Geysers can and have been categorized like clouds and mountains. Thus, when you are geyser gazing you might want to know the different types. There are two general types of geysers—one known as the fountain geyser and the other termed the cone geyser.

The fountain geyser spurts water erratically and often violently, shooting water in all directions like its namesake. Before the geyser erupts, a pool forms in a crater over the site of the geyser, and then the geyser shoots through it spraying the pool all over. Sometimes, the water in the pool completely drains away. The cone geyser shoots out of a mound of mineral deposits, which are known as siliceous sinter. Unsurprisingly, the material is also known as geyserite.

Cone geysers usually erupt in steady bursts and can last for a few seconds or for minutes at a time. Some geysers can erupt for hours at a time, although those are rare and some of them have been dormant for several years. The Great Fountain geyser in Yellowstone National Park regularly has eruptions of about forty-five minutes long. The famous geyser the Old Faithful is a cone geyser.

In addition to geysers being categorized according to eruption, they are also divided into six different reservoir types. Geysers in class A have one single pipe as their source and they end in a cone at the surface. Type B geysers have a narrow, deep shaft while type C geysers are like type A with the exception of a pool of water at the surface rather than a cone. The other three types are usually found in fountain geysers. Type D has a series of smaller reservoirs, which empty in turn causing the geyser to spurt irregularly. Type E and type F geysers are variations on a single shaft.

There are also geysers, which are misnamed, but are called that because they are eruptions of pressurized water. Artificial geysers can be created in places with geothermal activity and then fitted with coverings that make their eruptions look like geysers. The technical name for these artificial geysers is “erupting geothermal wells.”

Another type of false geyser is a cold-water geyser. Instead of boiling water, carbon dioxide causes eruption in cold-water geysers. They look very similar to true geysers, but the water in cold-water geysers is usually whiter and frothier—like water in rapids—due to the carbon dioxide. There are a couple of cold-water geysers in Germany and a famous one in Utah called the Crystal Geyser.

Hot springs that continually spout water are sometimes called geysers. They actually do not qualify as a geyser because a geyser has periods of dormancy. The basic categorization of geysers is not too complex, and some geyser gazers may find it interesting to try to classify the different geysers that they see into the categories of cone geysers and fountain geysers. Next time you are at a geyser field, you might want to study the geyser and take a guess before you look it up in your guidebook.

Biology and geysers? It seems like an odd combination; however, geyser biology is a field of study that has gained importance and interest in the last few decades. Geyser biology is, as it sounds, the study of living organisms in geysers. Up until approximately fifty years ago, scientists were still convinced that nothing could survive in water above temperatures of approximately 163 °F (73 °C), not to mention the scalding waters found in geysers and hot springs.

This theory was proven wrong however when in 1966 Thomas D. Brock, from the University of Wisconsin, discovered microorganisms in hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. In the decades since this discovery, these microorganisms have been found in geothermal locations around the globe, including Iceland, which is known for its numerous geysers. In addition to geysers, these microbes have been found in other bodies of water with high temperatures, such as the hot springs in Japan and Iceland.Not only have scientists discovered thermophiles—bacteria that prefer temperatures between 45 and 80 °C (113 °F to 176 °F), but they have even found a group of bacteria classified as hyperthermophiles.

Hyperthermophiles prefer temperatures above 80 °C. Some of these organisms can even survive at temperatures higher than the boiling point of water –100 °C (212 °F). This is a revolutionary change from fifty years ago when scientists thought the existence of such bacteria an impossibility.Undoubtedly, these microbes are fascinating to geologists and biologists, but what is the importance of these hardy bacteria? There is a reason why fields like biomedicine and industrial companies spend billions of dollars a year on enzymes.

These enzymes are used for everything from genetic identification to producing that “stonewashed” look in jeans. The only problem is that normal enzymes break down when exposed to high temperatures, which is not a problem for thermophiles and hyperthermophiles. Thus, by utilizing these hyperthermophiles, manufacturers could cut costs by skipping the steps that they would need to do in order to protect normal enzymes from extreme temperatures.

The results of some of these enzymes have been seen for over a hundred years. One visitor to Yellowstone National Park noted that when an article of clothing was dropped into a boiling pool and pulled out, it looked as if it had been cleaned with bleach. It was microbes that produced this bleach-like effect on clothing.

One of the first thermophiles discovered by Mr. Brock and colleagues that thrived at temperatures above 70 °C was the bacterium Thermus Aquaticus. This valuable microbe has been found to contain an enzyme that is used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Polymerase chain reaction is the technique used by scientists to copy and replicate DNA in a relatively brief period of time. This technique is used for DNA identification in criminal cases. Manufacturing is not the only field where these microbes have proven useful. Scientists believe that these organisms may provide new clues to the puzzle of evolution. Geyser biology may be a relatively new field, but its impact—if recent results are any prediction—will be great.

No study of geysers would be complete without covering those of Iceland. After all, the word geyser is Icelandic in origin and means “to gush or rush forth.” Incidently, it is the only Icelandic word that has carried over into the English language. It is spelled “geysir” in Icelandic and ultimately refers to a single geyser in Iceland called Geysir but also generally refers to all geysers. 

A geyser is caused by water on the surface of the Earth seeping down toward the center of the Earth where it contacts magma-heated rock that causes it to boil and erupt back up to the Earth’s surface by the process of convection. A tremendous
column of a geyser eruption is often the result of the process which repeats itself over and over again through the geyser’s vent.

A geyser is a hot spring that erupts periodically like a volcano of hot steam and water. The name geyser originates from
Icelandic and means “to gush.” Geysers are named after the “Geysir” at Haukadalur, Iceland. There are two kinds of geysers: cone geysers and fountain geysers. Cone geysers erupt from mounds of geyserite while fountain geysers are those that erupt from pools of water.