Salt Water Geyser

A Salt Water Geyser is a periodic geyser that emits Salt Water, making it a renewable source of both liquid water and dissolved Salt. In the base game, an uncovered Salt Water Geyser can be found in the Tide Pool Biome. Salt Water itself is also naturally abundant there, and in Spaced Out it can additionally be harvested from certain space POIs such as Salty Asteroid Fields and Interstellar Oceans.

Its main value is as a feedstock for desalination and agriculture. The Desalinator converts Salt Water into Water and Salt at a 93% / 7% mass split, and boiling Salt Water produces the same output ratio as Steam and Salt. It can also be frozen into Ice and Brine. Since Waterweed domestic growth requires 5 kg/cycle of Salt Water irrigation, a single average Salt Water Geyser can support a large Waterweed farm; one source estimates roughly 360 domestic Waterweed, though this depends on the geyser’s actual output and cycle timing.

A Salt Water Geyser is often easiest to use as a raw liquid source rather than as a direct farming input. If the geyser is piped to a Desalinator, it can provide both Water and Salt without needing to cool the water first. If it is heated to the steam point, it can instead be turned into Steam and Salt, which allows it to be processed through a steam turbine setup. This can remove the need for both a Desalinator and a Liquid Pump while also generating some extra power.

• Linking one Geotuner to the geyser raises the erupted liquid temperature to 115 °C, which instantly boils it.
• Linking two or more Geotuners makes it hot enough to run Steam Turbines.
• Geotuning also increases the geyser’s water output.
• Geotuners require a small Bleach Stone upkeep, so the setup is not entirely maintenance-free.
• A geotuned Salt Water Geyser pairs well with a Chlorine Gas Vent, since geotuned Chlorine Gas Vents require Salt and Chlorine can be fed to Squeaky Pufts to produce Bleach Stone.

Like other geysers, Salt Water Geysers can overpressure if liquid cannot escape. In the 5-grid eruption area, if any grid stays at or under 5 kg and there is at least one vacuum, pushable, or mergeable grid among them, eruption will choose the non-overpressure grids in order from 1 to 5. In practice, this means the geyser should be given enough room and plumbing capacity to avoid blocked output.

For plants, the geyser is especially useful for Waterweed, but the temperature of the supplied liquid matters. Waterweed has a maximum temperature of 65 °C, so very hot output must be cooled before use if the plants are to survive.