Fly Geyser — Nevada USA
The Fly Geyser on the Black Rock Desert playa in Nevada — a 2-metre-tall man-made geothermal formation created when a well drilled in 1964 struck a geothermal pocket, the continuously erupting scalding water depositing calcium carbonate and silica in terraced mounds colonised by thermophilic algae (Cyanidium caldarium) in vivid green, orange, and red, the combined mineral and biological colours creating a formation of completely alien appearance in the flat alkali playa. The geyser's continuous water spray (the water column audible 200 metres away in the desert silence), the formation's growth (approximately 10 centimetres per year, its current form entirely created in 60 years), and the rainbow visible in the spray on sunny mornings create an encounter with a geological process normally requiring thousands of years compressed into a human lifetime. The Burning Man festival's use of the adjacent Black Rock playa creates an unusual cultural context for a geological phenomenon.
About this spectacle
Fly Geyser rises just two metres from the flat alkali playa of Nevada's Black Rock Desert, yet commands absolute attention. Born of a poorly capped geothermal well drilled in 1964, it has been continuously erupting scalding water ever since, building terraced calcium carbonate and silica mounds at roughly ten centimetres per year. The mounds are colonised by thermophilic algae — species including Cyanidium caldarium — that paint the formation in vivid greens, burnt oranges, and deep reds, giving it a wholly alien appearance against the pale, featureless desert floor. The continuous spray is audible from 200 metres away, and on sunny mornings a rainbow hangs in the mist above the cone. Visitors stand close enough to feel the heat and dampness in otherwise bone-dry desert air, watching a geological process that normally unfolds across millennia playing out in real time across a single human lifetime. The vast silence of the playa amplifies every sound: the hiss of water, the crunch of alkaline crust underfoot, the distant nothing of the Great Basin.
When to go
Mar — Oct
Getting there
Nearest airport: RNO. Nearest city: Reno.
Booking options
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