Tag Archives: gravitational potential energy

Springs and seeps

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Blue Spring in central NZ. Groundwater supplied is 50-100 years old.

It rains quite a bit on Mamaku Plateau, the tableland underlain by volcanic debris that was  deposited violently 240,000 years ago; an eruption that also gave rise to Lake Rotorua caldera (central North Island, New Zealand). Some of that rain seeps into the myriad fractures, nooks and crannies, and heads west as groundwater. Fifty to 100 years later that same water emerges, chilled to a cool 11oC, at Blue Springs (about 40km west of Rotorua). Spring water here flows at 42 cubic metres per minute (9,240 gallons per minute), enough to maintain a decent-sized stream (Waihou Stream). Continue reading

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