In the dry desert of eastern Utah, strange geysers shoot cold, fizzy water into the air.
Instead of boiling like the famous hot geysers in Yellowstone, these eruptions are powered by carbon dioxide gas.
The water bubbles, foams, and sprays from the ground, looking almost like a shaken bottle of soda. Now scientists believe these unusual “soda pop” geysers could help us understand whether distant icy moons in our solar system might support life.
The new research, led by Planetary Science Institute scientist Morgan Cable and published in Astrobiology, suggests that Utah’s cold-water geysers may act as useful Earth-based models for studying plume eruptions on ocean worlds such as Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Both moons are believed to hide salty oceans beneath thick layers of ice. In the case of Enceladus, spacecraft have already observed dramatic plumes of water vapor and ice particles spraying from its south pole.
Europa also shows signs of possible plumes, along with carbon dioxide-rich deposits on its surface.
These plumes are especially exciting to scientists because they may carry material directly from the hidden ocean below.
By studying the chemistry of the spray, researchers hope to learn whether those oceans could be habitable. However, there is a challenge.
When material travels from a deep ocean, through cracks in the ice, and out into the vacuum of space, its chemical makeup can change. To interpret data from future missions correctly, scientists need to understand how that journey affects what we measure.
To investigate this process, Cable and her team traveled to Green River, Utah. There they studied two carbon dioxide-driven cold-water geysers called Crystal Geyser and Champagne Geyser.
In 2024, they collected samples of the erupting water and compared them with water from the underground reservoir that feeds the geysers. They analyzed both the chemistry and the biological content of the samples.
The researchers discovered that factors such as the size of the eruption, the energy of the spray, and how close the vent is to the underground source all influence the composition of the material that reaches the surface.
In some cases, the erupting water more closely reflected deeper reservoir material than water that had not erupted. This suggests that large, energetic vents may bring up fresher samples from greater depths.
However, they also found differences between the chemistry of the erupting spray and the original reservoir water. For example, measurements such as pH, which indicates how acidic or alkaline a substance is, did not always match. This means that processes during eruption can alter the chemistry, potentially hiding important clues about the true conditions below.
The study highlights the need for careful planning in upcoming missions. NASA’s Europa Clipper and the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer are both scheduled to reach Jupiter in the early 2030s. By combining spacecraft measurements, telescope observations, and computer models, scientists hope to better interpret what plume materials can tell us about hidden oceans.
While no Earth location perfectly matches the extreme environments of icy moons, Utah’s bubbling geysers provide valuable lessons. They remind us that even cold, fizzy water in a desert can help answer one of humanity’s biggest questions: could life exist beyond Earth?
