The Empty Quarter,
p. 5
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| These geysers are a rapidly-evolving thermal creation, growing taller each year with the minerals deposited by each drop of water. If a geyser were designed for installation at Disneyland, it would be this model: brilliantly colored and elegantly sculpted. | |||
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After sitting a while dangling our feet in the shallow pool near the base of the geysers, Judy and I took the plunge into the largest thermal pond, about an acre in size. It was a treat for all our senses, with temperature control maintained by moving closer or farther from the incoming streams of the geysers. Mica, however, could not be persuaded to join us. Instead, she enjoyed the warm earth near the edge of the ponds. | ||
The only negative moment of the swim came when Judy, whose fish phobia is a famous phenomenon, started to doubt my heretofore convincing lie that the tickling sensations on our legs emanated from bubbles released by the hot mud below us. Our ensuing discussion, in which I tried to convince her of the important ecological niche of the probably endangered species that have adapted to the 100° water, was to no avail. So we left the Fly Geysers and returned to Gerlach. |
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