So I will try and describe this as best as i can.
I was walking though my local national park and something caught my eyes.
I saw a bunch of weeds growing next to a steam vent (for those of you that don't know a steam vent is caused by lava heating water until it is steam). My first thought was wow those must be some pretty strong plants to handle that heat. Then I walked up to the vent and felt the steam, it was barely even lukewarm (I think that the heat in the steam becomes diffused while rising through the lava rocks). While inspecting the plants nearby the steam vent I saw that they were all rooted in pumice which is very similar to rock wool. I was amazed to find a fully functioning aeroponic garden created by nature. After some more thought i realized that this system was self fertilizing because the while the steam is rising through the lava rocks it picks up minerals and nutrients from the layer of soil beneath the lave rocks, even more amazing, and after passing the root system it goes on to do some foliar feeding. Another interesting thing is that the steam has a ph of about 6.8. The best part this vent was located in a dessert. The worst part was that this particular area was located at the end of a 16mile trail in a federal park.
I just had to share
hope someone finds this interesting
I will try to get some pics of the weeds growing and such but i don't think im gonna be hiking the 32 miles anytime soon.
This is not the vent i was talking about but it gives a general idea.
The vent i saw wasn't coming out such a big fissure. and was surrounded by lava.
I was walking though my local national park and something caught my eyes.
I saw a bunch of weeds growing next to a steam vent (for those of you that don't know a steam vent is caused by lava heating water until it is steam). My first thought was wow those must be some pretty strong plants to handle that heat. Then I walked up to the vent and felt the steam, it was barely even lukewarm (I think that the heat in the steam becomes diffused while rising through the lava rocks). While inspecting the plants nearby the steam vent I saw that they were all rooted in pumice which is very similar to rock wool. I was amazed to find a fully functioning aeroponic garden created by nature. After some more thought i realized that this system was self fertilizing because the while the steam is rising through the lava rocks it picks up minerals and nutrients from the layer of soil beneath the lave rocks, even more amazing, and after passing the root system it goes on to do some foliar feeding. Another interesting thing is that the steam has a ph of about 6.8. The best part this vent was located in a dessert. The worst part was that this particular area was located at the end of a 16mile trail in a federal park.
I just had to share
hope someone finds this interesting
I will try to get some pics of the weeds growing and such but i don't think im gonna be hiking the 32 miles anytime soon.
This is not the vent i was talking about but it gives a general idea.
The vent i saw wasn't coming out such a big fissure. and was surrounded by lava.