Life in the Fast Lane

There are hot springs all over the earth, on every continent and even under the oceans and seas, which are produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the earth’s crust — heat from our earth’s interior. Many were created between 20 and 45 million years ago as a result of violent volcanic activity.

Aerial view of Grand Prismatic Spring. Photo Jim Peaco

The temperature of the earth generally increases with depth. When water percolates deeply enough into the crust, it’s heated as it comes into contact with the hot rocks, thus heating the water for hot springs.

Some heated by contact with magma — molten rock — in volcano zones becomes superheated to boiling point. People have been seriously burned and even killed by entering these springs.

Warm springs are sometimes the result of hot and cold springs mixing but may also occur outside of volcanic areas, such as Warm Springs, Georgia.

Since heated water can hold more dissolved solids, warm and especially hot springs frequently have a very high mineral content, containing everything from simple calcium to lithium, and even radium, making them popular for tourist attractions and rehabilitation clinics for their therapeutic effects.

Here we will cover 12 of the world’s most astonishing hot springs that our planet has to offer.

Glenwood Springs
Glenwood Springs has the world’s largest natural hot springs swimming pool with a flow rate of 143 liters/second. You can soak in the therapy pool full of salty minerals at 104°F (40°C), or swim in the huge 98°F (36°C) swimming pool.

Glenwood Springs. Photo Beej55

Glenwood Springs at night. Photo A Magill

Grand Prismatic Spring
The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the US and third largest in the world next to those in New Zealand, about 250 by 300 feet (75 by 91 meters) in size and 160 feet (49 meters) deep, discharging an estimated 560 gallons (2000 liters) of 160°F (71°C) water/minute.

Grand Prismatic Spring. Photo Dierken

Grand Prismatic Spring and Midway Geyser Basin. Photo Mila Zinkova

The Grand Prismatic Spring of Yellowstone National Park showing steam rising from
hot and sterile deep azure blue water. Photo Mila Zinkova

The vivid colors in the spring ranging from green to brilliant red and orange are the result of algae and pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water, the amount of color dependant on the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoids produced by the organisms. The center of the pool is sterile due to extreme heat.

During summer the chlorophyll content of the organisms is low and thus the mats appear orange, red, or yellow. But in winter, the mats are usually dark green because sunlight is more scarce and the microbes produce more chlorophyll to compensate, thereby masking the carotenoid colors.

The deep azure blue color of the water in the center of the pool results from a light-absorbing overtone of the hydroxy stretch of water. While this effect is responsible for making all large bodies of water blue, it’s particularly intense in Grand Prismatic Spring due to the high purity and depth of the water in its center.

Grand Prismatic Spring. Photo Fidelis

Grand Prismatic Spring. Photo Fidelis

Silex Spring at Fountain Paint Pot
Silex Spring is located in Yellowstone National Park. Hot water is a better solvent than cooler water, dissolving large amounts of silica — the major element of these volcanic rocks in the form of sinter lines the bottom of Silex Spring. It forms terraces along the runoff channels and gives the spring its name.

Photo Mila Zinkova

Overflow areas of Silex springs. Photo Mila Zinkova

The spring overflows most of the year, creating a hot environment where thermophiles thrive which become food for several kinds of flies that live in and on the hot water. The flies then become food for mites, spiders, various insects, and birds.

Mammoth Hot Springs
Terrace Mountain at Mammoth Hot Springs is the largest known carbonate-depositing spring in the world. The most famous feature at the springs is the Minerva Terrace — a series of travertine terraces which have been created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate. Over 2 tons flows into Mammoth each day in a solution.

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Mila Zinkova

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo C Amalia

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Onepoeticdancer

Due to recent minor earthquake activity, the spring vent has shifted, rendering the terraces dry.

A system of small fissures carries water upward to create approximately 50 hot springs in the Mammoth Hot Springs area. Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.

Another major component for terrace growth is the mineral calcium carbonate. Thick layers of sedimentary limestone deposited millions of years ago by vast seas lie beneath the Mammoth area. As ground water seeps slowly downward, it comes in contact with hot gases charged with carbon dioxide rising from the magma chamber. Some carbon dioxide is readily dissolved in the hot water to form a weak carbonic acid solution.

This hot, acidic solution dissolves great quantities of limestone as it works up through the rock layers to the surface hot springs. Once exposed to the open air, some of the carbon dioxide escapes from the solution. A solid mineral reforms and is deposited as the travertine that forms the terraces.

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Giles Douglas

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Tomsaint11

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Marbla123

Dead trees in the terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs grew during inactivity of the mineral-rich springs, and were killed when calcium carbonate carried by spring water clogged the vascular systems of the trees.

The hot water that feeds Mammoth comes from Norris Geyser Basin after traveling underground via a fault line that runs through limestone and roughly parallel to the Norris-to-Mammoth road. Shallow circulation along this corridor allows Norris’ superheated water to slightly cool before surfacing at Mammoth at about 170°F (77°C). Algae living in the warm pools have tinted the travertine shades of brown, orange, red and green.

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Marbla123

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Marbla123

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo W Seltzer

The Mammoth Terraces extend all the way from the hillside, across the Parade Ground, and down to Boiling River. The Mammoth Hotel was built upon an old terrace formation in 1891, but there was concern that the hollow ground would not support the weight of the buildings. Several large sink holes which are fenced off can be seen on the Parade Ground.

The Mammoth area exhibits much evidence of glacial activity from the Pinedale Glaciation. The summit of Terrace Mountain is covered with glacial till, dating the travertine formation there to earlier than the end of the Pinedale Glaciation.

Ice-marginal stream beds are in evidence in the small, narrow valleys where Floating Island Lake and Phantom Lake are found. In Gardner Canyon, one can see the old, sorted gravel bed of the Gardner River covered by unsorted glacial till.

Calcium carbonate dissolved in hot spring water killed these trees. Photo Thegreenj

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo W Seltzer

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Jim Bowen

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Enyacologne

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Enyacologne

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Upsilon Andromedae

Mammoth Hot Springs. Photo Upsilon Andromedae

Radium Hot Springs
Radium Hot Springs is the largest hot spring pool in Canada set in breathtaking Kootenay National Park, a UNESCO Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. Sheer rock wall rises above the hot pool where you can gaze up at the rocky cliffs of Sinclair Canyon. Despite being named after the radioactive element, the springs have among the lowest level of radium in the world.

The hot-water pool at Radium Hot Springs. Photo Ken Thomas

Radium Hot Springs. Photo Drew and Merissa

Radium Hot Springs is also a village of about 800 people situated in the East Kootenays of British Columbia, located 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Invermere and 174 miles (280 kilometers) west of Calgary, Alberta. The village is named for the hot springs located in the nearby Kootenay National Park.

The hot springs complex itself contains 2 large pools — one with hot water for soaking around 104°F (39°C), the other a 2/3 Olympic swimming pool that’s usually around 84°F (29°C). There’s also a hot-tub sized pool dubbed the “Plunge Pool,” because the water can be hot — right from the source at 114°F (44°C) — or cold, right from a creek running beneath the pools.

Blood Pond Hot Spring
Blood Pond Hot Spring is one of the “hells” (jigoku) of Beppu, Japan — nine spectacular natural hot springs that are more for viewing rather than bathing. The “blood pond hell” features a pond of hot, red water, colored as such by iron in the waters. It’s allegedly the most photogenic of the nine hells.

Photo Paulman

Photo Joka2000

Onsen Nachikatsuura
Nachikatsuura is an outdoor Onsen of the Nakanoshima Hotel on Nakanoshima island in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. The island has six different hot springs with high sulfur content.

Nachikatsuura Onsen. Photo Christian Gunther

An onsen is a Japanese term for hot springs, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. Japan is a volcanically active country, with thousands of onsens scattered along its length and breadth. Onsens were traditionally used as public bathing places and today play a central role in directing Japanese domestic tourism.

Jigokudani Hot Springs
Jigokudani Hot Springs in Nagano Prefecture, Japan is most famous for its so called “snow monkeys” — wild Japanese monkeys enjoying the naturally hot waters alongside the human visitors.

Jigokudani Hot Springs. Photo Yosemite

Jigokudani Hot Springs. Photo Duchamp

Jigokudani Hot Springs. Photo Duchamp

The monkeys enjoy bathing especially during the cold winter months when temperatures drop below freezing, and the valley is covered by a thick layer of snow. But even in the summer they take occasional baths, sometimes allured by food thrown into the pool by park wardens.

Jigokudani Yaen Koen or “Jigokudani Monkey Park” is the chosen home of more than 100 Japanese Macaques, Japan’s indigenous monkeys. The park is located in “Hell Valley,” named for the volcanic activities in the area.

Jigokudani Hot Springs. Photo Duchamp

Jigokudani Hot Springs. Photo Duchamp

Jigokudani Hot Springs. Photo Fg2

Bridgeport Travertine Hot Springs
Visitors to Bridgeport often take advantage of one of California’s best-kept natural hot springs, the Travertine Hot Springs, in the hills to the east of the town. Calcium carbonate chemically precipitated out as travertine developing over thousand of years from the waters of the hot springs.

BridgeportTravertine Hot Springs. Photo Austin Kirschenmann

Deposits of several thousand years of Travertine behind hot springs. Photo Noel Waters

Deildartunguhver
Deildartunguhver is the largest hot spring in Iceland, located in Reykholtsdalur. It’s characterized by a very high flow rate for a hot spring at 180 liters/second of boiling water and emerges at 206°F (97°C). It’s the highest-flow hot spring in all of Europe. Some of the water is used for heating, being piped 21 miles (34 kilometers) to Borgarnes and 40 miles (64 kilometers) to Akranes.

Deildartunguhver Hot Springs. Johann Dreo

Haukadalur Hot Springs
Haukadalur is located in the southern part of Iceland, and a name shared by three valleys in the area.

Haukadalur Hot Springs. Photo Big-ashb

Haukadalur Hot Springs. Photo Big-ashb

Haukadalur Hot Springs. Photo Big-ashb

Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa is one of the largest attractions in Iceland. The steamy waters are part of a lava formation, and a large swimming pool is heated with the run-off water from a nearby geothermal power plant.

Blue Lagoon. Photo Simon Cole

Blue Lagoon. Photo Ezioman

Blue Lagoon. Photo Ezioman

Superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. After passing through the turbines the steam and hot water passes through a heat exchanger to provide heat for a municipal hot water heating system. The water is then fed into the lagoon for users to bathe in.

The warm waters are rich in minerals such as silica and sulfur. Bathing in the Blue Lagoon for therapeutic purposes is reputed to help some people suffering from skin diseases such as psoriasis. The water temperature in the bathing and swimming area of the lagoon averages 40°C (104°F).

The spa is located in a lava field in Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland. It’s situated about 24 miles (39 kilometers) from the capital city of Reykjavík.

The Blue Lagoon spa and geothermal complex is clearly visible from any of the usual satellite imagery. It was used for the thermal spa scenes in the filming of Hostel: Part II.

Blue Lagoon. Photo Ezioman

Blue Lagoon. Photo Chris 73

Blue Lagoon. Photo Lipton sale

Hakone, Great Boiling Valley
Great Boiling Valley is a volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and a popular tourist site for its scenic views, volcanic activity, and especially Kuro-tamago — a local specialty of eggs hard-boiled in the hot springs.

Great Boiling Valley. Photo Ryan Cragun

Great Boiling Valley. Photo Leposava

The boiled eggs turn black and smell slightly sulphuric. Eating the eggs is said to increase longevity — consuming 1 allegedly adds 7 years to your life. You may eat 2 for up to 14 years, but eating a third is said to be highly unadvised.

Paradise Hot Springs
With no knowledge of which hot spring this is other than being located in Central America, it’s my idea of Paradise.

Photo David Ooms

Photo David Ooms

Photo David Ooms

Notable Hot Springs Around the World
There are hot springs on all continents and in many countries around the world. Countries that are renowned for their hot springs include Iceland, New Zealand, Peru, Canada, Taiwan, and Japan, but there are interesting and unique hot springs in many other places as well:

• The town of Spa, Belgium is the origin of the word “spa” and features springs with water temperatures of 90°F (32°C).
• Aachen, Germany has the hottest springs of Central Europe with water temperatures of 165°F (74°C).
• There are more than 275 hot springs registered in Chile including South America’s largest hot spring source in Liquine.
• The Yangbajing hot springs field about 87 km. north of Lhasa in Tibet is several square kilometers in size, and used to supply a large fraction of the electricity of Lhasa. At an altitude between 14,100 to 15,000 feet (4,290 to 4,500 meters), it’s a strong candidate for the highest altitude hot springs on earth.
• Taiwan is ranked among one of the world’s top hot spring sites, harboring a great variety of springs.
• Icaria, Greece features a radioactive hot water spring that’s been used since the 4th century BC.
• The closest town to Machu Picchu in Peru is Machu Picchu Pueblo, which features several hot springs.
• Widely renowned since a chemistry professor’s report in 1918 classified it as one of the world’s most electrolytic mineral waters, the Rio Hondo Hot Springs in northern Argentina have become among the most visited on earth.
• Shiretoko National Park in Hokkaidō, Japan has a hot springs waterfall called Kamuiwakkayu-no-taki, which translates as “river of the gods” in the Ainu language.
• Northwest Spitsbergen National Park, Spitsbergen at 80 degrees north, contains two of earth’s most northerly hot springs.
• There are many geothermal springs in the UK, but the thermal springs found in the town of Bath produce the highest temperature geothermal water in the UK. The Bath hot springs are only true hot springs in the UK, by some definitions.
• Oymyakon in eastern Siberia is a candidate for the coldest permanently-inhabited location in the Northern Hemisphere and another hot springs site. The Yakut language word “oymyakon” means “river doesn’t freeze” after the local tributary of the Indigirka River fed by the hot springs which continues to flow year round in this permafrost region.
• Chutsen Chugang Hot Springs are located on the grounds of the Zhoto Terdrom / Tidro Nunnery, at an altitude of 4400 meters in Maldrogongkar / Mozhugongka County, Lhasa, Tibet. Buddhist nuns and the “hot spring snake” both live near this set of high altitude hot springs.
• Champaign Hot Springs is a shallow submarine geothermal spring system along the coast of the island of Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Emerald Springs. Photo Jim Bowen

Hot Springs at Yellowstone. Photo Jim Bowen

The main mineral pool at Tabacon Hot Springs — a resort at the base of Volcan Arenal which
has a series of large and small mineral springs naturally heated by the volcano’s magma.
Photo The Lawyleys

Source: Wikipedia

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