Lady Knox Geyser

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Lady Knox Geyser

The Lady Knox Geyser is a geyser in the Wai-O-Tapu area of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. It is named after Lady Constance Knox, the second daughter of Uchter Knox, 15th Governor of New Zealand. The geyser is made to erupt daily at 10:15am by dropping soap into the opening of the geyser. Eruptions produce a jet of water reaching up to 20m and can last for over an hour.

[edit] Eruption

The geyser has two water chambers, one lower, hot one and one upper, cold one. The upper chamber cools due to a larger opening to the outside. The lower one heats up due to the volcanic activity below. When soap is thrown into the upper water chamber, the lowered surface tension of the water allows it to mix with the hotter water below, causing the eruption.

[edit] Dicovery

According to the introductory speech given by the park employee who throws the soap into the geyser every day, the geyser was discovered by prisoners who washed their clothes in the hot water emerging from the ground, after soap fell into the geyser and caused an eruption,