Nature's Water Spas - Hot Springs

Fancy unwinding in a hot tub as large as a lake throughout the year and with no electricity bills to pay. Then head to the nearest hot spring in your country or continent.



Lake Heviz, the largest thermal lake in Hungary Wikipedia Commons Civerten CC BY-SA 2.5

Macaques seek comfort in a hot spring in the snow clad mountains of Japan
By Yosemite (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Hot springs are water bodies that have temperatures above the surrounding region and definitely warmer than normal human body temperature of 98 degree F. The hot water dissolves more minerals and salts than normal water which is why many hot springs are considered to have healing powers.

Hot springs or geothermal springs is groundwater that is heated by geothermal power - heat rising from the earth's core. Below the surface these water bodies are either heated by molten rocks, if they are near a volcanic source, or through convection heating with water seeping deep enough to reach hotter cracks or rocks below.

 

Unique Properties of Water

Water has many unique properties that make it force that sustains life in this world.

A nice scientific explanation of its dozens of unique properties  can be found at Dr. Michael Pidwirny & Scott Jones University of British Columbia's physical geography website and UC Davis ChemWiki. YouTube is full of student and serious research photos as well.

For a quick demonstration, these everyday videos highlight two of the commonly known properties of water.

Water is a Universal Solvent
Water can dissolve the most substances i.e. solids and liquids.





Water has Surface Tension
Water molecules are cohesive towards themselves and can create an elastic like layer on the surface of water as they pull themselves inwards in the form of a sphere. Surface tension enables some solid objects, denser than water to float and sometimes stride on the surface.



 

How Much Water is there on Earth

The Earth is filled with water, in liquid form, which makes it unique in the solar system.

Water occupies 71% of Earth's surface, giving it its beautiful blue appearance when seen from space.
 Only 29 percent of the Earth's surface is land.  

Earth's Western and Eastern Hemispheres. NASA image.

Of  all water on, around and under earth is  only 1/100th or 1% is available as surface freshwater that is needed for sustaining human life.

The Earth is full of water but is it filled with water.  This popular illustration from USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) shows the stark contrast.

Credit: Howard Perlman, USGS/illustraion by Jack Cook, WHOI

There are three blue spheres in the image. The largest sphere shows the total amount of water, the smaller one, total freshwater and the smallest, freshwater in rivers and lake.

This is the complete USGS study on water on Earth and more.

Hydropower: Water as Renewable Energy

Water is one of the best and largest natural sources of renewable energy on this planet.

The kinetic energy of moving water can be converted among other things, into mechanical energy or electricity.

The natural water cycle i.e. conversion of water to vapour, clouds, rain and back aided by gravity causing water sources such as rivers to flow down to sea level, create many natural sources of flowing, falling water.

The force of this water, also known as hydropower, can be used to drive machinery or generate electricity. Water mills and dams are some of the common means of utilizing hydropower.

This 4 minute video on hydro-electricity generation from U.S. Department of Energy explains it all.

References and More Information:

1. Top 10 Things You Didn't Know about Hydropower, from Department of Energy.

2. Why HydroPower, a site created by a group of renewable energy enthusiasts.
 

Water's Special Properties: 3 States

Water has one of the rarest properties exhibited by substances. It can be found naturally in all three different states.

• Liquid
• Solid
• Gas

Think about it. Oxygen is gas in its natural form while gold is solid and oil is liquid.

There are very, very few substances in nature which are as common as water and yet found in all three states.




Water and Ice



Steam rising from a hot water spring surrounded by ice
Image: Andreas Tille License CC BY-SA 4.0