and in the pools is sulfur, which gives the water its mineral content and is responsible for the water's healing powers. The water has a very high mineral content. The sulfur also produces the odor you undoubtly smell.
Please E-Mail me the answers to the following questions:
1. How is the water here forced to the surface?
2. What type of spring outlet is this and how?
3. What causes the "rotten egg" odor and how does it occur?
4. What aquatic critter is on the sign next to the canal-like waterway?
An unrelated interesting note: When my family moved to Florida in 1967, we lived here at San Carlos Park. The house we lived in is about a mile southeast of this location.
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