Mud Volcanoes! YEE-HAW!!!

The Salton Sea mud volcanoes were the thing that prompted this trip.

Once I found out about them, I knew I had to go.

I mean: Mud volcanoes? You gotta go see that!

Any volcanoes are cool, and ones made especially of mud are unique.

Not only because they're made of mud but also because they are much SAFER than regular volcanoes when they're errupting, so you can get much closer to them and even CLIMB UP ON THEM (like I did!) while they're errupting.

WARNING! Impending cool pictures!

First, here's an AUDIO REPORT I did from the site.

From a LONG WAY OFF you can hear the volcanoes bubbling. At first I thought what I was hearing might be the warbling of distant birds or something, because I couldn't imagine the volcanoes themselves were making noise, but as I got closer I could tell that it was indeed the sound of the volcanoes going GLUB, GLUB, GLUB constantly (listen to the audio report to hear it).

Now for the pictures:

Before you even get up to the volcanoes, you know you're someplace otherworldly.The ground looks like it's got snow on it, but it's not. It's some kind of salt alkali or something.

That doesn't stop it from ACTING like snow, though. As you get closer to the volcanoes the ground becomes SLIPPERY and you have to watch your step.

Here's a relatively straight-forward, single mud volcano (about 5-6' tall).

Here's part of a mud volcano that has a prominent mud flow that is in the process of drying. This bad boy is about 6 feet tall.

Many of the mud volcanoes have mudpots around them. I took a mystery photo of my foot next to one of these mud pots and put it on the blog while I was there. Here (above) is an especially large, bubbling mudpot at the base of a mud volcano chain.

Here I am deliberatly getting some mud on my fingers from the top of the mud volcano I'm standing on. Though there is steam coming from the vents on the volcanoes, this mud is not actually hot. It's not molten rock. (It's MUD! Remember?) The reason it bubbles is that there's CO2 trapped underground that is trying to push its way to the surface, so you get bubbling volcanoes that aren't really hot. (I'm not sure what produces the steam, but it doesn't seem to be that hot, either.)

Now here's some quick-succession pix of a single vent to let you see the bubbling in action:

YEE-HAW!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!

Some of the ground around here has a texture like PlayDough. Notice the depth of the imprint my boot made (just to the left of my boot).

Here someone left a REALLY deep impression.

Here's a nice look at a multiple mudpot formation. From this angle it looks like an owl's face.

This looks like it could be a mud volcano about to form out of a mudpot.

Something I don't get is that there were all these little mounds composed of grains of dirt all over the ground. If I were anywhere else, I'd attribute them to the activity of ants, but I noticed that they tend to form at the junction of cracks in the ground, and I wonder if they're another manifestation of the geothermal anomaly.

I think this was the single STEEPEST mud volcano I found.

This mudpot is drying up.

And here's a vent with some recent flows.

So: Mud volcanoes. . . . COOL!

MORE ON THE MUD VOLCANOES.

NEXT: GIANT mudpots.

Comments

[cw]

My 8 year old son thinks these are the coolest things ever. He is very excited about the Giant Mudpots so please post them soon.
Thanks, Jimmy!

[cw]

His first question:
Are mud volcanoes real?

Answer:
Of course they are, Jimmy Akin took these pictures just yesterday!

His second question:
Is Jimmy Akin real?

[Ben]

Is a four wheel drive vehicle necessary to visit these mudpots?

Is a vehicle with a high clearance needed to visit?

[Jimmy Akin]

Is a four wheel drive vehicle necessary to visit these mudpots?

No. Mine isn't.

Is a vehicle with a high clearance needed to visit?

No, but you can drive up closer to them if you have a high clearance vehicle. Otherwise you'd need to park on the road (within sight of them) and walk up.

[Jimmy Akin]

Incidentally, make sure your son hears the audio post so he can HEAR the mud volcanoes bubbling and going GLUB, GLUB, GLUB.

[Jimmy Akin]

His first question:
Are mud volcanoes real?

Answer:
Of course they are, Jimmy Akin took these pictures just yesterday!

Your son has obviously grown up in the age of George Lucas's CGI extravaganzas. Seeing is no longer believing.

His second question:
Is Jimmy Akin real?

Only at lunchtime.

[Jimmy Akin]

For those who may be interested in visiting the mud volcanoes, they are at the intersection of Davis and Schrimpf in Calipatria, CA (near Niland).

(Davis is also apparently sometimes called Wister Rd.)

HERE'S A LINK

[cw]

Okay, my blonde roots are showing. Where can I find the audio post?

[Jim Sheridan]

Did you visit Slab City and Salvation Mountain also?

[cw]

Nevermind... just found it. Now where's that bottle of Miss Clairol?

[Jim Sheridan]

My job is doing Salton Sea restoration. These are my regular "stomping grounds" :)

[Brian Emmick]

This is really interesting. I enjoyed reading all of your geological posts.

[Benedict]

Salton Sea is only 5:30 hours from my house, but I think I will wait until next year to see them. I only get to go home for two weeks over the break and I was not able to get home at all this past summer.

[Trish]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us :-)

The mud volcanoes and mudpots and surrounding environs look so foreign and other worldly to someone from Michigan (I've never been out west) And, (excluding the surface of another planet, or the outback of Australia) can't imagine anything more bizarre than bubbling pots of foul smelling mud under one's feet. It really is like something from science fiction. (Is the smell like sulphur incidentally?)

Glad your Y-chromosomal (fence jumping - standing on the edge) condition didn't cause you to fall into any of those mud pots Jimmy ;)

[Mark]

Thank you very much for posting all of those photos. It's amazing what is out there. Now I feel encouraged to search for the legendary "Quaking Mound" in my homestate of Missouri, which may be something like an artesian mud spring.

[Fatima]

i understand that they are real , but explain how ?