Well, you look at that, Emma.
I see, Frank. It's incredible.
Hey, Smarty Pants. I'm at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, standing near one of its most popular attractions, a powerful geyser known for shooting water 180 feet or 55 meters up into the air.
It is almost as high as Disney's Cinderella Castle.
Is what? Did you say there's a castle around here?
No, no, no, no, just the geyser and lots of bears.
Speaking of Yellowstone's world famous geyser, Smarty Pants, do you know the name of it?
Is it A, the diamond geyser?
B, the Yellowstone Geyser?
C, old faithful? Or D, old Yeller?
Oh, I know. Nathaniel Langford called this geyser old faithful when his expedition visited these woods seven years ago.
That's right. Did you say old faithful to Smarty Pants?
Nice job. I had faith. You'd know it.
Oh, and just to clarify, I am not in the present time.
Huh? The year is actually 1877.
Seven years after American explorer Nathaniel Langford's expedition discovered much of Yellowstone.
And five years after Yellowstone became the world's first national park.
With me now, our brother and sister travelers Frank and Emma Carpenter, along with some of their friends and family.
Uh, uh, question, Mr. Narada.
Please, not so formal. Call me Trusty Narada.
Oh, trusty Narada. Why did Mr.
Langford call this geyser old faithful?
Oh, I know, because it's so reliable.
Every 60 to 70 minutes hot water shoots up from this spot.
Huh. It never changes. Actually, geysers like old faithful change all the time.
And by the 2020s, eruptions averaged about 95 minutes apart.
We'll explain why in a little bit.
But it will erupt again soon with hot water.
Yes, a boiling water. In fact, the water that shoots out of old faithful is hotter than 200 degrees Fahrenheit or 95 degrees Celsius.
Oh, I've got an idea. Let's use it to wash our clothes.
What? Brilliant idea, Em.
I've had a nasty catch-up stain on my trousers for days.
Throw everything in this pillowcase.
We'll stuff it into the geyser.
Dinky, give me a muddy shirt.
But I don't want to lose my favorite shirt in the geyser.
Don't worry, we won't lose it.
OK. Um, I don't think you should be doing this.
Oh, come on, narrator. Where's your spirit of adventure?
Where's your love of experimentation?
Where are you stinky socks?
My socks? Yeah, they really stink.
It's even upsetting the horses.
Yikes. OK. We can stick this stone into the pillowcase to help it sink into the geyser.
Great idea. I sure hope this works.
Maybe old faithful can shoot other things into the air, like rocks, tree stumps, and a trash.
Smirny pants, do you think that's a good idea?
It sounds crazy, right?
But guess what? This actually happened.
Oh boy, I could hear it rumbling.
Old faithful is getting ready to pop.
So our geysers could, clothes washers, how do geysers even work?
What makes them so reliable?
And should you stuff things inside of them?
What could go wrong? Time for another whiff of science on...
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Lots of fun on Hell smart, Ed.
Hello smarty listeners.
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Darcy blows. Wow, look how high our clothes are flying.
Yes, it is true. Defying all common sense in 1877, Frank and Emma Carpenter, and the rest of their group at Yellowstone National Park.
Try using the world famous geyser known as Old Faithful to wash their clothes.
Look, it worked. Despautless.
Even my shirt. Whoa! Oops, I dropped it in the mud again.
But instead of being satisfied with their success.
Hey, let's find more things to stuff in the geyser.
They decided to keep experimenting.
Frank Carpenter reported that they sent rocks, stumps, and rubbish.
80 feet in the air. That's as high as four, two story houses stacked on top of each other.
Heehua! Over the years, people have recklessly tossed things into Yellowstone's many geysers, bottles, cans, handkerchiefs, coins.
You name it. Many also threw in soap, but it wasn't to make their clothes cleaner.
Can you guess why? Is it A, soap makes geysers sudsy.
B, people showered there.
Or C, soap might trigger an eruption.
The answer is C, making geysers erupt became so popular that local hotels and gift shops often ran out of soap.
Thankfully, when the National Park Service was established in 1916, it brought an end to the soap tossing.
And today it's illegal to throw anything into Yellowstone's geysers.
Aww. But that's a good thing.
Because believe it or not, you can actually harm a geyser.
Huh? Geysers have a rather complicated plumbing system, made up of cracks in the earth that go down for miles beneath the surface.
Just like you can cause problems at home by slushing the wrong things down a toilet.
Uh oh! Dad! Too much stuff can clog a geyser.
Aww. So if I cram this piano into a geyser, I might actually hurt it.
Oh yes. Even small things like coins can disrupt a geyser's plumbing system, which must be in good shape for a geyser to work.
Aww. Smony pets. Besides plumbing, what else do you think geysers need?
Is it A, magma? B, volcanic rock, or C, water?
If you said C, water, you're right.
But if you said A or B, you're also right.
A geyser's water can come from nearby rivers, melting snow, or rainstorms.
The water fills up the geyser's plumbing system, reaching all the way to the bottom, close to the earth's hot magma, which sits about three miles or five kilometers down.
Woo! By show, that's a long way down!
Actually, Frank, compared to other spots on the planet, that's not far at all.
Geysers are usually in areas that once saw volcanic activity.
And many are close to the edges of tectonic plates, which are responsible for volcanoes and earthquakes.
As you may know, tectonic plates are constantly moving, causing magma to rise, and generating heat for geysers.
Oh, let me guess. The magma heats the geyser water like a stove, heats water in a tea kettle.
You got it. But wait, when the water in a tea kettle boils, it doesn't shoot way up into the air.
Why does that happen with a geyser?
Geyser water is under pressure.
Ends a pressure. Yes, remember, there's about three miles worth of water pushing down on the water at the bottom.
Woo! That's very heavy.
That boiling water at the bottom requires a lot of heat energy to push the bubbles all the way to the surface.
Way more energy than the water in a kettle needs.
Ah! Because of this pressure, the temperature needed to get the water at the bottom of a geyser to boil is much higher than it takes to boil water on your stove.
So, what does that mean?
Well, this temperature difference is very important.
Smarty pants, shout out the thing that water turns into when it boils.
That's right. Steam! The higher temperature not only causes the geyser water to boil, it also creates turbulence.
All of that water movement pushes a small amount out of the geyser's opening.
And that's when the fun begins.
Suddenly, with a little less water in the geyser, there's less water pressure below.
This means that the water can now boil at a lower temperature.
But since a lot of the water is already above the normal boiling point, it suddenly turns into steam and expands to 1,500 times the volume of the water.
Well, there's not enough room down there for water and all that steam.
So it all gets pushed rapidly out the opening of the geyser high into the air.
Look how high it threw dingy shoes!
Hey! Now, all of this pressure would be enough to wreck an ordinary tunnel underground.
But most geysers survive because of another ingredient.
A volcanic rock called RyoLite.
RyoLite contains minerals that seal the geyser's plumbing in order to contain the pressure.
Once a geyser erupts, the eruption continues until all the water is out of the geyser.
Or the water cools enough for the action to stop.
A geyser like old faithful can erupt two to six minutes and shoots out enough water to fill a small swimming pool.
Cannonball! Then the cycle starts all over again.
Since the time to refill, boil and erupt doesn't very much from cycle to cycle.
It's possible to guess when the next eruption might happen.
But didn't you say old faithful's eruptions have gotten farther apart?
I did. Why is that? I'll tell you right after this quick break.
Hey there, smarty listeners!
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Now back to who's smarted?
Smarty pants. Now that you know how geysers work and how they're connected to volcanoes, tell me this.
What do you think the Earth has more of?
Volcanoes or geysers? If you guess geysers, you're all wet.
Oh. According to the US Geological Survey, there are about 1,350 potentially active volcanoes around the world.
But less than 1,000 geysers.
But here's the craziest part.
More than half of them are in Yellowstone National Park.
Whoa. But despite having the most geysers, Yellowstone does not have the oldest known geyser.
Can you guess where that lives?
Is it A, Iceland, B, New Zealand, C, Russia, or D, Chile?
While all four of those countries are homes to geysers, the oldest known one is located in A, Iceland.
It was discovered in 1294.
Oh, let's go to Iceland and wash more clothes.
Ooh, that's perfect for the cold cycle.
Say, narrator, what's the name of the geyser in Iceland?
Geyser. Sorry, what's the name of the geyser?
Geyser. That's what he said, geyser.
Geyser. So you're not going to tell us?
Probably doesn't want us throwing stuff in it.
No, I don't want you throwing stuff in it.
But also, that's its name.
Geyser. The Icelandic people called it geyser, which means Tugush.
In fact, surprise, that's where the word geyser comes from.
Oh. But good luck spotting it.
Years can go by between geyser's eruptions.
There's another geyser nearby called Strucker that erupts every five to ten minutes.
Oh, that's a good one. Of course, that could change.
As we mentioned, geysers are fragile systems near the edges of teconic plates, which are constantly moving.
Forces of nature, such as earthquakes, changes in water flow, and human interaction, can disrupt a geyser's cycle, making it less predictable.
Which is why old faithful isn't always faithful.
Exactly. If you're looking for precision, try the Lady Nox Geyser in New Zealand.
It erupts at exactly ten-fifteen every morning.
Amazing. But it's not without a little help.
Remember I said people used to throw soap into geysers.
Soap helps boiling water turn into steam.
And as you know, steam causes an eruption.
So at ten-fifteen a.m., a park guide pours detergent into the Lady Nox Geyser to set it off.
It's become quite an attraction in New Zealand.
And it was discovered by accident.
Whoa. Years ago, people tried to wash clothes in some hot water springs at the site.
And they're soap triggered the geyser.
Whoa. Right. We'll wash our clothes there.
Yes. No. They don't allow that there anymore, either.
Whoa. If you want to get your clothes clean, try a laundromat.
Not a geyser. Whoa. Whoa.
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
Whoa. Whoa. A super shout out to Willow and her mom in Qualcomm Beach, British Columbia.
We hear you love listening to Who Smarted because it's so interesting and fun.
Thanks for being part of our Smarty family.
This episode Geysers was written by Dave Bojri and voiced by Teig Arlet, Karen Econner, Adam Textevis, Gia Davis, and Jerry Colbert.
Technical Direction and Sound Design by Josh Hahn.
Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios.
Our associate producer is Max Old Faithful, Kamaski.
The theme song is by Brian Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Textevis.
Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Textevis and Jerry Colbert.
This has been an atomic entertainment production.
Who Smarted?
