Geyser Gazing Society

Geysers and Commercialism

People have used hot springs, geysers and other sources of geothermal energy for centuries. They harnessed this power as a source of heat, a tool for cooking, and for healing purposes. As technology has progressed, people have devised more ways to use geysers. Geysers have been used for a number of commercial purposes including tourism, energy, and manufacturing.

Since geysers are so rare and beautiful, a thriving tourist industry has built up around these few geyser fields. Millions of tourists visit Yellowstone National Park each year, and thousands flock to other harder to reach sites around the world like El Tatio geyser field and Kamchatka Valley of Geysers. One commercial use of geysers has been the building of geothermal energy plants.

The first geothermal power plant was invented in Italy in 1904. Geothermal power plants form electricity from hot water or steam gathered from reservoirs in the ground. Geothermal energy is an attractive option because it is a clean source of energy. Scientists are working on being able to extract geothermal energy straight from the Earth’s core instead of having to use reservoirs of water. Geysers are also used for many purposes in Iceland, such as heating greenhouses.

Since Thomas Brock discovered that geysers contain life—microorganisms that can survive in the scalding temperatures—scientists have done extensive research on these thermophiles and hyperthermophiles. Thermophiles and hyperthermophiles are bacteria that can survive and thrive in the extreme heat of the geysers. This was an important scientific discovery, but you may wonder how it relates to commercialism. It turns out that these extremophiles—bacteria that can survive extreme temperatures, such as thermophiles and hyperthermophiles—have had a huge impact on advances in biotechnology and manufacturing.

Corporations spend billions of dollars on enzymes each year. These enzymes are used for everything from creating artificial sweeteners to helping in DNA matching in criminal cases. Extremophiles are able to withstand temperatures that normal enzymes break down at. Thus, companies could save millions of dollars that they spend on specially treating enzymes by using extremophiles. In the few decades since the study of these bacteria has taken place, there have already been tremendous breakthroughs. In fact, these microorganisms are worth so much that one corporation actually made a contract with Yellowstone National Park giving the park some of the profits from the marketing of these bacteria in return for the right to search and use the geysers to get samples of bacteria.

Geysers have proven to be more than simply beautiful creations of nature, but some scientists and conservationists question the commercial uses that some geysers fields have been used for. These people are concerned with the destruction of already rare geysers for the purposes of obtaining energy from the ground. They also question whether it is right to use the geysers for finding and harvesting microorganisms, regardless of the benefits and advancements that these microbes have brought. The struggle between companies and conservationists continue, but hopefully a balance will be reached that will protect these rare sites while allowing progress to be made.