According to Jeopardy, what country has the most hot springs?

Japan has several thousands, that's my guess.

I would tend to agree with Mozart, but I will take "sources" for $200, Alex! (Jeopardy??! I missed it tonight; Do they have an archive that can be accessed DG?) That would be a great trivia source, if they do and you wish to share!

Not Japan. It was on today's show. I have not yet found an online source associated with Jeopardy like you mentioned, SR. All I can say is that, as unlikely answer as it may sound, I am sure you will agree that it is the right answer.

I do know that not only are their answers really checked out, but that they have 4 or 5 people there with reference books and each has a telephone in front of him. They have stopped the program before while answers were checked. The program you see is about half as long as the actuall running time of the taping. Trebek has a minute or so after each "I'll take..." to get the right question and read it over to make sure he reads everything right. I see nothing wrong with that. That show is excellent.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,

I don't question that for a second, DG! I just thought you found a link to their trivia! No such luck, however, it seems.

Nice if we could find their sources, however!

I'll take "How do they do it Alex, for $1,000"

I thought I remembered a PBS special saying that Iceland had more thermal anomalies like hot springs than any other country.

'Spit tracked this one down. Good job.
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Despite the fact that it has been inactive for decades, the Great Geysir, in Iceland, is the most famous geyser on the island. Iceland has more hot springs than any other country in the world. - http://www.scienceclarified.com/landforms/Faults-to-Mou...-and-Hot-Spring.html

Iceland does have the most geo-thermal activity (geysers, molten rock and steam spouts) but hot springs are not the only form. They only have around 800 (per DG's source) while Japan has several thousand.

Can you supply a source for that, Georgia?

For the several thousands in Japan?
It is estimated that there are over twenty thousand hot springs throughout Japan.
In Japan there are in excess of 17,000 commercial hot springs
In Oita Prefecture (area in Japan) the total number of hot spring sources is 4,749

Or the 800 for Iceland?
Geysers and hot springs are among Iceland's most remarkable features, and with more than 700 such sources...
total of about 800 hot springs
And one more mention of 800 hot springs from an iceland site.

I just checked with my secret source. () According to Jeopardy, Iceland is the correct response to "Ironically, this north Atlantic nation has the world's greatest number of hot springs." Now the problem is to find out why Jeopardy said that. It may be that the term "hot springs" has no universally accepted definition, and that Jeopardy is using one definitiopn, and othetr sources are using others. Below from Wikipedia.

There is, unfortunately, no universally accepted definition of a hot spring. For example, one can find the phrase hot spring defined as

* any geothermal spring[1]
* a spring with water temperatures above its surroundings[2]
* a natural spring with water temperature above body temperature (normally between 36.5°C and 37.5°C, that is, between 97.8°F and 99.5°F ) [3]
* a natural spring with warm water above body temperature[4]
* a thermal spring with water warmer than 98°F (36.7°C)[5] [6][7]
* a natural spring of water greater than 70°F (21.1°C) (synonymous with thermal spring) [8][9][10][11]

# a natural discharge of groundwater with elevated temperatures[12]
# a type of thermal spring in which hot water is brought to the surface. The water temperature of a hot spring is usually 6.5ºC (11.7°F) or more above mean air temperature. [13][14] Note that by this definition, "thermal spring" is not synomous with the term "hot spring".
# a spring whose hot water is brought to the surface (synonymous with a thermal spring). The water temperature of the spring is usually 15°F (8°C)[15] or more above the mean air temperature.[16]
# a spring with water above the core human body temperature (36.7°C or 98.06°F).[17]
# a spring with water above average ambient ground temperature[18], a definition favored by some.
# a spring with water temperatures above 50°C (122°F)[19]

I'll continue to look further into this.

While you are checking (I found your "secret source" btw) I did find this interesting site from the National Geophysical Data Center:
Thermal Springs List for the United States: 1661 Hot Springs Listed.
Now if only I could find a similar one for the world!

Iceland has more hot springs and solfataras—volcanic vents that emit hot gases and vapours—than any other country. Alkaline hot springs are found in some 250 areas throughout the country. - http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-10069/Iceland

Iceland has more hot springs, spouting geysers, and sulfur-steam vents than any other country. - http://encarta.msn.com/media_631506376_761551693_-1_1/G...ders_in_Iceland.html

So far, I haven't found any educational or scientific site stating that Japan has the most hot springs of any country. I saw a couple of NOAA site that indicated that Iceland was one of the world's "hot spots" for hot springs, but they didn't mention Japan. It may be that the travel sites that you linked to are counting the same hot spring multiple times rather than as one hot spring with multiple outlets. I think it unlikely that Jeopardy, Encyclopedia Britannica, Encarta, and the US government would somehow all ignore thousands of hot springs in Japan and only see eight hundred in Iceland.

And yet none of the sources will give a number as opposed to the sources I found that do give numbers for a few countries.

No, they don't, but then, your sources on Japan don't have the same information. I guess it depends on whose reputation is most reliable. I'm sticking with Jeopardy, the encyclopedias, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.