fountain

Emergence Setting and Hydrology

Fence Fault Bidet on the bank of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park.

Artesian fountain with pressurized CO2 in a confined aquifer.

For Example: Crystal Geyser, UT

Description

Upper: sketch of Fountain spring type. A=aquifer; I=impermeable stratum; S=spring source. Fault lines are shown where appropriate. The inverted triangle represents the water table or piezometric surface. Drawing by Victor O. Leshyk www.victorleshyk.com.

At fountain springs, cold groundwater is forced out of the Earth by stratigraphic head pressure or CO2 (e.g., Crystal Geyser; Glennon and Pfaff 2005). Discharge is caused by a confined, pressurized aquifer, rather than by heat as is the case with geysers. Fountain springs may be cold water, submarine seeps of hydrocarbons, carbonates or brine; these can support dense macrofaunal communities along continental margins under the oceans (Cordes et al. 2007).