Geysers Nina and the Neurons: Earth Explorers

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses while helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes, eyes

-Ears, ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents and Belle she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons and they're coming to your place

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes, eyes

-Ears, ears

-# Nose

-Nose

-# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know...

-Yeah!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Oh, hello. I'm experimenting with this water fountain.

When I switch the pump on, water should come flowing up

through the top here. Here we go.

Yay, it worked!

What a lovely water fountain.

-BEEP!

-I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask.

-BOTH: Hi, Nina!

-Hi!

We've got a question for you.

What is a geyser?

That's a great question. What is a geyser?

Geysers are like natural fountains that can shoot hot water

and steam high into the air.

But what actually is a geyser?

Come down to my workshop and we'll investigate.

BOTH: See you soon, Nina. Bye!

Bye! Well, I'm going to need some help to answer this one,

and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK. Today's question is, what is a geyser?

Which Neuron will be most useful to help find the answer?

ALL: Me! Me! Me! Oh, me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear. If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

For looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy but you can't tell,

-my messages help your sense of smell.

-Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet, I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat!

It's Ollie!

Ollie! Ollie! Ollie! Ollie!

Ollie! Ollie! Ollie!

Standing by to smell and tell, Nina.

Today's question is, what is a geyser?

Geysers can smell quite strong,

so Ollie, our smell neuron, will be helping us today.

Stand-by, Neurons, I have a feeling I may need all of you.

Right, I need to get the workshop ready before the explorers arrive.

Michael likes eating pizza and Alex likes playing with his friends.

But they both want to know what is a geyser.

Geysers are cool.

What is a geyser?

So today, for one day only, Michael and Alex become the explorers!

-Hi, guys.

-BOTH: Hi, Nina.

Welcome to my workshop and thank you for your great question,

what is a geyser? To find out, let's start by using our senses.

NEURONS: Woo-hoo!

A senses experiment! We're ready, Nina.

Let's start by exploring this model of a geyser.

-So how would you describe the geyser?

-Round and bumpy.

Yes, it is round and bumpy.

And look, it has water coming out of the top, just like a real geyser.

But people don't make geysers,

they are part of the natural world around us.

So let's look at some real geysers over here.

A geyser is like a natural fountain that shoots hot water

out of the ground up into the air. Geysers are quite rare.

There aren't many places where this happens.

Some geysers have a strange smell, too, Nina.

That's right. Smells can also come up from the cracks in the ground

and some geysers smell very strange, a bit like rotten eggs.

Rotten eggs? Ew, yuck!

-Where does water come from, Nina?

-That is a great question.

Let's look under the ground. What can you see?

-A hole under the ground.

-Yeah.

Underneath geysers, it's like a spider's web of tunnels

that are all joined together.

-And what else can you see?

-Water!

-Yes.

Underneath some geysers, there are streams and rivers flowing.

And the water fills up the holes and tunnels in the rock.

And geysers can have lots and lots of water inside them,

sometimes as much as a big swimming pool.

What do you notice about the ground very far below

-the surface of the geyser?

-It looks red.

Yeah. Very far below the surface of the earth,

way deeper than we can dig a hole, it's extremely hot.

And because the tunnels go so deep,

the water inside them gets very hot, too.

What happens when the water gets hot, Nina?

Great question. This experiment will help to explain. Come with me.

-Be careful around hot things.

-That's right, Felix.

That is why I've got my safety gear on.

What can you see happening with the water?

-There is steam coming off of it.

-That's right.

When water gets very hot, it turns into steam.

You may have seen steam coming out of a kettle at home or

coming from a pot of soup on the cooker, but steam is hot,

so you shouldn't go near it. I'm going to put the lid on.

Now watch carefully.

What can you see happening?

-The lid is moving.

-Yes.

By putting a lid on, I have trapped the steam inside the pot.

When steam is trapped, it wants to get out,

and the same thing happens underground with geysers.

Oh, keep watching.

Hey, fantastic!

Are the old geysers steaming, Nina?

That's a great question.

To answer that, I think we need to go somewhere very special indeed.

-Oh, goody, I love this bit.

-I wonder where Nina is taking us.

Nina said it is somewhere very special indeed.

Perhaps it is a zoo with beautiful lions and tigers.

And tricky monkeys! Oh-oh, ah-ah!

Not a zoo, but very interesting smells.

This is the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, America.

And behind us is one of the most famous geysers in the whole world.

It's called Old Faithful.

SNIFFS: I knew it! Wafts of rotten eggs. Geysers!

NEURONS: Oh, what a pong!

Pee-yew!

What do you notice when we stand near Old Faithful?

-There is a funny smell.

-Yeah, it's a bit whiffy, isn't it?

Oh, no, it's too smelly, I can't take it!

Actually, I rather like a damp, musty pong.

Geysers are only found in a few places around the world,

but here, in Yellowstone National Park, there are about 300.

So it's no wonder we can smell them.

Now look. We can also see a little bit of steam coming out

the top of the geyser.

It's like we saw earlier in the workshop.

I can't see much water coming out, Nina.

No, Luke, and that's because geysers don't shoot water out all the time,

only sometimes.

Some geysers only shoot out water once a day or once a month or

even once every 50 years.

But Old Faithful here regularly shoots water out several

times a day, so I wonder if it will happen soon.

Oh!

Wow! Huge jets of water and clouds of steam!

-Wow! What did you think of that, guys?

-It was amazing.

Just imagine, all that steam

and water was trapped deep beneath the ground, wanting to get out.

Take a look at this.

The water was getting hotter, the steam was building up.

But when steam is trapped, it really wants to escape.

-So the steam pushed its way out.

-And pushed lots of water out with it.

Old Faithful looks spectacular,

but there are lots of other geysers here, shall we go and explore them?

-BOTH: Yeah!

-Let's go!

Those geysers were lovely!

Why don't geysers shoot out water all the time, Nina?

Great question.

Why don't we go back to my workshop to do one final experiment?

Now, it's not quite Old Faithful, but welcome to my home-made geyser.

We are going to pretend that this flask

and this tube are like the tunnels full of water underground.

At the top, there is an opening,

just like the hole in the ground on a real geyser.

Now we need one more thing to make a geyser - heat.

Because it is very, very hot underground,

we need the underground water to be very hot, too.

So here we go, I'll just turn it on.

Remember, hot water is dangerous, so I'm going to come over here

and stand with you guys, at a safe distance.

Let's watch.

What's happening with the water now?

There is steam coming off of it.

Yes, the water is so hot, it has turned into steam.

So let's see what happens next.

NEURONS: Yippee! Woo-hoo!

Yay! Our own home-made geyser.

Oh, and it's stopped, just like a real geyser.

Once the hot water has shot out of a real geyser,

it takes a while for the tunnels to fill up again,

just like our home-made geyser is slowly filling up again now.

And the water will take a long time to get hot enough to turn into

steam again, and that is why geysers don't shoot out water all the time,

just sometimes.

So, your question was, what is a geyser?

I think we have answered it.

Geysers are holes in the ground where hot water shoots out,

high into the air.

Steam gets trapped in deep, hot watery tunnels,

below the geyser.

As the steam escapes, it pushes water above it,

out with a whoosh!

This only happens sometimes because it takes a while

for the geyser to fill up with hot water again.

Geysers may have an unusual smell, but they are great fun.

So, I hope that has answered your question.

BOTH: Thanks, Nina. Bye!

You're welcome. Bye.

If you want to know more about the science all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun!

# Every day the sun comes up it brightens up the sky

# A brand-new day to understand

-# A chance to ask ourselves why

-Why?

# There's a world of possibilities outside our front door

# Front door

# So every day take a look around and explore

-# Explore,

-explore,

-explore

-Explore!

-# Exploring in the garden

-Grass!

-# Exploring in the park

-Rivers!

-# Exploring in the daytime

-Mountains!

-# And even when it's dark

-Planets!

# Look at the Earth Look at the sky

# Look at the world before us

-# Explore,

-explore,

-explore,

-explore

# We're always on the lookout

-# We're Earth explorers

-O-oh, o-oh

-# We're Earth explorers

-O-oh, o-oh

# We're Earth explorers. #

Exploring is about looking at the world around us,

asking why and finding out the answer.

Whether it's deep underground, at the end of your playground

or way above the clouds, keep exploring our exciting world.

See you again soon. Bye.

Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd