Eruption
Echinus' eruptions are unpredictable. Its fountain reaches a height of as much as 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 m), with a duration of about 4 minutes. Prior to 1998, this geyser was very regular, every 35 to 75 minutes. There were also major eruptions that lasted as much as 118 minutes. It is speculated that there was a secondary underground water source that used to power the major eruptions and that the connection to the source was severed leading to Echinus' current state.
Echinus is the largest acid-water geyser known. Its waters have a pH of 3.3 to 3.6, nearly as acidic as vinegar. The water temperature is 80.3 °C (176.5 °F).
Read more about this topic: Echinus Geyser
Famous quotes containing the word eruption:
“Movies are one of the bad habits that corrupted our century. Of their many sins, I offer as the worst their effect on the intellectual side of the nation. It is chiefly from that viewpoint I write of them—as an eruption of trash that has lamed the American mind and retarded Americans from becoming a cultured people.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)
“I have done my fiddling so long under Vesuvius that I have almost forgotten to play, and can only wait for the eruption and think it long of coming. Literally no man has more wholly outlived life than I. And still it’s good fun.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
“The eruption of lived pleasure is such that in losing myself I find myself; forgetting that I exist, I realize myself.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)