An unstoppable geyser of mud is continuously pouring from the San Andreas fault line and slowly creeping across California. The troublesome mud in California’s Imperial County has caused local authorities to declare it an emergency earlier this year.
It’s called the Niland Geyser, according to Science Alert, and it’s exactly that, a geyser of bubbling mud. But there’s a strange twist – this menacing puddle has been slowly creeping across the ground, to the point where it’s now threatening railroad tracks and a state highway. The Niland Geyser had first appeared in California in 1953 but it sat around without incident for decades. Then, around 11 years ago, things began to change. The geyser started moving across the dry ground at a glacial pace.
But now, suddenly, things are starting to get serious where the mud geyser is concerned. In the last six months, the geyser’s pace has picked up considerably. In just a few months, the Niland Geyser’s mud has traveled 18.3 meters (60 feet). It traveled another 18 meters in a single day – bringing it ever closer to Union Pacific’s railway tracks, State Route 111, a petroleum pipeline, and some fiber-optic telecommunications lines.
The mud has so far traveled roughly 73 meters (240 feet) from where it all began a decade ago. The Los Angeles Times called the mysterious mud geyser a “slow-moving disaster.” However, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Ken Hudnut, who visited the moving spring in July, has said there’s no evidence that this is a sign that the “Big One” is approaching. “It’s a slow-moving disaster,” said Alfredo Estrada, Imperial County’s fire chief, and emergency services coordinator. But not because it could cause a massive quake.
Based on publicly available satellite images, the spring hadn’t appeared to move much until roughly 2015, Hudnut said, but the mud’s movement became particularly noticeable earlier this year. The spring in question is actually only about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, Hudnut said. It’s bubbling not from boiling water, but carbon dioxide being created from deep underground the earth’s surface, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times.
Union Pacific has even built a 100-foot long wall of large boulders and steel more than 75 feet deep in the earth in an effort to protect the railroad. Union Pacific has been forced to build temporary tracks to avoid running trains over land impacted by the spring. Trains are now moving more slowly through the area, according to the company. The railroad may need to consider more permanent solutions in the very near future as well, such as building a bridge to bypass potentially unstable land, a company spokesman said.
240 feet in a decade?
Well heck, at that rate it ought to threaten LA in about what? 2000 years?
From 60ft, in several months, to 60ft in a day.
Is the vent moving, over stationary ground?
Or, is the ground moving, over a stationary vent?
Nailbanger, I wonder if some libturds could be put in there.
Oh the humanity of it all……
Naybe they could legislate some progressive regulation on that issue, sure to fix it just like everything else in that state ?
I think you’re being a bit too optimistic about that!
in other news, Florida was a wetland once.
If you want to seee a real mud mess Google the one is SE Asia that’s covered miles of land
https://www.desertusa.com/desert-california/photos/ShellReefsign2.jpg
In Beaumont, CA, environmentalists blame mankind for fish die-offs and sulfur smells, blowing through the Inland Empire and even into LA and San Diego. But, there are fumaroles and a volcanic field, adjoining Salton — a lake that formed on accident.
A seep, off the Channel Islands leaves tar on the beach.
I plug in coordinates, where there was an earthquake, and find what appears to be a dry streambed of crushed rocks — actually a fault. Following days of earthquakes, a smell like burnt brakes, rubber or tar. Ozone?
On the Doppler, you see a pin prick and a cone of steam, which never moves. In the hillsides, clouds seem to hang in just a few of the crags and gullies, continually. I would like to find a utility, that allows me to see in infrared. Is it an explanation for wildfires? idk.
I like that analytical tools are available to hobbyists and citizen scientists.
On private property (with owners present) these pools seem to have left a mineral deposit. It was mined, some generations ago, and, at the bottom of that deposit, a spring still existed. Stifling gases and a moment of panic.
Has anyone told the global warming idiots this is caused by the evil CO2?
Any of those co2 injection wells within 20 miles?
I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’ll only care when cali falls into the ocean, that’s what they want right?? separation from “The TRUMP lands”
I’ll care because of the Trumpsters that couldn’t get out in time.
Call their new mini country Atlantis, or leftyville.. whatever works
https://argo.nullschool.net/#current/chem/surface/level/overlay=so2smass/orthographic=-103.23,31.49,3000/loc=-116.982,33.940
I think, I see your car, down there. It’s the clunker, right?
Sucks to be you. Raise your State Taxes and pay for it. Blah, Ha, Ha…
In the diagram, their solution to forces, on a planetary scale, was a small retaining wall of corrugated steel, held up with poles or pilons.
Accepting no bid contracts much?
The photo lacks perspective, are we looking at a Kentucky pothole? Certainly not a sat photo. Perhaps it’s another one of those NASA animations
Bert,
Its a closeup of NancyPelousys back yard mud bath
So why doesn’t someone just turn the damned thing off?
Go to google satellite view and look at all the fracking wells in the area. Mystery solved.n
Oh, yeah, that evil fracking. Idiot.
Ok….. let’s see who was running the country 11 years ago…then and
was he playing with an “OIJY (sp?) BOARD”? Has he stirred up the spooks and
devils and they are coming up out of the ground??
I remember in 1994 traveling south to LA on 101… when suddenly
we were airborne and came down with a crash.. as the uphill highway
had just opened up and dropped about 14-15 inches.
North bound traffic would have been a disaster, for sure.
Strange things happen in CA. so do strange people!!!