We probably wouldn’t believe us either, but it’s true. Nevada’s Fly Geyser is an accidental manmade wonder that has created a whimsically colored and fantastically shaped desert marvel that is a must-see for Nevadans and visitors alike.
The Fly Geyser is located on Fly Ranch, a 3,800-acre parcel of land in Northern Nevada purchased by the Burning Man Project in 2016. It is an amazing site that is located about two hours north of Reno, on the edge of the Nevada Black Rock Desert. The first geyser on the site began to form in 1916 when residents were seeking irrigation water and drilled a well. This well was quickly abandoned when it was discovered that the water inside was too hot, and so began the development of the first geyser. Similarly, the main geyser was created accidentally in 1964 after a geothermal power company drilled a test well at the site. According to later newspaper reports, the well was either left uncapped or was improperly plugged. In either case, the scalding hot water shot from the well hole and calcium carbonate deposits began to form, growing several inches each year. Jump forward several decades, and those deposits have become three large mounds that rise out of a field of tall reeds and grasses. The sediments are now almost 6 feet tall and are multi-colored green and red. The geyser’s trio of travertine cones still spew scalding hot water about four or five feet into the air. Scientists who are familiar with the geyser note that the coloring on the outside of the mounds is the result of thermophilic algae, which flourishes in moist, hot environments. The inside of the mounds even contain quartz, according to Munoz Saez, and this quartz is growing much more rapidly than any of the other geysers that she has studied in her career. Typically, quartz doesn’t begin to grow for about 10,000 years within geysers, which makes the Fly Geyser even more of a marvel.
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