the.com/hot spring
Earth's way of running a bath it never invites you to turn off.
means A natural pool fed by groundwater that's been heated underground by geothermal activity, often rich in dissolved minerals.
from Plain compound of 'hot' and 'spring' — spring here meaning a place water leaps or wells up from the ground, from Old English 'springan,' to jump or burst forth. No exotic backstory needed: the name just describes exactly what it is, water that springs up already warmed by the rock it passed through.
- heat source
- magma or decaying rock warms groundwater below
- mineral stew
- sulfur gives that rotten-egg smell, free of charge
- danger zone
- some exceed 160°F, cooking first, questions later
- microbial life
- thermophiles thrive where nothing else survives