![Air travel's 'green' future: Why food-waste fuel is a long-haul project](https://cdn.thinkwebcontent.com/articles/33630/4x3/33630-1689614776--eKXGaT-avion-verde-sostenibilidad-biocombustible-istock-Scharfsinn86.jpg)
Debate over banning short-distance flights takes off, but the cons outweigh the pros
Forgot your password?
Feedback is welcome
The province in the dead centre of mainland Spain, part of Castilla-La Mancha, is home to at least a dozen volcanoes within the Campo de Calatrava district – in fact, it's often known, more or less officially, as the Provincia Volcánica de Calatrava.
But they last erupted between 8.7 and 1.75 million years ago, so that's not what's been exploding in the area.
Actually, the craters are often used for pasturing sheep.
What comes out of the ground is hot, but isn't lava.
Geysers in Spain? Really?
Named after the town of Geysir in Iceland, which has about 20 or so geysers – although only one erupts regularly, the Strokkur, which goes off at approximately every four to five minutes to the delight of crowd of camera-clicking and cheering tourists around its roped-off rocky patch – and which comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, meaning 'to give off' or 'to emanate', these watery eruptions are incredibly rare on this planet; until now, you probably thought you'd have to take a series of long-haul flights to see any outside the Scandinavian island.
Geysers are found in the El Tatio area of the Chilean Andes (its name comes from the word for 'oven' in quechua, the main native language, along with aymara, of western South America), in Russia's fairly-obviously-named Valley of the Geysers, Yellowstone National Park across the USA States of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana – which is actually where more than half the world's geysers are found, along with the tallest on earth, the Steamboat – and inactive or dormant ones in New Zealand's Taupo Volcanic Zone and its Whakarewarewa Roturua and the State of Nevada in the USA.
Artificial ones also exist due to drilling in the earth's crust in volcanic areas, such as Little Old Faithful in Calistoga, California, USA.
They tend to be found in volcanic terrain, although not necessarily where this is active, such as in Iceland, whose two eruptions in as many years grounded planes across Europe.
But if you already live in mainland Spain, you're never more than about a four-hour drive from your nearest one.
Or rather, your nearest six, and they're all active.
What causes them?
It's simpler than you think. A geyser is a pocket of confined water which contains high levels of carbon dioxide and, rather like when you shake up a bottle of fizzy drink, cava or champagne and then whip off the the cap or pop the cork, the build-up of this effervescent gas causes the liquid to spew out at high pressure.
And the reason some geysers produce much higher columns of gassy water and steam than others is purely about how much water is in it, which is dictated by how wide and deep its pocket is.
They are able to break the surface and explode because the water sits in a 'sub-pocket' which is only blocked by volcanic sediment light enough in weight that it will pop open and give way – although in some cases, including many of those in Ciudad Real province, the water-jet breaks the ground through drilling.
Much of Spain's on-tap water comes from natural wells and aquifers, or underground water-pockets, so occasionally it's necessary to bore through the surface to find another supply when population increases and building development mean more is needed to feed the mains utility system.
A geyser a month
Every single one of the geysers in Ciudad Real province has been found during this century – until the Millennium year, nobody realised they existed.
The water-jet reached around 50 metres in height – Strokkur Geyser shoots to about 30 metres – and on further investigation, its water turned out to be high in iron content and other mineral salts, of the type found in the springs and wells in the Puertollano area which locals, in accordance with tradition, unwisely drink.
It isn't especially poisonous, or not instantly, but is not considered 'drinkable' and long-term, is very unhealthy.
The Granátula Geyser (third picture) was thought to be the only one in Spain until, 11 years later, another one shot up from the ground in Bolaños de Calatrava, a short distance away, followed by a third in Almagro in 2013.
In both cases, the water seems to be clear, unfettered by visible particles, and their eruption is intermittent.
Technically, the Granátula Geyser was not a geyser at all, but simply a 'subterranean water-jet' – to be considered a 'geyser', the water has to be of exceptionally-high temperature, whilst the one found in 2000 was tepid; also, they go off at regular intervals, but do not continuously 'fountain', as is the case with this first phenomenon.
This year, coinciding exactly with Spain's Covid-19 lockdown but completely unconnected with it, three new ones have been found – one every month.
An 'indoor' geyser
A water-jet was found in March in Almagro, says the Geomorphology, Territory and Landscapes in Volcanic Regions Group (GEOVOL) of Castilla-La Mancha University, an institution which is unusual in itself since it has a main campus and headquarters in each of the region's five provinces.
It was not considered a 'geyser' in the true sense of the word, since it has been spouting constantly since then, letting off a column of clear water and carbon dioxide non-stop.
The second one was found in late April or early May between the three towns of Miguelturra, Carrión de Calatrava and Almagro, and research found it had been actively jetting for over 100 days at the time – since January 14 – and apparently has not stopped yet.
Named 'Los Arenales', it was discovered to the north-west of the Yezosa volcano, which seems to be where most of the district's geysers are located.
The latest one was found around the third week in May and has been named El Prado – probably not after Madrid's famous art museum, but more likely due to its location, since prado translates roughly as 'meadow' or 'pastureland' in Spanish.
GEOVAL is able to tell, even if it has never seen a particular geyser before, when it previously erupted, how often and for how long, pinpointing the exact month – and it says El Prado has flung up water and concentrated CO2 at least five times, in February 2011, May 2012, May 2015, February 2018 and now, in May this year, although there may have been more even further back and could well be others in the future.
It was found inside a large hut set up with a farming irrigation system – the lower window of which has had to be left open so the gushing water can get out (fourth picture), and the ceiling of which has acquired a 'bubble effect' on its surface, as happens in homes which suffer damp or have had an ongoing leak.
Without the hut around it, El Prado may be much taller than the building's limit of 2.7 metres, but the ceiling marks show it has reached this full height several times.
Water tests have found the CO2 content in El Prado is exceptionally high – above 12% - and its mineral levels are described as 'sub-saline', or a bit but not quite salty, and slightly acidic, in keeping with that of aquifers in general in the Campo de Calatrava district, although it is high in iron, despite the fact it is clear, whereas normally this would be indicated by a reddish colour like the first-ever jet found in Granátula.
Why this year, though?
The owner of the land – and hut – where El Prado was found took the Guardia Civil's 'environmental police' wing, SEPRONA, on a tour, and their findings were studied further by GEOVAL.
And this spring has been exceptionally wet. The State meteorological agency, AEMET, says precipitations for March were 95% above the average figures for the time of year, making it the fourth-rainiest March since the Millennium and the seventh-wettest since records began in 1965.
This continued into April, where the amount of rainfall nationwide beat records for the same month in the particularly-soggy 2018 and 2019.
So the three geysers' being found in as many months is not connected with lockdown – just with the weather during lockdown, which AEMET has already confirmed is unrelated, in answer to questions about whether the drastic drop in air pollution worldwide due to the mass cessation of industry, transport and human activity had led to more efficient cloud formation and, subsequently, greater rainfall.
Although Castilla-La Mancha is a particularly dry region, as seen by its parched grasslands – compared to the Mediterranean, which typically has intense monsoon-like 'rainy spells' spanning several days in spring and autumn – it is, in fact, these seasons when most wet weather happens in Spain across the board, including in those parts where it is less frequent and there is less of it.
This means spring and autumn could be a good time to take a trip to Campo de Calatrava to try to catch the geysers exploding, as their confined quantity of fizzy water will be greater and pushing harder to pop its top.
Photograph 1 by the blog Almagro Post (Almagropost.blogspot.com)
Photograph 3 ('red' geyser in Granátula) and 5 (geyser at Bolaños de Calatrava) from Mi Ciudad Real (miciudadreal.es)
Photograph 4 ('indoor' geyser pouring out of hut window) by Almagro town hall
Debate over banning short-distance flights takes off, but the cons outweigh the pros
BATTERIES from mobile phones, laptops and even cars are among those that must be recyclable within the next four years in accordance with a new European Union regulation, as explained by Spain's minister for...
ELECTRICITY could become cheaper to use at more convenient hours in a hypothetical about-turn for household bills – and that's thanks to solar power.
YET again and for the 36th year running, Spain holds the record for the highest number of blue-flagged beaches in the world, with its east-coast region of the Comunidad Valenciana having more than any other.