cladking Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bernard Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > out of curiosity-- where is the geology that
> would
> > produce geysers in Egypt?
> >
> > Bernard
>
> Lake Kivu far to the south was in the Nile
> drainage basin as recently
> as 17,000 years age. There is a series of basins
> which are known to
> exist nearly to the mountains which rose up to cut
> off Lake Kivu. This
> lake itself is one of only three carbonated lakes
> in the world.
>
> If there were a basin on the north side of this
> mountain chain it too
> could have been carbonated and would still supply
> CO2 to Giza for 600
> years after it was tipped to the north and
> emptied. This event may have
> lasted from 15000 BC until shortly after the Giza
> pyramids were built.
>
> Cold water geysers are similar to the better known
> hot water geysers in
> that they are propelled by the top of the
> underground water flying up
> reducing pressure on the deeper water which causes
> it to fly as well.
> In hot water (thermal) geysers this is caused by
> the water boiling. In
> cold water geysers it's caused by the water
> fizzing up. Cold water gey-
> sers can actually throw more water to greater
> heights and much more con-
> tinuously than the thermal geysers. Most cold
> water geysers today are
> man made and this was probably true in ancient
> Egypt as well.
>
>
>
>
> tempus fugit
Cold water geysers are created when a bore hole penetrates an aquifer that has a lot of carbon dioxide dissolved in the water. The fact that there are lakes that have large amounts of carbon dioxide does not show that coldwater geysers existed since the carbon dioxide in te lakes is not under enough pressure. What happens is that the gas builds up in the bottom of the lake and eventually the lake overturns and enormous amounts of CO2 are released killing a lot of people. In the case of these lakes the source of CO2 is not a gas rich aquifer but hot volcanic magma under the lake. See

[www.chm.bris.ac.uk]

"There are three lakes in the world which exist under a very unusual and dangerous set of conditions. They are all in areas of volcanic activity. Springs feed into the bottom of these lakes, containing huge amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide, released by magma below the earth's surface. When triggered the lower waters of these lakes can release huge clouds of carbon dioxide gas in an eruption from the lake caused by gas bubbles rising rapidly through the water. This is known as "lake overturn" as the lake is literally overturned as carbon dioxide from the bottom of the lake is released pushing water up with it. The only three lakes which contain such high amounts of CO2 are lakes Monoun, Nyos and Kivu in Africa."

Even if there were a CO2 laden aquifer in Egypt, the Egyptians did not have the technology to drill down far enough to reach such an aquifer.

Bernard