Mondo Knows Facts
Geysers need a narrow underground plumbing
Trapped water superheats until pressure suddenly releases it as a jet of steam A geyser needs a water supply, a heat source and a constricted channel that holds water under pressure. Water deep in the channel can pass boiling point without turning to steam, until expanding bubbles push the column out. The drop in pressure then flashes much of the water to steam, driving the eruption. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: geology, water, heat
Geysers need a narrow underground plumbing: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Trapped water superheats until pressure suddenly releases it as a jet of steam. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.