Hot Springs in Uganda
Hot Springs in Uganda are some of the tourist attractions that people visit the country to see. Uganda hot springs are spread across the regions of the Pearl of Africa.
Hot Springs and their locations
The Formation of Hot Springs
A hot spring is a spring produced by the appearance of geothermal heated groundwater that upswings from the Earth’s layer. There are geothermal hot springs in many places all over the surface of the globe. Whereas some of these springs have water with safe temperatures for bathing, others are too hot in that immersion may lead death or injury. The hot water temperature is generally 6.5 °C or more overhead the mean air temperature. And note that by this meaning, thermal spring is not the same as the hot spring whose hot water is brought to the surface. The water temperature of the spring is typically 8.3 °C or more above the air temperature.
In broad, the temperature of rocks within the earth rises with depth, the rate of temperature increase with depth is called the geothermal gradient. If water permeates deep enough into the earth’s crust, it will get heated in the process of coming into contact with hot rocks. The water from burning springs in areas that are not volcanic is heated in this method. In active volcanic zones like the Yellowstone National Park in the US, water may be heated by coming into contact with magma. And the high temperature gradient near magma may make water to be heated enough that it boils or becomes super heated. When it becomes very hot, it forms steam pressure and erupts in a jet above the earth’s surface. If the water only reaches the surface in the form of steam, it is termed as fumarole. And if water is mixed with mud and clay, it is known as a mud pot. Understand that hot springs in volcanic areas are regularly at or near the boiling point.
Some people have been extremely burned and even killed by accident as they deliberately enter the hot waters. The warm springs are at times the result of hot and cold springs mingling. They may occur in an area or outside of one. Hot springs range in flow rate from the tiniest leaks to absolute rivers of boiling water, at times there is sufficient pressure that the water sprouts upward in a spring or spout. In some literature, there are many claims about the rates of hot springs. But it should understood that there are many more high flow non-thermal springs than geothermal springs.[/stm_info_box]