英語(yǔ)聽力：自然百科 間歇泉記事

Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula is known for its volcanic and seismic activity, but not since the 1960s has a new geyser appeared here. A ranger in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve was the first to see the column of boiling liquid last month.

Another observer exclaimed Prikolny, meaning peculiar in Russian and the geyser was named. Scientists are still analyzing Prikonlnys sudden appearance, the temperature of its water and the depth of its underground structure. The Nature Reserve's director says the geyser erupts every 6 to 20 minutes.

The new geyser shoots a column of water and steam up to more than 16 feet high. The scientists say it uses the same water over and over again as its water gets back into its funnel for reuse. It's located near a ranger station and an observation boudoir, so it's already become a tourist attraction.

Usually occurring in volcanic regions, geysers are hot springs that intermittently eject forceful jets of water and steam. No one knows what caused the geyser's formation, but theories include rising water levels in the area or a pulsating hot spring that switched roles.

Prikolny is less than nine miles from Kamchatka Valley of the Geysers, a large geyser field discovered in 1941. At one point, about 100 geysers spouted here, until a mudslide in 2007 wiped out half of them.

There are three other large geyser fields in the world in Iceland, New Zealand and the United States where the last new geyser appeared in Yellowstone National Park in the early 20th century.