Western Railroad Discussion > Sunset Route (Niland) geyser problems

The Imperial Valley Press is reporting that UP is building a shoofly about 5 miles north of Niland due to a geyser of mud that is threatening the tracks. This is about a half mile south of the intersection of Gillespie Rd and Hwy 111.

Interesting. Mud geysers are a indicator of seismic activity. Or we have a volcano ready to blow......

Let's not forget about the earthquake today 4.4.  Might be related to this as well or something even bigger.   We shall see.  Interesting note though.

Earthquake today?

Very interesting.

Unfortunately, the forementioned article sits behind a paywall, but I found an article written in Spanish that stated that UP has been having problems at this location since the 27th of June.

gonx Wrote:
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> Earthquake today?
>
> Very interesting.
>
> Unfortunately, the forementioned article sits
> behind a paywall, but I found an article written
> in Spanish that stated that UP has been having
> problems at this location since the 27th of June.

Yep. a 4.4 tonight at about 6:15 right in that area.

Oh great.   What fault was this on?

It’s been bubbling away for the last 20 years I've been running through there and I know it’s been there a lot longer than that. It just recently started putting out more water and it started to wash out the tracks. So they have been digging it out and diverting the water. For a while it looked like a broken water main. It was incredible to think it is natural. Right now they are pumping it away from the tracks and a shoo fly is going in. I think they will build a bridge to let the water through. But that’s just a guess because the shoo fly is only one track and they can build a bridge one side at a time.
What’s interesting is this started around the time the volcano in Hawaii erupted and there were a bunch of small earthquakes along the Ring of Fire around that time too.

The Epicenter for the 4.4 Quake was in Aguanga.  About 45 min South of Beaumont, Ca and it happened at  6:24 PM  Aug 14th 2018

Since then, there have been at least  150 smaller after shocks !   In that same area

Maybe time to stock up on Quake Supplies

I remember that mud volcano, just east of the old siding at Wister. 

According to the internet, there are multiple mud volcano locations closer to the Salton Sea in that same area. There is one less than 5 miles south southwest near Mullet Island. As  a geologist, the reason the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley are where they are is due to the San Andreas fault zone. These deep faults often allow hot water from depth to percolate to the surface. Once the water gets near the surface however, it takes the shortest path to the surface which could be in a farm field or by the UP mainline.

-Jack

Mud volcano would be a more apt term than "geyser" which implies hot steam shooting into the air.

Looks like it's right at the crossing of Gillespie Rd

https://goo.gl/maps/eonH3Mixc8z

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Which way are they moving the tracks?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Most of the Imperial Valley is on top of a very large Geothermal Field,
which the Imperial Irrigation District and private companies have been using
for the last 25 to 30 years!

Mike

funnelfan Wrote:
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> Which way are they moving the tracks?

I am interested in this answer after looking at it on street view from CA-111. There is a farm field and the pt on the east side with the highway on the westside.